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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Ham radio, especially the HF bands, can be intimidating for aspiring operators, many being put off by the cost of equipment. The transceiver itself is only part of the equation and proper test and measurement equipment can easily add hundreds of dollars to the bill. However, such equipment goes a long way to ease the frustrations of setting up a usable station. Fortunately [Ashhar Farhan, VU2ESE] has been at it again, and recently released the Antuino, an affordable, hackable test instrument for ham radio and general lab for use.
As you can probably guess from the name, it is primarily intended for testing antennas, and uses an Arduino Nano as a controller. It has quite a list of measurement functions including SWR, field strength, cable loss, RF cable velocity, modulation, and frequency response plotting. It also provides a signal source for testing. Its frequency range includes the HF and VHF bands, and it can even work in the UHF bands (435Mhz) if you are willing to sacrifice some sensitivity. The software is open source and available with the schematics on Github.
Most of the active ham radio operators today are of the grey haired, retired variety. If the hobby is to stand any chance of outliving them, it needs to find a way to be attractive to the younger generations who grew up with the internet. The availability of affordable and hackable equipment can go long way to making this happen, and [Ashhar Farhan] has been one of the biggest contributors in this regard. His $129 μBITX HF SSB/CW transceiver kit is by far the best value for money general coverage HF radio available.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday September 21 2019, @01:50AM (2 children)
First internet voice chat program I ever fired up, maybe in 1997 or so, I connected with a random guy on the other side of the Atlantic, Ham style - we were both super impressed with the voice quality, and then... bored. The thrill is gone now - it's too easy; though it is nice having a good rationale for not flying all over the country/world just to meet with work people now. Affordable cell service has taken the fun out of UHF repeater towers, too. And, that laser data link I wanted to construct across Biscayne bay just doesn't make any sense since DSL and Cable internet came around.
I've always struggled between the DIY aspects of Ham and just buying a better piece of kit than I could ever construct with my soldering iron. Arduino based projects seem like maybe a nice middle ground.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 21 2019, @03:53AM (1 child)
Even better than that, you can do videoconferencing with anybody anywhere--not just voice, unlike HAM.
Consider the rise of "camgirls" and see if HAM could ever provide that. :-)
HAM is simply obsolete as a hobby.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 21 2019, @04:43AM
hamgirls... phone sex