[Ipg-smz] Yeah, it's different: Hamvention
Tom Henderson
thenderson at extremelabs.com
Mon May 20 21:24:10 UTC 2019
I was a member of the LA Homebrew Computer Club back then.
Jobs and Woz used to come by with that odd 6502 machine. We almost had
8080 tattoos, then Zilog came along....
And 73 was talking about RTTY and I used a paper tape punch as my input
to an AR33 teletype machine to do early storage as cassette tapes could
be unreliable. PIP RDR:=PUN:<filename>. Apple booted with a shoe typing
PR#6.
Now I have a DRAWS daughter board on a Raspberry Pi that can do stunning
things that wouldn't've been dreamed of back then.
Great pic, BTW!!!
Tom
On 5/20/19 4:40 PM, Tara Calishain wrote:
> Your writeup here reminds me that I wrote up the addition of 73
> Magazine into the Internet Archive back in 2011 --
>
> https://researchbuzz.me/2011/12/26/digital-archive-of-73-amateur-radio-magazine-at-internet-archive/
>
>
> I remember that because just flipping through the available archives
> took me to a picture of a very, very, very young Steve Jobs (1976):
>
> 7321.png
>
>
> That was a fun discovery.
>
> Tara
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, May 20, 2019 at 11:33 AM Tom Henderson
> <thenderson at extremelabs.com <mailto:thenderson at extremelabs.com>> wrote:
>
> Fellow Guilders,
>
> A few Fellow Gulders are amateur radio licensees, known as hams. An
> interest in radio & communications evolves into taking the government
> tests which grants you radio operating privileges. The electronics
> are
> the same no matter what country you take the test, and the
> international
> agreements give large reciprocity. Understanding radios, owning them,
> and communicating are the goals, but manifests in myriad ways.
>
> This past weekend marked the Dayton Hamvention, now held in Xenia
> OH (SE
> of Dayton). More than 20,000 people from across the planet, 99.9%
> hams,
> descend on the area to pursue their amateur radio interests, which
> are
> starkly varied. A few of you know that I'm the president of the local
> Bloomington Amateur Radio Club (BARC), and an ham licensed as W9YW. I
> also have non-commercial radio pursuits, a different thread.
>
> I was also a volunteer in the Media section at the Hamvention.
> It's been
> going longer than NCC, COMDEX, or even CES. It's changed little, and
> it's changed dramatically. These are radio geeks that come to see new
> stuff, concepts, and very importantly, to sell and swap gear to
> try new
> things or add to their collections of Stuff.
>
> Hamvention is much like a State Fair for radio geeks, but radio is a
> wide and sometimes wickedly deep ocean of activities. It's still
> around,
> and as tech journalists, our roots are here.
>
> Long ago, there was 73 Magazine, which spun off into Byte, which
> evolved
> rapidly into the tech journalism we oldsters used to cover as
> pre-social
> media information dissemination, knowledge transfer, and early tech
> journalism. 73 is a number that also means "regards" in telegraphy.
> Morse code is no longer required to pass an amateur license test,
> although it's still surprisingly popular. It's arguable that Wayne
> Greene, 73's editor, is part of the root of the DNA where we come
> from.
>
> * * *
>
> Gazing upon the hordes (and hoarders) of equipment, its a sea of
> baseball caps with amateur callsigns and vendor logos. Hams from more
> than 40 nations come to the Hamvention. They saturate the Dayton
> area. I
> arrived in my ancient Airstream Argosy to stay on the fairgrounds for
> the three days of the fair. There are forums on emergency
> communications, AMSAT/amateur satellite, digital modes (in ways,
> still
> in the 1200 baud modem stage), but also how to talk across the
> planet on
> the cheap-- without a smartphone-- to people where international
> boundaries don't exist.
>
> All political spectra are represented as well. There were MAGA hats
> along with (un)concealed carry. Sheriffs/Public Safety/DHS/Salvation
> Army/EMT/FD and more attend, as hams carry the messages when other
> forms
> of communications fail. And there are the cadres of engineers,
> inventors, the maker communities, the open sorcerers, and the huge
> DIY
> communities. Cooperation breaks all political and social barriers
> with
> the common denominator of service, creativity, and the boundaries
> of how
> radio works.
>
> A local (to Bloomington) guy that works for Google is involved in
> SATNOG, which makes a handy antenna which, aided by computer imputs,
> tracks an antenna array as satellites pass overhead unseen, so
> that one
> can send/receive messages (voice, Morse/CW, and digital). There
> are the
> Raspberry Pi/Arduino and hacker board makers that also ally
> talking to
> sats. Or you can find programs where school kids talk to
> astronauts on
> the ISS via hardware that costs less than $100. Yes, the
> conversations
> are short as the ISS disappears beyond the horizon quickly.
>
> We do this for three days. I am still sunburned, as much is
> outside in
> the open grounds of the Greene County Fairgrounds. There are acres of
> flea market with all imaginable radio gear, including pre-WW2 gear
> that
> still works-- although there is much gear that does not. There are
> electronic parts, metal parts, old modems, Windows 3.1 5.25" disk
> sets,
> teletypes, IBM Selectrics modified to be teletypes, and many
> things that
> were built with tubes/valves. I was looking for an obscure
> antenna. It
> retails for $600. A used one was available for $65. It will take some
> cleaning before it works. Refurbishing gear is a sport for many,
> including me-- save that I don't touch old computer gear as there
> are no
> speed limits imposed on computing. Radio spectrum is shared, and has
> boundaries.
>
> As a kid, I learned electronics and fixed tube-based TVs and radios,
> hi-fi gear, and grew up with tubes and transistors. I had also read a
> book on computer theory at age 9, and so they've never been totally
> mysterious, either. All of this stuff makes sense to me, and there
> is so
> very much I don't know. There is plentiful trash in the flea markets,
> which are some people's treasures. Happy smiles upon finding these
> treasures abounded, big gleeful ones. Many walk around the grounds
> with
> walkie talkies called "HT's" alerting others to interesting finds, or
> where to get Chinese food. You never hear angry words, ever, never.
> Snickers and snark is plentiful, because my stuff is red hot, and
> your
> stuff is doodly-squat-isms, must abound.
>
> There is a crusty, barnacled contingent of old-timers, some wise,
> some
> wise-asses. They can be thoroughly pompous, condescending, yet
> thoroughly polite with a practiced delivery that reminds me of the
> British Class system, and other times reminds me of Get Off My Lawn.
> There really is wisdom there, should you take the time to chisel away
> the barnacles, and see the wisdom through the clouds of ancient eyes,
> ears, and minds. This is an older group, but a younger group of
> makers/hackers and visionaries are entering this hobby in different
> ways, giving it new blood, sometimes with easily-wounded thin skins.
>
> But they're all geeks, nerds, and radioheads. Me, too. And, $deity
> willing, I'll be there next year, again.
>
> 73
>
> Tom
>
>
> --
> Tom Henderson
> ExtremeLabs, Inc.
> +1 317 250 4646
> Twitter: @extremelabs
> Skype: extremelabsinc
>
>
> --
> Ipg-smz mailing list
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>
>
--
Tom Henderson
ExtremeLabs, Inc.
+1 317 250 4646
Twitter: @extremelabs
Skype: extremelabsinc
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