Embrace the new technology or else ....
I have just realized that some hams have a morbid fear of embracing the new technology. I am so busy doing my own thing that I somehow missed this, not that it would have any impact on how or what I do in respect to my own embracing of the technology. Fortunately for me I was forced into this embracing and appreciating the technology as a Switching Technician / Engineer in the Telecoms industry back in 1983, when we moved from mechanical telephone switching to Digital switching. Working in and with digital technology 24/7 grows on you, and together we become like one, and practically inseparable after 20+ years. So tech is like a way of life and it is sometimes difficult to appreciate that other people may not feel it like you do.
However having retired I have made a clean break and do not wish to see another switch ... but that is just idle talk, because the tech is in the bones and really pervades every cell of the body. Other hams who have not been engulfed, absorbed or involved with technology up close, and practically 24/7 may not necessarily have the love or respect for the new technology neither the appreciation for where it is taking us today, and where it will take us tomorrow. Of course there are some open minded hams who have willingly embraced the technology, recognizing that it is the future in our present, and wish to be a part of the new developing experience for and of tomorrow.
I recognize that some hams had bad and 'unholy' tech experiences. I do not believe that those experiences can be generalized, but have to be taken case by case. I am of the view that it is impossible for a ham to be technologically JINXED, but you can't tell that to some of them. But then again they should know themselves best. Some hams claim that they just watch or touch the high tech equipment, and all the solid state devices go to "fiddlers green". I have been unable to achieved this feat even once in my ham career from 1968 up to now, but maybe it is the 'touch' that I just don't have, or maybe I wear to many wrist straps.
I find it strange that when the same hams watch or touch their computer nothing out of the ordinary happens. In this world there are many thing that seem to defy science, knowledge, logic and maybe even common sense. At times I almost want to believe that we may be living in a matrix, but this may not seem like a joke to some people.
Every day more and more hams embrace the new technology. If they do not they will be left behind, as in out in the cold. Maybe it has to do with change and its effect on human beings. In the absence of knowledge change could be devastating to some. I don't think that young hams and prospective hams have any difficulty with the new tech, it is mainly the old and not so old timers who must make the transition that are most resistive to the inevitable. Recently I came across some old friends of mine who I thought would be proactively new tech, only to find out that they had a bad attitude to practically all new tech and were squarely on the other side of my tech fence. I am not holding that against them, and I just hope they can come around before going off to 'fiddlers'.
Over the last few days I have looked at the Flex Radio, and I like what I see. It looks like my kind of radio. For the last 26 years I have sat before a keyboard and monitor every day, except when I was hospitalized, so I don't have a problem with the flex radio and the new SDR tech, taking ham radio into the 21st century. I have some ham friends who are definitely not ready for that modern a radio, and I am praying for then to wake up, see the light, and smell the roses. There is no turning back, and eventually all the radios will become like flex radios and there is nothing that anyone can do about that. I am glad for one thing, that it is happening here at home in the US, so for now we will not get our eyes dug out.
I have never sought to promote any brand of equipment in my 40 years of ham radio, but Flex Radio seems to be what we need for our ham radio operations today and tomorrow. For new hams making that initial investment in ham radio equipment, this is one radio that you may never regret 20 years down the road. How significantly will this technology change in the next 20 yeras? We never know, but this real SDR platform, unlike those of the non SDR radios, could well be around for quite some time. This is the time to be bold and fearless, embrace the new technology and see where it can take you and your ham radio today and tomorrow.
Technologically it can only be UP.
However having retired I have made a clean break and do not wish to see another switch ... but that is just idle talk, because the tech is in the bones and really pervades every cell of the body. Other hams who have not been engulfed, absorbed or involved with technology up close, and practically 24/7 may not necessarily have the love or respect for the new technology neither the appreciation for where it is taking us today, and where it will take us tomorrow. Of course there are some open minded hams who have willingly embraced the technology, recognizing that it is the future in our present, and wish to be a part of the new developing experience for and of tomorrow.
I recognize that some hams had bad and 'unholy' tech experiences. I do not believe that those experiences can be generalized, but have to be taken case by case. I am of the view that it is impossible for a ham to be technologically JINXED, but you can't tell that to some of them. But then again they should know themselves best. Some hams claim that they just watch or touch the high tech equipment, and all the solid state devices go to "fiddlers green". I have been unable to achieved this feat even once in my ham career from 1968 up to now, but maybe it is the 'touch' that I just don't have, or maybe I wear to many wrist straps.
I find it strange that when the same hams watch or touch their computer nothing out of the ordinary happens. In this world there are many thing that seem to defy science, knowledge, logic and maybe even common sense. At times I almost want to believe that we may be living in a matrix, but this may not seem like a joke to some people.
Every day more and more hams embrace the new technology. If they do not they will be left behind, as in out in the cold. Maybe it has to do with change and its effect on human beings. In the absence of knowledge change could be devastating to some. I don't think that young hams and prospective hams have any difficulty with the new tech, it is mainly the old and not so old timers who must make the transition that are most resistive to the inevitable. Recently I came across some old friends of mine who I thought would be proactively new tech, only to find out that they had a bad attitude to practically all new tech and were squarely on the other side of my tech fence. I am not holding that against them, and I just hope they can come around before going off to 'fiddlers'.
Over the last few days I have looked at the Flex Radio, and I like what I see. It looks like my kind of radio. For the last 26 years I have sat before a keyboard and monitor every day, except when I was hospitalized, so I don't have a problem with the flex radio and the new SDR tech, taking ham radio into the 21st century. I have some ham friends who are definitely not ready for that modern a radio, and I am praying for then to wake up, see the light, and smell the roses. There is no turning back, and eventually all the radios will become like flex radios and there is nothing that anyone can do about that. I am glad for one thing, that it is happening here at home in the US, so for now we will not get our eyes dug out.
I have never sought to promote any brand of equipment in my 40 years of ham radio, but Flex Radio seems to be what we need for our ham radio operations today and tomorrow. For new hams making that initial investment in ham radio equipment, this is one radio that you may never regret 20 years down the road. How significantly will this technology change in the next 20 yeras? We never know, but this real SDR platform, unlike those of the non SDR radios, could well be around for quite some time. This is the time to be bold and fearless, embrace the new technology and see where it can take you and your ham radio today and tomorrow.
Technologically it can only be UP.
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