As a communications and technology expert, you should consider becoming involved in local activities. Business people, educators, politicians, and even your local bureaucrats are beginning to recognize that the information age is dawning on America and they'd better damn well get aboard or they're going to be left behind by the rest of the world.
They've been hearing John Scully, now the chairman of Apple, talk about the information highway of the future, while all most people can see right now is more like a cow path. They see that Singapore is setting about installing fiber optic cable into every home and business in the country.
In France, every home has an on-line computer connected to a national data base. We've been seeing the changes in our own lives as our ham repeaters have turned into cellular telephone systems. We've seen facsimile explode.
Those of you who are awake have seen pocket communicators which handle voice and fax. We've seen national paging systems grow. As a radio amateur, naturally you're expected by your neighbors to be an expert on communications and technology. Thus. when a few local politicians start getting concerned over the general ignorance of these highly technical matters, naturally they're going to turn to you for advice on how to get your county or state more tuned in with the future. Business people must find out how to take advantage of this technology and not be left behind by other parts of the country. ..or other countries. Schools must start turning out workers familiar with information and communications technology. How prepared are you for this? How much do you know about what's available right now in technology, much less what's developing? Are you still sitting there, happily clacking away with your beloved old hand key, while the world is going to digital voice communications? And probably using spread-spectrum?
While we're communicating at 5 wpm by code, the world is moving to digital communications because digital radio provides about three times the coverage with a hundredth of the power. Further, it's easy to put 10 to 20 people all on one channel without mutual interference. Heck, they can even talk with each other, just as we do on the telephone. And, by using satellites in the link, the 10 to 20 people can be in 10 to 20 different countries. Yes, we could do all this via amateur radio, if we had anyone pioneering new technologies in our fraternity. Alas, all too many hams prefer to remain fat, dumb, and happy. Coops, make that fat, dumb, and unhappy. ..because they're forever grousing and kvetching on the air about things. Those damned no-coders. The rotten CBers. Lousy phone patches. Stinking pile-ups. Miserable contests crapping up the bands. That fathead and his little band of degenerates puking their venom on 14,313. The endless self promotion broadcasts by an internationally famous ego case on 14,275.
And worst, that awful Wayne Green! How can someone who sounds so nice on the air write such abrasive baloney?
I digress. My aim was to stir some deep feelings of guilt for the way you've wasted your ham life on inconsequentials. Well-deserved guilt. You've been skimming the cream and not paying your dues. That's pure American. ..get the most you can for the least effort. Never mind the hard work. ..a concept we left behind back in the 1950s. That's something those lousy, rotten immigrants do when they sneak into our country and become successful, while we're gradually losing our quality of life. Is change possible? Or are you too solidly inculcated with the baby-boom rationale? Are you too involved with TV, a little rag-chewing on the air, a rented movie once or twice a week. ball games, maybe some bowling? If I some way could find some people to write articles on new technologies that were written in a language you could understand, would you take the time to read 'em? let me grind that one in a little harder. If I could get such articles and publish 'em, would you allocate a half hour or so at club meetings to discuss 'em? Okay, that's going too far. Maybe I should continue to publish feel-good articles and stop poking you with a stick. When I point out that I'm not asking anyone to do something I haven't done myself, I get angry stares. Egotistical braggart. When I point out that it's exciting to get up on a mountain and make 10 GHz contacts with seven states. ..and that the equipment it takes is inexpensive and easy to build ...I get shifty glances. I had a ball pioneering ATTY. Ditto SSTV. Ditto
SSB. Ditto NBFM. It was fun leaming. It was even more fun doing. And here we are in 1993 and there are more incredibly exciting horizons for us than ever before. Meanwhile, most hams seem to be looking backwards. looking back fondly at Morse code. The communications medium of the 1920s and 1930s. Looking back lovingly at our archaic license structure, which is collapsing around us. Our national society is a radio relay league, aptly named when relaying was the only way to cover much distance by radio...around 80 years ago. Bummer.
Read more about the author at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Green
"You may have loved Wayne Green ... you may have hated him ... but you have to admit he had vision"
Wayne Green W2NSD (SK)
73 Amateur Radio Today
October 1993
Ed. I found this article a few years ago. Just as relevant today as 28 years ago?
