Transmission1

Maybe it’s local to you. I don’t hear anyone talking about this here? In the UK one view of ham radio is simply that it prevents OFCOM from being able to sell off ten megs of UHF spectrum the Ministry of Defence own!

I think the bands are in very real danger of being homogenised by the big box manufacturers. This means the people with tons of cash and zero knowledge can pollute all the bands they like, with absolutely zero understanding of why things are the way they are. After all, they've spent £xxxx on a black box so they're going to use it. Gone are the days when, if you wanted to use 4M, you had to find an FM1100 and re-program it yourself after reading all the manuals. I'm all for fairness, but with increased capabilities *must* come increased responsibility and understanding for those who continue the hobby as it began: experimentation.

V/UHF is fantastic, because most of the lids go there and stay there. Sadly, it means those less able have to suffer them.

4M/70MHz was a great place to go and experiment, because the only people on there were also experimenting. The last time I went on there I was told off for my deviation being slightly too wide. The problem? Big-box manufacturers trying to standardise everything. That's not experimentation anymore, it's selling boxes.

HF: Nice, when people respect the bandplans and keep the QRP/portable frequencies for their intended purpose.