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MFJ is ceasing its on-site production

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Re: MFJ is ceasing its on-site production

#71

Post by mikewarot »

germinator wrote: post #43
topspin wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing to remember about ham radio is that there is a bit of natural bias in the demographic: a lot of the stuff involved requires a certain minimum amount of things that older people tend to have. Property being one of the keys. HF antennas, towers, etc. are essentially outlawed by HOAs and entirely infeasible for renters. Some of the equipment is pricey as well. You can do a lot at low cost and without property,…

Eh. It might be a part of it, but the hobby just lost its luster. It used to be this magical way to connect with friends and strangers. Now, cell phones and the internet make it a lot less magical. Other aspects of the hobby aged poorly too. The ham community (and the regulators) were slow to embrace use cases that might have been interesting to younger people in the 21th century - say, mesh networking. Instead, the…

>spectrum will eventually get auctioned off for commercial use

Which is a tax on anyone who ends up using it. Selling the airwaves was a huge mistake.

Re: MFJ is ceasing its on-site production

#72

Post by weinzierl »

After decades of moving manufacturing to Asia we currently see a considerable countermovement in the US and Europe.

I have a hard time estimating how this will play out. Ten years from now, where do you believe will the majority of manufacturing happen? Will it be more or less distributed compared to now?

Re: MFJ is ceasing its on-site production

#73

Post by jjav »

germinator wrote: post #43
topspin wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing to remember about ham radio is that there is a bit of natural bias in the demographic: a lot of the stuff involved requires a certain minimum amount of things that older people tend to have. Property being one of the keys. HF antennas, towers, etc. are essentially outlawed by HOAs and entirely infeasible for renters. Some of the equipment is pricey as well. You can do a lot at low cost and without property,…

Eh. It might be a part of it, but the hobby just lost its luster. It used to be this magical way to connect with friends and strangers. Now, cell phones and the internet make it a lot less magical. Other aspects of the hobby aged poorly too. The ham community (and the regulators) were slow to embrace use cases that might have been interesting to younger people in the 21th century - say, mesh networking. Instead, the…

> Now, cell phones and the internet make it a lot less magical.

I know people feel that way but IMO ham radio is still magical because you can communicate across continents without any dependency on anything or anyone else.

Sure the internet is faster and more convenient, but for that IP packet to reach its destination it depends on a cast of thousands of components across dozens of providers to all be working correctly.

With ham radio, you just need the radio and a generator and the laws of physics to communicate across the globe. That's pretty magical!

Re: MFJ is ceasing its on-site production

#74

Post by minetest2048 »

defrost wrote: post #11

There's a lot of old Hams retiring out of the game in their 80s and 90s now. I recently attended the funeral of the wife of an Australian Ham ~ 90 who relayed Space Shuttle communications to NASA for astronauts and their families including some sensitive "possible farewell" type calls. This was the same person who lead me into fun projects reverse engineering the early Navstar GPS packets before they were public, and…

> reverse engineering the early Navstar GPS packets before they were public

Any write ups on this? GNSS reverse engineering seems interesting

Re: MFJ is ceasing its on-site production

#75

Post by actionfromafar »

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #55
etn wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My neighbor, around 1984 or so had what appears to be the LP-1009A antennae right by my bedroom. No one believed me when I told my family and friends that I could hear a person speaking French from my record player.

Where were you?

Next-door to a radio station.

Re: MFJ is ceasing its on-site production

#76

Post by darkwater »

WheatMillington wrote: post #48
jonifico wrote: post #19

It's a bit sad to make such a decision when you're almost 80. Realizing the importance of time with your family so late gives you so little time. A few years ago, I read about the regrets of dying people, and many of them related to spending more time with their families... That was one of the reasons I decided to close my company last year (after 20 years; I'm 45 now) and start over, working with just a few customer…

You have to be in a position of extreme privilege to even make a decision like that. I'm barely getting by and yet work more than I should. I don't have the option of just working less.

> You have to be in a position of extreme privilege to even make a decision like that. I

Absolutely. But MFJ was definitely in that position.

Re: MFJ is ceasing its on-site production

#77

Post by firesteelrain »

germinator wrote: post #43
topspin wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing to remember about ham radio is that there is a bit of natural bias in the demographic: a lot of the stuff involved requires a certain minimum amount of things that older people tend to have. Property being one of the keys. HF antennas, towers, etc. are essentially outlawed by HOAs and entirely infeasible for renters. Some of the equipment is pricey as well. You can do a lot at low cost and without property,…

Eh. It might be a part of it, but the hobby just lost its luster. It used to be this magical way to connect with friends and strangers. Now, cell phones and the internet make it a lot less magical. Other aspects of the hobby aged poorly too. The ham community (and the regulators) were slow to embrace use cases that might have been interesting to younger people in the 21th century - say, mesh networking. Instead, the…

It’s all what you make of it. I have built antennas to talk to Amateur Radio satellites, launched PicoBalloons (one went over Iran just as the attack was kicking off a couple weeks ago), NOAA APT and GOES LRIT capture, SDRs, Parks on the Air (which honestly has reinvigorated ham radio ALOT), WSPR, FT8/4, Shortwave Radiogram, etc

Then there is Ham Radio Crash Course, Long Island CW Club (Morse code has made a big comeback), and contesting which when that happens the bands are slammed

I have even sent memes over SSTV or captured imagery from the International Space Station. I have made QSOs with an Astronaut from my backyard with an HT.

Anyways there are lots of things to do. I am in a HOA and my end fed is installed in my attic. No one knows

There’s also flagpole antennas. Oh and I forgot about DMR and DSTAR or PiSpots. Raspberry Pi is big in ham radio

Re: MFJ is ceasing its on-site production

#78

Post by defrost »

minetest2048 wrote: post #74
defrost wrote: post #11

There's a lot of old Hams retiring out of the game in their 80s and 90s now. I recently attended the funeral of the wife of an Australian Ham ~ 90 who relayed Space Shuttle communications to NASA for astronauts and their families including some sensitive "possible farewell" type calls. This was the same person who lead me into fun projects reverse engineering the early Navstar GPS packets before they were public, and…

> reverse engineering the early Navstar GPS packets before they were public Any write ups on this? GNSS reverse engineering seems interesting

Possible but unlikely on the net, I was very young at the time although happy to tackle the puzzle parts, the people doing the hardware and other projects of that time were a kind of post war loose knit quango of former commonwealth | european south east asian post z-forces collective.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Wong_Sue * was in and out and round about, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Len_Beadell dropped in and taught kids how to use a theodolite, other people of interest did stuff and we all generally submitted notes to archives.

* As you can see, lots of stories with fuzzed details

Re: MFJ is ceasing its on-site production

#79

Post by pjc50 »

WheatMillington wrote: post #48
jonifico wrote: post #19

It's a bit sad to make such a decision when you're almost 80. Realizing the importance of time with your family so late gives you so little time. A few years ago, I read about the regrets of dying people, and many of them related to spending more time with their families... That was one of the reasons I decided to close my company last year (after 20 years; I'm 45 now) and start over, working with just a few customer…

You have to be in a position of extreme privilege to even make a decision like that. I'm barely getting by and yet work more than I should. I don't have the option of just working less.

People over a certain retirement age get a thing called a "pension". I don't know if I'd consider it extreme privilege, but it's supposed to enable them to live without working.

Re: MFJ is ceasing its on-site production

#80

Post by itomato »

germinator wrote: post #43
topspin wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing to remember about ham radio is that there is a bit of natural bias in the demographic: a lot of the stuff involved requires a certain minimum amount of things that older people tend to have. Property being one of the keys. HF antennas, towers, etc. are essentially outlawed by HOAs and entirely infeasible for renters. Some of the equipment is pricey as well. You can do a lot at low cost and without property,…

Eh. It might be a part of it, but the hobby just lost its luster. It used to be this magical way to connect with friends and strangers. Now, cell phones and the internet make it a lot less magical. Other aspects of the hobby aged poorly too. The ham community (and the regulators) were slow to embrace use cases that might have been interesting to younger people in the 21th century - say, mesh networking. Instead, the…

You can scoff at the price of second hand analog gear at a HAMfest or you can embrace SDR and OSHW.

As the hobby evolves, so does the hobbyist.

The FCC's door is as open as always.

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