The AM Forum

Geoff Mendenhall recently wrote such an elegant letter to Radio World that I thought it deserved sharing with the group.

Chris




Stolen from: January 3rd letter to the editor of Radio World from W8GNM
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One of the Best Things in My Life

I am responding to a letter posted by Burt Fisher, chief engineer of WCCT(FM), Sandwich, Mass., in which he misses an important aspect of amateur radio, which is the development of many key RF communication technologies by radio amateurs.

A significant number of technical innovations in the RF and digital communications realm were developed by amateur radio operators, either as part of their ham radio hobby activities or as part of their daytime jobs as technologists for universities and corporations.

For example, many of the innovations in vacuum technology over the past 80 years came from the technologists at CPI/Varian/Eimac and RCA, most of whom were amateur radio operators. Much of this technology was initially tested in amateur radio equipment.

As vacuum technology has transitioned to solid-state devices, you will also find that a high percentage of the technologists working on solid-state RF amplifiers are active in ham radio and, once again, much of the practical, early, field testing and perfecting of these devices was carried out with amateur radio equipment.

If you don’t believe me, please check the links posted at radioworld.com/links.

The people who rise to the top of the RF design and manufacturing profession have a passion for “all things RF” and many of them have found a practical, living, laboratory for developing their skills and ideas in the amateur radio operating environment.

Many of my colleagues in broadcast station operations, as well as the broadcast equipment business, are licensed amateur radio operators whose interest in broadcasting can be traced back to amateur radio.

I cannot think of a better “hands on” learning laboratory for young people to learn electronic theory, soldering and equipment construction techniques than building amateur radio equipment.

With the melding of computer and RF technology in modern amateur radio activities and the elimination of the Morse code requirement, more young people are getting involved in amateur radio and the number of licensed amateur radio operators has increased in recent years.

It is still possible to build your own amateur radio equipment, particularly RF power amplifiers, antenna impedance matching networks and antennas.

Modern computer tools like NEC method of moments software make it possible for anyone with basic electronic skills to design and innovate, home-made antennas that can be built from simple wires and other low cost materials.

We now live in the age of computer software, and many amateur radio operators are developing new software-defined modulation waveforms and other applications that can and are being used outside of amateur radio for the benefit of society.

FlexRadio and Elecraft are examples of companies owned by and catering to amateur radio operators that are on the cutting edge of software-defined radio technology (SDR), which is now finding its way in government and consumer communications equipment.

If it had not been for my early involvement in amateur radio, I probably would not have pursued an education in electrical engineering; nor would I have chosen a career track in the broadcast equipment design and manufacturing business.

I spend my workday engaged in the development of state-of-the-art digital 
RF broadcast equipment.

You would think that is enough RF for one day, but I can’t get enough RF. When I get home from work, I fire up my homebrew linear amplifier, built more than 50 years ago when I was a teenager, with two beautiful 4-400As glowing orange, and work DX stations all over the world with my home-made, computer-designed, wire antennas.

You’ll never convince me that amateur radio is no longer relevant or that it isn’t one of the best things in my life.

Geoffrey N. Mendenhall
Vice President
Transmission Research and Technology
Harris Broadcast Communications
Mason, Ohio

[edited for spelling]

Well said!!

Thanks for posting this.

Thanks for sharing. I'm glad a rational counterpoint was sent to the magazine from a person who seems to have been successful in his field because of ham radio.
Carl
/KPD

I was very glad to see the well written rebuttal.  According to Radio World, they received many in defense of Amateur Radio.

Joe, GMS

"Ham radio, like butterflies needs no excuse!"  (apologies to Robert Heinlein)

Exactly. If some don't like amateur radio, get out. Or do something positive to make changes. Any clown can P&M and take easy pot shots. No skill or brain power is required.

Chris - Thank you for sharing the well written letter from Mr. Mendenhall, which nicely rebuts the tomfoolery penned by Fisher.

There were quite a few very good responses published to one fellows rather broad condemnation.
I thought some of the other letters were more to the point in terms of rebuttal to the original letter.

The original letter to the editor said things that came off as overly negative and lacking any real knowledge
or insight as to what is actually going on in any aspect of ham radio.
There may well be some problem in ham radio, but the stuff that fellow wrote was way off the mark.

Of course I got some responses to what you posted. Those that sent me what is below were fearful of attaching a name to their thoughts as they want to keep their jobs/friends.


Comments:
 •
“I felt the need to convey support to you personally because your message was so resonant. I sense we are similar in that we love certain aspects of the hobby (not necessarily a "service" except in some rare circumstances by a few) but it's not the way it used to be. I'm appalled at some of the operating practices and procedures I hear on the air these days - there's been a severe slipping of standards, training, ethics, manners, knowledge, sense of history, you name it.”

•
 “I was cracking up reading these dissertations of the Value of Ham Radio by all these CEO'S!!"

•
Frankly speaking I have met several Hams in the last two years who are total Jerks and of course Plug and Play operators.

•
I totally agree with you, Ham Radio has gone through a lot of changes in the last 10 Years!”

•
 “Unboxing a rig, running coax to a manufactured antenna, and plugging in a mic. So, what happens next? Pretty much the same thing, but with a bigger box for HF, maybe a bigger manufactured antenna, and the rest is about the same. This is not preparing anyone for a job where you go out to the transmitter site and fix a bad contactor in the dog house.”

 
 But there was one person who put a face to his thoughts
k1oik compliments
http://youtu.be/tIMsfFc0G0w
 

 
 

So given your feelings and conclusions, what specific steps do you suggest be done to improve the situation?

That is easy.
Read the Op-Ed in October QST, he nailed it.

I have worked with Geoff on several occasions over the years re Harris BC transmitters. 

A very down-to-earth guy, with a real gift for radio.

As to this whole discussion, being a ham is a privilege, not a right :o. 

Play nice, or it will simply be 'pen-stroked' out of existence, along with a lot of other things drying up before our very eyes nowadays.

73DG

That's it?
Read an op ed and it all get better..
Will do

You may not need to read his comments, after all AMers in most cases are a cut above the rest.
But about 90% of the rest of the hams should not only read it but put in practice what he says.

For the one or two of us who may not be ARRL members, or like me a member who never registered on their web site can you maybe paste a URL for us to see this editorial? Would assume you cannot cut and past the article being the ARRL owns it. If not I will be reduced to going home tonight and looking around the floor of the bathroom to find that issue.

As an ARRL member you have access to the entire set of 2012 QST's available in digital format for viewing online http://www.arrl.org/qst Click QST Digital Archive The article is on page 99 of the October 2012 QST.

And, in this format, a number of each month's articles have expanded information that you don't get in the printed version.

There web site sucks. Perhaps because I registered some time ago and have now forgotten my password, or that I never registered in the first place I cannot gain access to the online digital access. The help utilities they have are not at all helpful. First if I try to register and create a new password it locks me out saying I have an existing account and if I try to use there temporary system for generating a new limited use password or have it send me a email of my existing password it don’t work. Imagine that this indicates that I am one of those ninety percentile hams that ant worth a dam.

It only takes a free phone call to probably get it resolved. Saves on P&M.
Order/Member Service Hotline 1-888-277-5289 (toll-free US only)
Monday through Friday, 8 am to 5 pm Eastern time.

The site is not the easiest to navigate until you sort of learn it, but I get good results by using the search function. I am sure the ARRL would be interested in suggestions about how to make it easier to find specific things. It's a very diverse site and after a site gets to a certain size or complexity of offerings, the old way of having the main page be a 'list' does not fit as well. To me it seems easier to navigate now than it was before the most recent changes.

I guess a lot depends on what you're looking for. The site index is a good catchall for most of their stuff:
http://www.arrl.org/site-index
Might save a lot pondering on where do I go to find what I want to find.

Pete's being diplomatic, trying nicely to direct us to good info.
Amazes me how this thread wanders into another ARRL rant.  Easy to pile on. A critique of their site is ok, but, ho-hum, so expected.

Ever dawn on some that we may not even be here or use some of "our" freqs. If the League had expired?  Ever wonder what a very nearby alternate world would look like if the Navy had permanently banned amateur radio?

   ARRL has released a ton of good docs, history and issues online for no fee or a nominal one compared to a lot of the junque our anemic dollar purchases these days.  We spend more on wire.  Damned if I'll copy and relay (  ;D ) info from them to a piker.

Sure they've had their Johnnie Johnston days and sure they've spent the eons before that trumpeting the merits of CW over AM, but, hey, we even have a guy here who's big gain in life was browbeating them into substituting their tech. Mag for QST in his yearly dues.

WOW

Wonder if they'd let me subscribe to the magazine without having to be a "member."

??

Boy, that's an old one. ;D

Non members can subscribe to QEX and NCJ magazines. However, QST is "our" monthly "member only" journal.
QST Tag Line: "QST is the monthly membership journal of ARRL. Each issue (print & digital) is your source for equipment reviews, technical tips, projects, and news." Become a member again(?) and reap the benefits of our monthly member journal. http://www.arrl.org/membership

Kinda like those Members Only jackets.  ;)

Kinda.  Except the slogan wouldn't fit.

"when you put it on, something happens"

I would rather have an ARRL ring so I can get past the fire department perimeter.

Yea something happens - your wallet is a lot thinner!

It depends on whether you want gold or silver.

Geoff Mendenhall was leader of my team at Broadcast Electronics Inc. when we got into FM transmitter biz in 1980s. He worked closely with me and taught me lots about transmitters. When I didn't have a suitable station for a few years, he loaned me his old WRO Galaxy transceiver to get me on 20 meters. Eventually I left Quincy to work in scientific and industrial RF power, but never lost touch with Geoff. He moved back over to big H (Harris, down the street) and has innovated there for decades since, now in their Ohio center. He was right on the mark about how hams influence commercial electronics and visa versa and continue to. Sure there are many P&P operators out there who will never make a mark on technology, but they have a place on the air too. Maybe they learn about some technology, not being broadcaster engineers and such. As the other thread here about "who came from broadcast engineering" pointed out, there is a lot of mixing between hamdom and broadcast engineering. Same can be said about other RF-related technologies, not only with tubes. I remember clipping out amplifier articles from QST when I was in ARRL (as a teen), saving them for the day....

The orange vest is cheaper! haha! but you have to hang at least three HTs and a mag-light from it to not look like a piker.

to steal from a saying..
"Don't put nuthin' on, nuthin' gets put on"

(cop@scene: "Mister, are you puttin' me on?")
(Willy Wackerham: "Gobble gobble cackle sputter..")

Sorry don't mean to be mean but it is funny. Spice of life. It looks bad to slip in using magic charms like rings, jackets, and talisman-festooned vests. How some hams can do that and not be simultaneously embarrassed at themselves in a mysterious thing. Good thing those are the very few.

In the same breath, hams who experiment and bring their smarts and employment-knowledge to the hobbby are always inventing things that become commercial practices.

Ok, Ok,  I give.
 :-[
Well we could start another golden circle. "Le WTFFD circle."
Starting with the memory of the  dulcet tones of ZRF.
Note his very clean AM signal.

I remember when I helped start an ARES group in Alabama in the late 1980's. Things were going good until someone talked everyone (except me) into getting orange vests. I told them,"Joe don't do vests". I got shunned like the plague. Most of my Elmers were connected with broadcast engineering. Am enjoying the discussion!

Yes, the AYMMFOT Net!

Orange vest, a silver badge, and a hat; be the hit of the group.

(http://www.etgiftstore.com/images/PartySupplies/safety-vest-construction-vest-party.jpg)  (http://www.maxarmory.com/images/products/preview/clrham.jpg)  (https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRas_msvyljMLEQJxJ6uGeUvagYA4F8xxTRixPfJdFSWPtX6N5h)

I think I saw this guy at a flea market:

(http://ranchosafari.com/images/shaggieovest.jpg)