{"id":179,"date":"2005-11-07T11:06:46","date_gmt":"2005-11-07T15:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hamsexy.com\/cms\/?p=179"},"modified":"2005-11-07T14:09:11","modified_gmt":"2005-11-07T18:09:11","slug":"response-from-kr4wm-re-morally-bankrupt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hamsexy.com\/cms\/?p=179","title":{"rendered":"Response from KR4WM re: Morally Bankrupt"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Op-Ed\"
\nHere’s an op-ed piece from the subject of the “VOIP=Morally Bankrupt” thread <\/a>featured last week – by the subject of the piece, K4WRM. <\/strong>Go ahead Web, the repeater is yours:
\nOK, after careful consideration, I\u2019ve decided that \u201cmorally bankrupt\u201d was an unfortunate selection of words on my part. I take that term pretty lightly, and did not consider that some would take offense to it. I also recanted this statement at QRZ.com.<\/p>\n

The fact is, I feel that we do need some term to refer to people who use VOIP to work DX repeaters as a substitute for not upgrading their license and using HF. Whatever the term is, it needs to shame these individuals into upgrading to an HF-privileged license, and it should make them feel inadequate for using VOIP as a substitute for HF. I\u2019m not alone. Thousands of hams feel this way. Many won\u2019t tell you they feel that way to your face. I suggest the term \u201cRF challenged\u201d be used as a descriptive term any time you refer to someone who uses VOIP as a substitute for a real RF contact. I\u2019m not suggesting that shut-ins, people in HOA areas, and others who have no other option besides VOIP be referred to in this manner. I\u2019m referring to the people who are lazy and\/or stubborn and have the educational wherewithall to upgrade their license but don\u2019t. I\u2019m also referring to those who feel that government entitlement owes them HF privileges without having to work for them. This is <\/strong>not<\/em><\/strong> a no-code\/pro-code argument. I don\u2019t mind if the code requirement is lifted. You can\u2019t place blame on someone who accepts privileges that were offered to them without being forced to learn code. But geez- if you have an HF-privileged license, have a rig parked on your desk, and have an antenna you can connect to it, why on earth would you, in good conscience, use VOIP? Is it so you can use a distant repeater to talk with someone who doesn\u2019t have HF privileges? If so, you\u2019re certainly not stimulating them to upgrade their license. By doing this you\u2019ve become an \u201cenabler\u201d which gives them another reason not to upgrade their license! After all, if they can work you on VOIP, why bother to upgrade?<\/p>\n

Everyone complains that we\u2019re not using our frequencies. Everyone complains that BPL is going to ruin HF. If you\u2019re using VOIP, you may as well admit to being pro-BPL. After all, couldn\u2019t you just use BPL to complete your \u201cradio\u201d contact? I suppose you\u2019d argue that since you used BPL, that it would count for an HF contact? Let\u2019s just all unplug our antennas and tell the radio manufacturers to install an RJ-45 jack on the rear panel of all new transceivers. They can do away with that pesky notch filtering, DSP, etc. because all contacts will be interference-free. Without RF finals, radios will be much cheaper. Heck, you could probably get a router and plug a handset into it and call it your \u201cnew and improved ham radio\u201d, right? And with each new ham on VOIP, that\u2019s one less signal occupying bandwidth on HF. If we ALL convert to VOIP, we could hand over all our HF bandwidth to the BPL guys and everyone will be happy, Q S L?<\/p>\n

So- you win. I promise not to call you \u201cmorally bankrupt\u201d anymore. From this date forward, you\u2019ll be known by me as <\/strong>\u201cRF challenged\u201d<\/em><\/strong>. Kind of like a person who is missing a limb is referred to as \u201cphysically challenged\u201d. \u201cPhysically challenged\u201d is a politically correct term, so you should have no problem with me calling you \u201cRF challenged\u201d. That is, unless you can come up with a more fitting descriptive term\u2026.?<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t consider myself to be a \u201cham radio snob\u201d. People who know me personally will tell you I\u2019m not one. I just think that people in this hobby should make some attempt to advance, not stagnate, and becoming a VOIP operator stifles some of the need to do this.<\/p>\n

The \u201cbeginner\u201d (technician) license was meant to be that- a license for a beginner. People get into the amateur radio hobby for many reasons, but the main reason (most) people become hams is the romance of working DX, and you can\u2019t do that (well) unless you\u2019re on HF. I\u2019m fully aware of satellite DX and EME, and enjoy VHF DXing, but it\u2019s physically impossible to work Japan direct from the east coast of the U.S. on 2M. But this is easily accomplished with VOIP, which removes a primary reason for upgrading one\u2019s license. And once someone upgrades, you *KNOW* they\u2019re going to put some type of HF station on the air! (If they can.) After all, why invest all the time and effort in a license upgrade and not use it?<\/p>\n

So there you have it. You might think this is a story about sneetches (see Dr. Seuss). It\u2019s not. I\u2019d rather see someone upgrade and get on HF than stagnate by discovering VOIP. Are -YOU- <\/strong>\u201cRF challenged\u201d<\/em><\/strong>?<\/p>\n

<\/strong>Thanks for the piece, KR4WM. Here at Hamsexy we invite all <\/em>viewpoints, and unlike QRZ.COM<\/em><\/span> <\/span> other websites we aren’t afraid of publishing contrary viewpoints. If you are interested in having an op-ed piece posted to this site, feel free to e-mail us at op-ed@hamsexy.com<\/a>. We welcome any<\/em> and all<\/em><\/span> viewpoints.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s an op-ed piece from the subject of the “VOIP=Morally Bankrupt” thread featured last week – by the subject of the piece, K4WRM. Go ahead Web, the repeater is yours: OK, after careful consideration, I\u2019ve decided that \u201cmorally bankrupt\u201d was … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-op-ed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hamsexy.com\/cms\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hamsexy.com\/cms\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hamsexy.com\/cms\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hamsexy.com\/cms\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hamsexy.com\/cms\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hamsexy.com\/cms\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hamsexy.com\/cms\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hamsexy.com\/cms\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hamsexy.com\/cms\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}