A most interesting story in the New York Times on the amateur service -->>
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9407E0D8103CF930A35754C0A962958260Extracts:
"Mr. Moseson, who works for a company that produces books, magazines and videotapes about ham radio. "But hams are often directly involved in international events, like providing communications out of areas that have been hit by natural disasters. Hams tend to be in the middle of things. On the on-line networks, there's more of a tendency to just talk." It was a Kuwaiti ham operator, hams say with pride, who helped relay vital information to the United States when the Bush Administration was preparing to launch Operation Desert Storm."
"To people in the computer age, amateur radio operators might seem like dinosaurs, clinging to their creaky old dials and rusty antennae while the world goes digital. It's an image hams want very much to dispel. For one thing, a high percentage of amateur radio enthusiasts, who tend to love technology and gadgetry of all kinds, have been on-line for years, even before it was a chic place to be. "Hams love to communicate, and it's another form of communication," Mr. Moseson said.
Even so, hams can be forgiven if they feel a twinge of irritation at being upstaged."
"Many ham radio operators, even those who delight in chatting on the computer, say that communicating through the net just isn't as exciting as using a radio to cast around the world for people to talk to. Depending on the state of the ionosphere, the time of day and various atmospheric variables, hams can talk to farmers in Iowa, astronauts on the Space Shuttle, teachers next door, or the King of Spain, a royal ham. "
"But other hams believe that the global village would be a friendlier place if it remained connected by radio not computer. One of these skeptics is Mr. McAlpine, the securities analyst, who wonders whether on-line services might lose their allure after the novelty of typewritten communication has faded away."
73 Bruce W1UJR
www.w1ujr.net
