Therefore, in order to enforce a more strict firewall between my personal political feelings and this blog, I'm removing the Twitter sidebar. I do have a bit of a loud political mouth on Twitter, and I don't want to completely take that outlet away from myself. I'm sure that some of my strongly worded opinions can be a turn-off to those who come to the blog for technical content. I'll still use Twitter to chat about whatever topics interest me, but I'm going to do my best to keep Ripples in the Ether as apolitical as I possibly can.

For those of you who have stuck around, thank you sincerely for being a regular reader of the blog. Lately, the content has been light because much of what I have been working on are things that I can't currently discuss. As Dayton approaches, I expect the content level to pick up again. I'm excited to blog about my FDIM 2010 QRP Challenge entry, which is shaping up to be a neat little rig. Stay tuned...

Dear amigos :
The 40 meters band changed last year ... when the worldwide assignment for ITU Regions I, II and III was finally made totally compatible for the first 200 kiloHertz. According to what we have learned here, this was a difficult to work out agreement, but at the end
thanks to the presence of radio amateurs sitting as members of many of
the nation's delegations attending the ITU WARC... it became a reality...
So, now we have the 7100 to 7200 segment for radio amateurs exclusive use. My understanding is that the US FCC decided to expand the 40 meter phone band down to 7125 kiloHertz...
That leaves the segment from 7100 to 7125 kiloHertz quite useable for CW...
My suggestion is to start using 7105 or 7110 kiloHertz as the QRP
meeting frequency, replacing 7030 and 7040 kiloHertz that are under so much QRM, especially from digital modes. I agree that many stations have already equipment with crystals for either 7030 or
7040 kHz... but for those of us with VFO capability, enjoying the much
more clear channels between 7105 and 7110 kHz opens up the possibility of many more QRM free QSO's...
My observations carried on during the past several days confirm that
that segment of 40 meters right next to 7100 is clear much of the time  !
Let's give it a try !!!

73 and DX
Arnie Coro
CO2KK

The positive response to Arnie's call to action was immensely gratifying to me. In addition to all of the reflector replies, there have also been some ham bloggers taking up the topic. I've long been a fan of this little slice of bandwidth, but at times it has been hard to scare up contacts there. In the last couple of years, SKCC has probably been making the most extensive use of the sub-band, which has increased the traffic there a fair amount and has brought more attention to the frequencies as a place to have a nice, relaxed CW QSO.

Not to long ago, I dreamed about ways to help increase the use of these frequencies, and even started chatting with a few other hams about ways to spark some interest. However, like a whole lot of my ideas, they never get off the launchpad since I just don't have the time to invest in all of them. After having a few unpleasant encounters with RTTY contesters running me off 40 meter frequencies last weekend, I'm even more determined to help promote 7100-7125 as a QRP (and general CW) safe spot.

I've become inspired enough that I've decided to take a new design for a minimalistic superhet rig that I'm working on and adapt it to operate on these frequencies. If there's any interest in it, I might even take a crack at offering it as a kit for purchase. Long live 40 meter QRP!

Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats. —H. L. Mencken

I believe that it's true that the addiction to instant gratification in American culture is a huge contributor to the problems with getting younger folks interested in ham radio (the other major factor being the stinky, unkempt, loudmouth curmudgeon contingent). However, with the huge economic challenges facing the USA, I truly believe that we will have to abandon this type of lifestyle and return to some semblance of thrift, frugality, and ingenuity. Instant gratification is going to mostly die, by financial necessity. I don't think most families will have the resources to just buy the kids a new $500 game system every two years and a new $60 game every month. Nor will many of us be able to afford a lot of the other luxuries that we are accustomed to, such as the $150/mo cable package, dining out most days of the week, and purchasing a lot of the frivolous trinkets that we think we need that actually end up gathering dust in the corner of the garage.

As QRPers, we are uniquely poised to take positive advantage of this situation. We are used to making the most out of the least. We are the weirdos who like to scrounge for junk and salvage components from the cast-off electronics that others have trashed. We can take a handful of cheap parts and turn it into hours and hours of entertainment, as well as education. We are already seeing some of this mentality take root in the "Maker" movement, so there's potential to rekindle some of the radio magic with the younger generations. The standard ARRL path of getting a kid to take the Technician test and giving them an HT is a dead end. Not many kids are going to be interested in 2 m/70 cm repeater operations. We can't treat young people like they are too stupid or simple-minded to do anything more than yak on a repeater. They need to be challenged, and our particular slice of the hobby can challenge them.

There's not going to be any grand, centralized, ARRL-type movement that's going to change things. We each have to make sure that we live up to the standards that will present the best face for ham radio and homebrewing. Do your part, whether it is through Elmering, evangelizing the hobby in a positive way, designing kits for new hams, taking part in the Maker movement, talking to the media, or anything that uses your strengths to advance the art and science of the hobby. As times get more difficult, keep a positive outlook on things. People will look for outlets from the lousy times, and we have the opportunity to offer them an outlet with a unique combination of fun and learning.

About a week ago, I got an e-mail from a ham down in Texas who had attended the Maker Faire. “Makers” are people who love to tinker and make things. They even have their own magazine, Make.

He was amazed at the lack of any amateur radio content.

This ties in with the "Ham Spaces" e-mail that I wrote on qrp-l.org a few weeks ago. I'm not going to argue that ham radio is dying, but there's no doubt that we need new blood in the hobby. With the resurgence of interest in building your own electronics, now is the perfect time to get ourselves out there.

Ham radio needs to be at these events and get plugged into the “maker community.” The Faire has not yet released attendance figures for this particular Faire, but more than 65,000 people attended the Faire held in May 2008. Dayton, with its attendance of about 20,000, looks anemic by comparison.

Quite a stark contrast, especially given the reports that attendance at Dayton falls nearly every year. Surely, there's a large untapped potential to recruit Makers into the ham radio fold.

I blogged about this back in May. One of the things I suggested then is moving Dayton to some place like Austin. Seriously, if you were a new, young ham, where would you rather go, Dayton, OH or Austin, TX? Let’s be real here.

And can there be a worse place for an event than Hara Arena? The parking lot, where they hold the flea market looks like a mine field, and it usually rains, making the flea market a wet, unpleasant experience. Is it any wonder that fewer and fewer vendors choose to haul stuff out there? Some of us older hams might fondly reminisce about the bargain we found while traipsing around wearing a trash-bag poncho, but a story like that is not going to resonate with new hams.

Please don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean to badmouth the Dayton Amateur Radio Association or the Hamvention. I actually think that they do a great job, all things considered. I’m just pointing out that if ham radio wants to again be part of the mainstream, we have to get with the program. Unfortunately, that program probably won’t be at the Hara Arena.

I've never been to Dayton, but these stories about the quality of the venue are well-known. It's not going to be easy to get younger folks (especially females) interested in the hobby if they are immediately turned off by the whole environment. Like it or not, image is important these days. We're going to have to clean up and reform ourselves just a bit if we want the opportunity to pass our hobby down to a new generation.

Ham radio has got to figure out how to latch onto the Maker phenomenon. At the very least, the ARRL should have a booth at the next one, and in addition to all the books and t-shirts, they need to come up with some kind of demo or display to attract makers into ham radio. I don’t know what exactly, but I’m willing to start talking about it.

I agree that the ARRL is missing a huge opportunity here. Their public outreach programs, while well-intentioned, seem a bit anemic and off the mark. They've got to start recruiting some new, younger blood into the HQ (W1KRB was a great example, but it appears that she's gone now) and start making the rounds to these new DIY events. It also wouldn't hurt to integrate more fully into the social networking sites (I know that there is some effort by private hams in this area, but we've got a long way to go to catch up to the Makers).

This phenomenon might also be a boon for clubs who hold hamfests. Just as the computer craze turned ham swaps into ham and computer swaps in the 80s, perhaps ham clubs could turn their hamfests into a combination hamfest and Maker Faire in their communities.

As I said earlier, Makers are exactly the kind of people we want in ham radio. Let’s go out and get them.

Indeed! We need to start building these bridges if we want the hobby to gain some new vitality. Otherwise, I expect ham radio may get pushed further out onto the edges. Meanwhile, with the continued explosion of wireless consumer products, there's plenty of interests who would love a chance to get their hands on our spectrum. There's no reason for this to happen, as we have a ready-made pool of new potential hams to recruit from!

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. —Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

When you boil it down to the true essense, no matter the lofty press releases that the ARRL produces about the public service aspects, ham radio is just a hobby for most of us. I think we all get frustrated with aspects of the hobby (and the jerks who ruin it) at times, and we have different ways of dealing with it. If things get really bad, most hams can just turn off the radio or unsubscribe from the reflector full of loudmouthed trolls.

Side note: I don't know what it is about the more technical hobbies (and professions), but they seem to attract a large contingent of zealous acolytes who could give the most rabid religious fundamentalists a run for their money. Disagreements often turn into the "intellectual" equivalent of a pissing contest, with all of the irrationality that implies. Particularly strident defenders of the faith see those who disagree with them as akin to a heathen atheist or a card-carrying Satan worshiper. There must be some pathology of the brain responsible for this kind of reaction. In some folks it manifests as fervent belief in their particular brand of religion, in others it shows up as a certainty in their unique knowledge of The Scientific Truth™.

Usually you get pissed, then you give yourself some downtime, spend some more time with the family, or play with a different hobby for a while. The problem comes when you start to get yourself more wrapped up in the hobby than usual. When your enjoyment and fate in the hobby starts to be tied to ensuring the success of others, it's not quite as easy to pull yourself out without having a negative impact on others. The case in point for me is the difficulties with the 2nd kitting of the Willamette QRP transceiver. This project has been a source of great excitement and enjoyment for me (as well as others, I think). But now it feels like the albatross around my neck. My life is going though a lot of changes right now, and changes equals stress. The last thing I need right now is the added stress from a hobby project gone sour. It would be nice to be able to just brush aside the troubles, but I feel that would be a betrayal of those who are counting on getting what they paid for.

Truly, this is a bittersweet topic. If it wasn't for all of the great times I've had and good friends that I've made, I would have probably already given up. But I feel that there have been too many positive effects from the project to let it end on a bad note. I'm praying that we can soon arrive at an outcome that satisfies most of the participants. Perhaps that will salvage some of my faith in humanity and will help to keep me from wanting to give up on these public projects.