Yeah I was careful not to discount it entirely, but I find it fanciful when people try to pass off an incredibly self indulgent and expensive hobby as some kind of service to the community. It always occurs to me as self importance.
The same can be said about APRS itself. When I started with ham radio I expected APRS to actually be the thing it was advertised as - a "situational map" that can be used in emergencies. As I started looking into it a bit more I quickly realized it's nothing more but a bunch of guys just tossing their tracker into their car and leaving it permanently on without ever making actual use of it. Nobody sends messages, nobody calls the advertised frequencies, nobody checks the weather advertised by the WX stations, etc.
@@PiotrMichniewskiThat comment basically sounds like me, exactly 10 minutes into part 3 video of this 😂 Although I was supposed to be able to remote control something in the end… but there’s simply no practical use for it I can think of at home.
@@BrekMartin oh, I must have missed that particular remark :) But I guess everyone comes to this same conclusion at some point. I guess the Internet kind of killed the single selling point of ham radio and people are just coming up with excuses to keep pouring money into their hobby. I never really understood the need to buy expensive multi-thousand-dollar radios just to brag about it on the air. Every piece of radio equipment I have is either dirt cheap or homebuilt (either kit or fully homebrew). It's really ironic that people call this "amateur" radio when all they do is push the PTT on a 1kW 100% factory-built rig. But maybe that's just me getting old...
Ham Radio, started on CB then progressed. However, wife's demands for trivia such as new washing machine, tv, bling etc. took priority so the kit had to go. What an awesome project would consider building one myself but don't think my electronics/ software skills are good enough. Do you have any recommendations for associated reading materials?
