[aprssig] Inernet Server Challenge

[VE7GDH]

Bob WB4APR wrote...

> >> What we need is a FREE HAM radio program that
> >> runs on a PC and the internet and LOOKS like a
> >> HAM radio...

> But even when kids do get their licenses, we rarely hear them
> on the voice repeater.  And it is very simple.  They are
> intimidated by joining in on a very adult kind of medium.
> And when they do, sooner or later some old fud jumps in
> and scolds or fussses at them for some minor infraction
> or whatever...

I've heard that too. When I hear someone making a call and it really
sounds like their first time on the air, I try to go out of my way to
welcome them... or if I have heard someone else jump on them for
something, I try to call them afterwards so their first time on the air
isn't a completely negative experience.

> But when that first radio contact is on CW at 5WPM or slower
> in the novice band, then I don't think one ever hears a
> bad attitude, and even if there was one, it is very hard
> to get it across in CW at 5 WPM....

I'll go along with that! Yeah, whether it is to foster the use of CW or to
encourage kids to learn to use a "secret" code and get them exposed to
amateur radio, it's all good. I've got a shiny new iambic key that hardly
ever gets used, and a rig with a keyer built in, so it sends perfect code
unless I really flub it. I seldom use CW these days, but it's what I grew up
with. I still find myself practising it in my head when I should be doing
something else.

Anyway, enough of the nostalgia! I think that anything that exposes new
people to the hobby, especially kids, is a good thing. Radio may not quite
have the magic that it did 40 years ago when kids are instantly exposed to
broadcast radio, TV, phones, cell phones, MP3 or MPG4 players, satellite
radios, computers... even cars with GPS navigation systems built into
them! In spite of that, if you are off on a ski trip in the middle of
no-where and someone fishes an 817 out of the pack and sets it up
with a 2 AH gel cell and strings some wire out into the trees and they
call home or check into a net, others on the trip are pretty amazed at that
small package can do. They are almost as amazed when you ski up onto
the ridge and whip out your HT up on the peak and reach out to some
repeater a good days drive away... far outside the range of cell coverage.

I think others on the list have suggested some existing programs. I haven't
looked at them, but I hope they work out for what you have in mind. My only
experience with cubs was when a "friend" took me to join up and he punched
me in the stomach on the way home. If it happened today, I would have
pulverized him, but first impressions count and that was my last visit to
cubs! If you can get more young people involved, that's great! Don't forget
to expose them to APRS at some point as well! If you can't get them
interested with fancy software, try an old time ham shack with a whole rack
full off glowing tube equipment, voltage regulators that light the room up
with a eerie blue glow and flicker in time with the CW being sent. Of
course, it helps if the person demonstrating carries on a conversation with
someone else in the room the same time they are having the QSO. That I
could never do! (Oops... that was more nostalgia. Just thinking of the 
"elmer" that started up the club that I joined back in those days.)

PS - to anyone on the list. If you are responding to a comment I made, don't
bother CCing it to me. I just end up getting two copies of the message, or
replying to the wrong address.

73 es cul - Keith VE7GDH
--
"I may be lost, but I know exactly where I am!"