On Sun, 20 Mar 2011 13:21:16 -0400, Michael A. Terrell wrote:

"Geoffrey S. Mendelson" wrote:

Michael A. Terrell wrote:
You've got to be kidding. I know a lot of hams who don't even own
a
soldering iron. They ship their radios off for factory service,
unlike 40 years ago.

Totally irrelevant. I know a lot of people who can barely figure out
how to put gasoline in their cars, but that does not mean there are is
no one who knows how they work, and repair and "upgrade" their cars.

It's like this group. You ask a question and you get answers. Most of
them are not worth the paper they were never printed upon.

You go to a web forum, you get the same results. You ask a bunch of
hams and you get an answer. Not from all of them, but from one or two
who know what they are talking about.


Right. Sure. Maybe in your small world. I recently went to the
local ham radio club's hamfest. 99% of the items for sale were cheap
chinese crap that is even cheaer on Ebay. the hams that knew what they
were doing have either quit the hobby, or are now 'Silent Keys'. I saw
more computer related items than radio, and the couple vendors with
components had no one at their tables.

When a few of us used to go in on a table at a hamfest we'd go dig in the
attic or basement for a bunch of junk to sell. I used to go to Dayton Oh
every year but that started being a joke. Most junk and computers. A few
vendors from Kenwood, Yaesu, Alinco, MFD etc.. Not like it was 20 years
ago.



--
Live Fast Die Young, Leave A Pretty Corpse