/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>1484382
This.

In 1970's every faggot in town was all about CB because it saved phonecalls. General chit-chat about radios and fagshit.
In 1980's the very same faggots went for 2m, or 100 watts on 27MHz, counting pathetic QSLs and bragging about equipment and tubes and shit they never used and never knew how they worked.
In 1990's those who weren't sick about CB banter were all about buying some gigantic radio shack... in order to have some Hurr Durr International Banter.
By early 2000's everyone in town stopped talking about radios and ham and shit.
2010's: a very few oldtimers came out again and organized a hamfest, that is, a Chink market selling Chinese trinkets to Hurr Durr Ham Radio Enthusiasts who only had 2nd hand UV5R shit.

>last guy bragging about a CW QSO: someone in early 1980's
>last guy using a homemade antenna: someone in early 1980's
>last guy keeping his shack on at least one hour a day: early 1990's
>last guy telling me something like "omg this also does 50 MHz!!": yestrday. I bet he'll never actually use it.

>>1392029
Ham Radio died long ago.

"Ham" just became this:
- buy some equipment
- use that equipment
- claim you're a hero

It's just like this:
- buy some Apple product
- use that Apple product
- claim you're a hero

A real ham would definitely create his own tools - radio, antenna... - but this require a lot of knowledge (theoretical - like electronics, maths (on a serious level), etc, and practical - like soldering, etching, mounting, etc).

Have look at Dem Herp Derp Digital Modes. Basically your handset is no more than a portable modem - just like a cellphone. You push your PTT, make the modem transmit packets to some server, and claim you're a hero. OMG.

Also look at those people that can "read" Morse at 20wpm without computers, earsets and whatever tools. Basically they're less than 1 out of 10,000 currently self-proclaiming "hams". And between these, only 1 out of 100 owns enough physical space to mount a real halfwave 160m-band antenna.

Also, old "ham" is just vintage.Software defined radios just rendered obsolete 85% of "ham science". You've got to be a systems programmer with even more knowledge of serious applied maths. And yet people buy a fokking cheap chink USB SDR for 5 bucks - less than half a pizza - spitting out more noise than RF, load an absurdly complex software in their own absurdly powerful computers (if compared to Apollo Guidance System which took men on the Moon with less than 64 puny kilobytes of memory) and they define themselves "hams". They can't even understand what a compiler is and how to discern between a 2nd grade equation from a 1st grade one, and yet they name themselves "hurr durr HAMS reeeee".

Being a Ham is no more than being an Apple Fan, a LEGO fan, a mountainbike fan... You just buy products created by others, waste some time using those products (and possibly learning their claimed specs), and then you think you're a Hero.

>TLDR: ham = just another pathetic niche for Chink products or Chink-components-filled products