this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2025
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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Make it affordable isn't a reasonable request...

How about don't trash talk inexpensive equipment. "This $4k radio is what you need, not that Chinese junk." Watch the majority of people will just walk away.

My unused general license is a perfect example. The multiple free HF antennas and free LMR400 run to my free 30' antenna mast I was given didn't even put a dent in offsetting the cost of a radio to use the equipment I have rotting away.

I'll keep my dual band tyt and my 2m Kenwood. If there's an emergency where it is useful, I'll use it.

[–] beastlykings 1 points 1 month ago (3 children)

The problem is that cheap equipment literally performs worse, for you. And can make the frequencies around you worse, because of poor filtering or bad circuit design.

I'm not saying $4000 needs to be spent. You can get all the radio you'll ever need, for $800-900, with an icom 7300. Now that's not cheap, but it's definitely in the realm of feasibility. People pay more for cell phones in some cases.

But, if you want a more manual experience, and save some money, you can get older Kenwood hybrids for $500-600. Heck I bought my ts530s for $300 when I first started, it had an issue where it was partially broken, but I was able to fix it just by cleaning a few switches with deoxit.

But baofengs, while they can work, and heck I own them. Some of them are pretty poorly built. I definitely experienced issues with mine, adding more antenna started making my signal reception worse! I later learned it was front end overload, from cheap filtering. But that's besides the point.

I'm sorry your experience was so bad, and that people were rude to you. And it's a shame you never got to put that donated equipment to use. It really is a fun hobby if you can get into it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

It's a great hobby, I got into it after having to learn a lot of antenna theory for work. I rolled it into a hobby. Just as any hobby though .. the high number of elitists just put a bad taste in my mouth. I'm not going to spend that kind of money to listen to guys to spout politics on local channels, fight with massive amplified signals for satellite bounces, be shamed/ignored at local meets for not buying the latest and greatest.

$500+ to get an HF radio is not enticing for a young person. You can get a gaming laptop for that, unless there is an uncommon passion for radio in that new person the hobby can't compete. (I don't own a PC it's just an example)

The question was how to get people involved... I'm just adding my 2 cents on why I walked away after putting time into getting started.

So I'm not just complaining, sorry if it comes off that way. Getting away from voice is the only way to inspire and interest new people. SSTV from ISS was interesting, several guys would setup image transfer and emails(?) on the local repeater which was an interesting idea. A decentralized email system would be interesting to me but not to many that aren't in natural disasters prone areas. Like passing traffic on 2m/70cm but instead it be data until it reaches someone with internet. Think BitTorrent type data transmission. Promote CW via software to allow for minimal power communications rather than make it a frowned upon activity. I never got a chance to really attempt packet radio but I imagine it would be similar to CW via software. One step further... Software for things like raspberry pi. Small affordable development computers that can expand the hobby, maybe that's common now? I dunno. If it is already a thing then that's the sort of thing that needs to be promoted. If the hobby remains the overpowered walkie-talkies/CB then it's just going to continue to decline as the older generations pass away. Computers for communication aren't going anywhere but are highly dependent on the ISP infrastructure. This being Lemmy I think we should all understand the potential and possibilities of decentralized uses.

[–] beastlykings 2 points 1 month ago

There are some good ideas in there. I definitely agree more needs to be done, and there are definitely lots of bad actors out there. I'm not sure what the final solution will be