On Thu, 5 Apr 2018 21:28:59 -0400, bitrex
wrote:

I thought about getting a ham license at one point and even as a US
citizen it all just seemed like a huge hassle for not much reward. If
I'd been born in the 50s or 60s I probably would've gotten into it, but
I was born in the dying days of disco instead.

I was born in the late 40's and obtained a ham license when I was
about 13 years old. Sputnik had been launched about 3 years earlier
(1957) and the US went nuts.
https://www.google.com/search?q=sputnik+fever
We were going to beat the Russians in the space race by cranking out
more scientists and engineers. Also, us kids also couldn't help
noticing that the parents were genuinely worried about Russia
attacking with missiles and bombers. So, any kid with even the
slightest technical ability was encouraged to go into some kind of
technical field. So, I got into ham radio.

Instead of buying a secondhand shortwave radio I bought a secondhand
2400 bps modem. Mom and Dad humored me but thought this whole "computers
talking to each other" thing was just a weird fad, like CB radio. Oh well...

You missed the earlier 110 and 300 baud modems with acoustic couplers.
Nothing worked as expected or consistently. Turn on some music in the
same room, and the error rate would climb.
https://www.google.com/search?q=anderson+jacobson+acoustic+coupler&tbm=is ch
The nice part was that I could use it with a pay phone. Ah,
nostalgia.


--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558