The Uncertain Future of Ham Radio

[Electronic M]

There is no current legislative threat to the spectrum reading the article, just a decline in the hobby and fears it will eventually make it easier for the FCC to mess with spectrum the way it has with TV.

I need to start getting active in the hobby. When I got licensed I had no money for a decent rig and having gotten interested in the hobby from listening to DX160m-10m on my Sony ICF-7600GR the propagation range and quality of traffic on 2m and up was dissapointing. I'm not interested in Morse so anything below 10m is not presently usable for me on a technician license (IIRC some digital modes can be worked there but I need to find time to do research and buy or build hardware before that happens). I probably should try to upgrade to general. Last week in an attempt to get active; I recaped my 10m and 6m tube SSB Heathkits, cut some dipoles and set up a shack in the loft of the family cabin...either my rigs need more work, I wasn't listening at the right time or those bands are fairly dead up there as I couldn't find a single station opperating on those bands...my 10m rig could work all bands from 10m down to 80m so I listened to the lower bands and found some SW and one ham conversation down there (but could only listen to those lower freq stations on my license).

KD9IVO