Ham population stats

From: Geoff Roberts <geoffrob_at_stmarks.pp.catholic.edu.au>
Date: Wed Feb 16 00:31:08 2000

----- Original Message -----
From: John Lawson <jpl15_at_netcom.com>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Wednesday, 16 February 2000 3:09
Subject: Ham population stats


> So far: 23 respondents to my "Who's a Ham" question; not counting
> the several commercial licensees among us.

Not surprised.

> Off Topic: I am hoping that the recent US FCC relaxing of the
> license requirements will breathe a little New Life into the bands in
> this country... the average age of the Ham population is now in the
> late 50s or something.

Similar demographics here.

> all who grouse about having had to learn 13WPM (Im a General Class)
> or 20 WPM (for Extra Class)

Ouch. No wonder there were so few Extras. Morse is harder for some than
others,
I doubt I could ever get to that speed, no matter how hard I tried. It took
me MONTHS
to learn it at 5wpm.

> 5WPM will still be a good "sincerity" filter, and c'mon, people....
> it's only *one* character every *two* freakin seconds!! [you do the
> math: 5 WPM, 5 letters/word avg... 25 char in 60 secs avg]

I'm hoping they will follow suit here, and scrap the 10wpm requirement,
which
means I would automatically graduate up to full call...:^)

> On Topic: I want to use the PDP 11/44 to talk to my (vintage) AEA
> PK232 Multi-Mode terminal node controller... but even more I want
> to lash up an RTTY program for the PDP, to send and recieve Baudot
> in real time.

I have something similar in mind for the Vax 6430. I had Packet as well
as rtty in mind. Plenty of terminals. (DMB32) Ideally I'd like to find
some way to
use a Baycom style modem, TNC's are still ridiculously overpriced.
(I use a converted C64 Sendata modem, on a PC, Baycom style, on 1200bd 2M
packet.)

> This is in addition to the vintage 60's RTTY station I am
> assembling... just looking for a good Transmitter. Major components
> are Model 19, Collins R-388 (51-J) [serial number 235..!] and Irv
> Hoff TU made homebrew from 60s QST articles.

I have a (mostly) 'firebottle' powered Yaesu FT200, (early 70's?)
a REALLY old straight key, (came off a morse practise set, that used a
SOUNDER wound
with cloth covered wire - long gone now alas) but the key is a beaut, high
quality brass with steel contacts.
No idea where it came from, but I suspect it's early 20th century.
RTTY wise, I have a Siemens Model 100 (the TT Corp stuff wasn't common here,
Siemens ruled.) as well as
the usual collection of software based rtty stuff. But to do packet and/or
rtty from a terminal on the vax
would be ultra cool. I'm trying to build up a 170hz shift rtty TU in my
(hah!) copious free time.

I have some other Siemens machines and a commercial (ex mil) decoder that
are part of an Air Training Corp
(Air Force Cadets) project that is around half built up.

I have an old Dick Smith VZ200 with a RTTY en/decoder module, (just eproms
IIRC) the VZ isn't working,
(shows a wierd chessboard pattern on the screen - possibly video ram or
something similar is crook)
not sure what it REALLY is but it has a coloured keyboard made up of little
square plastic buttons.
Dates from the mid 80's IIRC. Must dig it out and have a further tinker
with it.

Cheers

Geoff Roberts
VK5KDR
Computer Systems Manager
Saint Mark's College
Port Pirie, South Australia.
Email: geoffrob_at_stmarks.pp.catholic.edu.au
           netcafe_at_pirie.mtx.net.au
ICQ #: 1970476
Received on Wed Feb 16 2000 - 00:31:08 GMT