ISSUE 47 JAN-FEB-MAR 2009 GENERAL EDITOR Jeff Newton [email protected] Christopher Ebert was kind enough to allow us to post his ♦ QUIET SIGNALS - Editorial recent editorial titled, “Quiet Signals”. His comments reflect the ♦ MARCH 13-14 SWLFEST Kulpsville PA state of the radio hobby and specifically the amateur radio hobby today. ♦ UPDATE ON MARINE BEACON 406 MHz ♦ CRASH IN THE HUDSON RIVER NJ-NY Quiet Signals Christopher Ebert Founder, Lakes Area GMRS Repeater Group There are many of us out there wondering “why is my repeater silent all the time?” The same questions could be asked like: “how come ham radio licenses aren’t so popular with kids? Why are there so many quiet repeaters? How come nobody talks on the C.B. as much anymore? Why is my shortwave radio dead? Why are hamfests filled with junk? Why doesn’t the F.C.C. listen to my complaints? Why doesn’t anyone get the GMRS license?” Folks, the answers are simple: radio doesn’t have the magic it once did to most people. I write this as an editorial through years of experience in dealing with radio; whether it is using it, reading about it, or talking to people about it. Internet research, personal research, and personal experience is what drives this, therefore, I’m not going to quote anything specific; I don’t need to because the proof is in the pudding. So, let’s set the stage. I am an adult male in my mid-thirties who was turned onto the “magic of radio” from my Grandpa (bless his soul). He had an old Chevy El Camino that he had a C.B. radio in because he spent his life as a truck driver and the C.B. was part of his job. He had a lot of weird-named friends too; guys like Gobstopper, Road Warrior, and Tank. I never knew any of their real names – I don’t think he did either – but it didn’t matter. They had friendships borne of highway miles, diesel soot, and electromagnetic spectrum. The C.B. handle stuff and all of its related mystery was cool and all, but what intrigued my little mind most was the fact that he got to talk into this glowing and noisy box that voices came out of. I asked him a million questions like “who was that?” and “how does that work?” Over the next year or so, Grandpa showed me what a C.B. radio was and taught me about being a radio operator. A few years later (and into my pre-teens) some friends and I were out in the woods playing and we figured we’d needed some sort of communications device for a new Story and photos found on Pages 13 through 18. club we’d started. Mind you this is the early 80’s, so there were only a couple of options available to the public: some cans and a string or some battery-operated C.B. radios. So, for Christmas one year, a group of us all begged our SCANNER DIGEST NEWSLETTER – ISSUE 47 PAGE 1 parents (we knew about Santa, yes) for a C.B. portable So I studied and passed the ham radio test. When I got radio. I don’t know how expensive they are or were at the onto the radio, I was met with some pleasant people and time, but miraculously, Christmas trees were giving birth to had fun with a few, but found it hard to communicate with the radios our little club would use to communicate. Of most hams at the time. It seemed that I (in my early course, phones started ringing asking each other if we got twenties) had difficulty talking with and finding common one and soon the little squawk boxes were lighting up the ground with these people who were in their fifties, sixties, air waves. Over time, we learned on our own that a bigger and seventies. And older yet! I soon became bored with antenna got better reception. A higher antenna got better ham radio because it just didn’t pose the magic for me reception. Antenna, antenna, and antenna with some anymore. I didn’t need it. Don’t get me wrong, over time I more power too. Relays could be done to communicate had found some people my own age I could talk to and we with more distant club members, which was overcome by did have some things in common. However, between most some pretty ingenious (albeit probably dangerous) child of the repeaters being dead silent, or being in use by men engineering with car batteries, crank-up chargers, and talking about doctors’ appointments and podiatric surgery, Grandpa’s old mobile radios in the forts. We realized we it was quite boring. Therefore, it became increasingly could be in touch with one another without ever picking up difficult for me find new people to recruit into ham radio a phone. For a couple of years, this was cool. As we got because I, myself, didn’t really care to be a part. older, however, our club disbanded on its own. Adolescence is a disaster for clubs sometimes, but it Several years later (yes, I’ve kept my ham radio license wasn’t the end of our use of radios yet. and do use it on occasion) I found GMRS. I realize GMRS had been a well-kept secret for many years prior, which is Into our teens come the drivers’ licenses and a weird C.B. probably why I had never even heard of it until 2002 while resurgence in popularity. It was the early 90’s and it I was searching the Internet. At the time, my wife and I seemed we had a good group of people using CB’s again. had two different cell phone plans that did not share It was a lot of fun; many of my old “club buddies” put CB’s minutes or calling features. We had decided to try GMRS into their cars. However, soon after would come the new- out for our basic communications needs and it worked fangled technology; the cell phone. Now I know the cell great. Some friends of mine had the same problem, and phone had been around since the 80’s; we all remember we banded together to build a repeater system. For a few the Miami Vice brick Motorola phone. But I’m talking about years, this thing was cool. We had a little party line we the actual “real every-day” cell phone like the Motorola could gab on to each other and it didn’t cost us anything in Star-Tac. It actually fit into your coat pocket or some huge theory. We figured out that the money we’d have paid for holster, but it wasn’t the size of a brick and it didn’t come calling each other and talking for the amount of time we in a bag. And for those who couldn’t afford the Star-Brick, did, the repeater and radios had paid for themselves. we had these cool pagers. You could call someone on However, nothing lasts it seems. People moved away, their beeper and they’d get back to you instead of leaving opinions changed, but the biggest killers were the Internet, messages at home. Of course the pager was somewhat e-mail, and our cell phone plans with family talk and free short-lived as the cost of owning a cell phone dropped incoming minutes. Repeaters and radios were sold, and dramatically over the years. Soon, junk drawers were full back to the phones it was. of beepers and Star-Tacs as the phone technology seemed to advance quite quickly. Where did my C.B. go? Enough history of mine, let’s get to the meat and potatoes. It was weird; it was almost like overnight the radio became Why do I bring this up? I am just a cog in a story that has silent. When people did use it, questions were more like been repeated hauntingly fast over and over again during “hey, I can’t hear you so just call me on my cell.” What fun. the last 10 years. Radio doesn’t share the magic it once Whoopee. C.B. for me all but died again a short time used to for a lot of people because there is less necessity later. because of cell phones and the Internet. Computers have been around a long time, but the Internet is what has During the entire hubbub of the middle 90’s, I went and got transformed our society; we all know this. With a few key my ham radio license. I actually had no intention of getting strokes and mouse clicks, I now have access to a world of one (I had my groovy beeper and Star-Tac) but a guy I knowledge and ability to communicate with just about knew coerced me into taking the test. He wasn’t the only anyone I want. Chat rooms, boards and forums, E-mail, one; there were several guys from the C.B. group I knew MySpace, Face book, it’s all there. I know more about that had ham radio licenses and thought I might be people I haven’t spoken to in years because of social interested because of my ability and skill to modify and/or networking sites. Video, games, and online blogs; there is reverse-engineer anything. I learned those skills out of a never-ending plethora of entertainment and juvenile exploration from my backyard radio days.