Notices by Abraxas3d W5NYV (abraxas3d@mastodon.radio)

I recruited a crew of people for Microwave Update, a #hamradio conference in the US that is back after extended absence due to covid.

I have had a bad and very weird experience simply trying to submit talks and get a demonstration table. We submitted four talks and asked for a demo table.

I am not sure how to even describe the experience yet, but it's not been good.

For background, I was awarded the Don Hilliard prize at MUD in 2018 and all my #hamradio work is at microwave frequencies.

Testbench passing for #polyphase channelizer for #Haifuraiya, an #opensource #HEO or #GEO communications #satellite design. Applicable to #hamradio, 5 GHz uplink and 10 GHz downlink. Shown is the transponder receiver filter.

If you’d like to join this or any other @OpenResearchIns project, get in touch.

Here is #hamtastic at Fiesta Island, San Diego. Much more in the alt text.

I was able to step in as a replacement presenter for the Thursday evening #RATPAC session to talk about the #symbol rate rules change for US #hamradio, announced the day before.

Video recording below.

Please forgive any shortcomings. I had a couple of hours to put it together. Thank you to KB5MU, who read through the R&O and FNPRM with me to be prepared, and to all the people that came to this session that had a completely different topic than the one they expected :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDTaVS4VVaE

At 8:28am this morning here in San Diego, the phone rang.

It was Bob Interbitzen from #ARRL, who introduced himself and just started talking. It was very loud and very fast.

I said this is really early and I wasn't actually up yet and that this was a bad time for me to talk.

I was literally still in bed and needed to go the bathroom. I answered the phone because only emergency calls come in before 9am.

He said "Sorry! I guess it is an early hour out there! ha ha ha!" and... dove right in.

I'm going to try and recreate how it sounded.

He mentioned @kb6nu and "this stuff on the internet, on someplace called Mastodon", and that I had it "totally wrong!" and "completely inaccurate!" and something about QSO Today. It was honestly a wall of sound.

It was the sort of sound that comes from the mouth of someone that thinks I have not either personally witnessed or verified everything that I said.

He continued. There was no apology, offer to call me later, or chance to reply.

@kb6nu Eric did not initiate any "split". Being told QSO Today was now "competition" and would get "no support" was a complete shock to all of us that volunteer for the event.

Bob did attempt to frame the lack of an ARRL logo on the QSO Today website as some sort of evidence of Eric rejected ARRL. This is a silly thing to claim.

Eric didn't have permission to use the logo for the Academy.

Eric has accepted that ARRL views him as competition, is disappointed, and is continuing on.

@kb6nu he's the type of person that would say that. He's an excellent collaborator and goes the extra mile to make it easy to work with him. He's accepted responsibility many times for things that weren't his fault in order to smooth problems over or ensure a good experience.

That alone made it an easy decision to speak up firmly about this bad decision and how it affected him and his work.

@kb6nu none of us are planning to stop volunteering for ARRL or donating, that I have heard. We believe in the mission.

I give an ARRL presentation in October, have another QEX article on the way to Kai, will continue to be a reviewer, actively serve as a technical specialist, and will keep sending things to QST.

@ai6yr @smitty if they didn't come from the Capacitance et Inducterance Region of France then they are just coils.

@recursive @Stormgren well said. As I recall, Tony Long KC6QHP hand-built a 72 GHz rig over at SBMS and his presentation about the construction was exhausting just to watch. And highly educational.

We need modern techniques to pull things off. We've advanced.

@Stormgren RFBitBanger kit. Class E amplifier and SCAMP digital mode native. Can do any FSK mode, including FT8 et al. Was very well received. Main boards will arrive tomorrow and get kitted up here in San Diego.

We tell people "you do not have to be an expert to join, you just have to be willing to become more of one along the way".

100% agree with your sentiment regarding appliance operation.

@Stormgren thank you.

Your message is important to say no matter what, but was especially relevant to me, since my non-profit just sold out of an SMD pre-soldered QRP HF kit.

Recipients do all the through-hole parts and wind the toroids.

Enough with refusing to leverage modern manufacturing techniques?

I don't expect people to sew all their own clothes.

We received no complaints about this hybrid kit. On the contrary, there were a lot of happy people thst coukd skip SMD.

Local radio club took a bunch of grant money for an ill-advised and poorly-researched project, and is now rapidly imploding.

This is very sad. It was also entirely predictable.

#hamradio needs engagement much more than it needs huge amounts of money.

You can't buy community activity or club member loyalty. Money can't fix apathy. No amount of funding will reverse the demographic carnage from years of openly tolerated racism and sexism in an org.

It takes real work to make progress.