Amateur radio group dislikes 30-foot limit on antennas. They’re required to refer to themselves as “amateurs,” but only because they’re absolutely prohibited from making any money from the hobby which is their passion. When several local ham radio operators took turns making comments to the Payette City Council at last week’s regular meeting of city government, the operators were quite comfortable explaining the technical details at the heart of their argument that Payette’s new ordinance regulating tower heights is too restrictive.
Sounds like Canada needs a Parity Act of their own….Dan
Sunnyvale Ham Radio Outlet closes after 26 years. The Sunnyvale Ham Radio Outlet signed off for the final time Wednesday after 26 years as a hub for Silicon Valley’s amateur radio community. Due in part to rising rent in the city, the outlet at 510 Lawrence Expressway chose to close its doors and merge operations with its Oakland location, according to shop employees.
Part of the reason that this HRO closed, I think, is the shift from hardware to software in Silicon Valley. More and more, Silicon Valley is about companies like Facebook and Uber and less about companies that actually make silicon, like Intel and AMD. While lots of software engineers do become hams, in general, fewer hardware guys means fewer ham radio operators….Dan
Amateur radio operators keep emergency communication lines open at area hospitals. Andy Finick walks up the stairs and opens the door onto a roof at Franciscan Health in Hammond. He points up to a higher roof at several antennae that would — in an unthinkable emergency — provide communications for the hospital. In Northwest Indiana, Finick, a licensed amateur radio operator, helps hospitals maintain communications when all other systems fail in an emergency situation. He has radio equipment bolstered with a repeater system and antennae squirreled away in hospitals throughout Lake County.
Dave New says
Brick and mortar ham radio stores are closing because sales are shifting to online. Hams, ever ready to squeeze a dime until it screams, “Uncle!”, buy only based on price. Brick and mortar stores cannot compete against online sellers that are willing to slash margins in order to keep customers.
I’ve heard hams say that they enjoy going to the stores so they can play with the equipment, then they go home and order it online from the cheapest seller, across state lines so they don’t have to pay sales tax, either. No physical store can survive that kind of clientele.