Tell the truth; how often have you heard or read that:

1. Hams don’t build anything anymore?
2. Most ham radio conversations are boring?

You might have even have read something like that here a time or two. But what you will see below, taken from an Uncle Wayne (Green) editorial lament penned exactly fifty years ago (November 1958) sounds awfully similar.

I suppose we could say that if ham radio is truly going to hell, it  must be an incredibly long and arduous journey…

From CQ Magazine November, 1958 by Editor Wayne Green, W2NSD:

“Two things worry me about ham radio. They worry me not just because I can see them happening, but because I see them happening and don’t know what to do about it.

1) We don’t build any more. The number of hams who build any of their own gear is dwindling into one over infinity squared. And don’t you try to count kit assembling as building either… it isn’t and you know it. As our ranks of home constructors thin we also fall to a lower technical level as a group. In this our own growth is annihilating us by providing a large enough market for our commercial exploitation. It just isn’t economically sound to buy anything but commercial equipment anymore.

2) Most QSO’s are a crashing bore. This theme has been played for years in the letters (to the editor) column. The result of all the attention lavished on it is that things are getting worse than ever. Thank heavens for sideband and the remaining stand of old timers who have sought refuge there from the rig describers who VFO up and down the bands looking for some hapless station so they can again repeat their well rehearsed station description”.

Hmmm… the more things change, the more they stay the same…

As my weekly commute goes, so goes my iPod time. For the last several months I’ve been on an assignment in southern Georgia and my commute from the hotel to the office is less than five minutes. My listening time now mostly consists of when I am taking my daily walk or while lounging at the local Starbucks.

Accordingly, I’ve unsubscribed from several of the programs that have been mainstays until recently:

• This Week in Tech – I still like Leo Laporte and his posse, but the program seems to have become poorly organized and much less informational than in days gone by and I just don’t have time to follow the wandering dialogue.
• MacBreak Weekly – This one is even more random than TWiT and besides, my interest in all things Mac has plummeted since buying another PC.
• Tekzilla – This was the last video Podcast I had been trying to follow. I enjoy the content but as with all video, it demands focused attention making it unsuitable to follow along while I am walking, driving or doing anything else.

I haven’t subscribed to the ham radio news sources (ARRL, TWIAR, Newsline) for quite awhile as these consist mostly of old news. “Old” being relative – if you follow ham news online daily and the ham blogs, then these weekly audio programs are not much more than a rehash of information that is no longer “news”.

What remains have become my favorites and I wouldn’t want to be without them:

• Are We Alone - a weekly hour-long radio program features top scientists talking about the latest in genetics, paleontology, technology, physics, and evolutionary biology - as well as cosmology and astronomy. Top-notch production with high-value content.
• Inside Europe – The international German broadcast service, Deutsche Welle produces many exceptional programs including those for an English speaking audience. The weekly “Inside Europe” provides a unique perspective on happenings in Europe not available in US news.
• Beethovenfest - Deutsche Welle presents 11 free live performances from this year’s Beethovenfest. Renowned conductor Kurt Masur leads the Orchestre National de France in all nine of Beethoven’s symphonies at the festival.
• Kunstlercast - a weekly audio program about the tragic comedy of suburban sprawl with author James Howard Kunstler.
• Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures - Founded in 1999, the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures are presented on six Wednesday evenings during each school year at Foothill College, in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley.

And that’s all of the Podcasts that I’m following at the moment. Like I said, I have really paired things down as my commute time has all but disappeared.

Oh, by the way, while I frequently lament that no decent music has been created since at least 1979, I have become a secret fan of Jack Johnson and his smooth, laid-back original sound and now have all his albums on my iPod.

So what about you – what’s on your iPod?

I’m guessing that most readers consider this to be a ham radio Web log though in recent months I’ve preferred to say that I’m an amateur radio operator who also happens to blog. Most of the content found here is related to the hobby; but there’s also a deeper narrative – a common thread that not only appears frequently, but is really the primary focus.

Let me take a few minutes to explain as I want to get this in writing for future reference.

The Long Emergency is the title of a book written by James Kunstler and published in 2005.

In it, the author details what he sees as a protracted and very difficult period that will occur as our civilization is forced to move from carbon based fuels to whatever may come next. Kunstler has been a highly regarded commentator on the issue of “Peak Oil” and all that it entails. His analysis covers a much wider range of topics than simply running out of oil – he also presents the social disorder that such an adjustment would likely bring about.

It’s sobering in the extreme.

I highly recommend the book but you can get a good feel for where he is going by reading his article with the same title that was published in Rolling Stone magazine about the time the book hit the stands. Reading the nearly four year-old article now seems a bit like prophecy given where we have seen the price of a barrel of oil go this year and the resulting impact that has had on our economic condition.

Now I won’t regurgitate the entire thing here (and rob you of the chance to read it for yourself), but suffice it to say that I have accepted Kunstler’s premise as a matter of fact.

I believe that over the next decade or even two, life in these United States is going to be adversely impacted by the upheaval caused by the systems we have become accustomed to failing in spectacular fashion. I think we will reach a point where it will be a struggle to even feed ourselves – let alone dream about putting 40,000 miles a year on a Hummer powered by used French-fry oil…

I think it’s quite possible that things like the Internet and cell phones will become obsolete for one reason or another. There is certainly historical precedence for rolling blackouts when energy becomes scarce in regions all over the planet. Having power to your home for only one day a week, or perhaps for only a few hours each day would certainly put an end to cell phones, Internet and television. At least as we know them now.

And while that may seem laughably incredible to you right now, consider that maybe the power remains available but the economic conditions are such that only a few can afford to pay for it – or to pay for cell phone service. Most of those who lived through the Great Depression certainly wouldn’t have had an extra $50 a month for a cell phone account or Internet access – even had it been available back then.

Any way that you cut it, cell phones, the Internet and cable TV are really “luxury” items that we all lived easily (and well) without just a few decades ago. In an era of forced austerity, these would likely be among the first things to be tossed overboard by the general public, especially if they were forced to choose between being able to afford food and shelter or having a cell phone.

It’s against this backdrop that I constantly consider the usefulness of amateur radio.

That is why I have spent time writing about bringing back the amateur packet radio system. That’s why I often write about solar and wind powered rechargeable systems. That’s why I’ve always preferred simple equipment and antennas. That’s why I think we need to continue to practice sending messages via the National Traffic System despite the fact that email has seemingly made it obsolete, etc.

It is important because even in the most dire of circumstances, radio communication could be an essential tool for survival.

Ten years into the Long Emergency when your commercial transceiver has long since quit working and replacement parts are no longer available because the manufacturer went out of business years earlier, will you have the skills necessary to homebrew a simple transmitter and receiver without looking it up on Google?

Will any of us? And if we do, will we have a means of powering it?

These kinds of questions and the related observations are the real narrative behind most of what you will find here. I’m chronicling a future that will be neither pleasant, fun, or easy. A world where survival will be more of a challenge than it has been for the last hundred years.

And I’m doing it now because I don’t think it will be possible to do later…

Lunchtime conversations on Friday’s are always – different.

Today it was about cartoons. When I was a kid, Saturday morning was for cartoons. We got up, had a sugary bowl of cereal and plopped down in front of the only three channels that we received back then, and we watched our favorite cartoons from 7am until Noon.

There wasn’t a network of cartoons running 24/7 like today. You watched on Saturday morning or you missed them.

The lunch crowd of folks all about my age agreed – Jonny Quest was the best cartoon on the boob tube.

Microsoft said today it had no interest in reviving the Yahoo talks which caused the YHOO stock to tank. Gee, if Yahoo ends up going under I wonder how many millions of ham radio related YahooGroups will suddenly disappear into the mist? That might not be all bad. Let’s face it; our hobby has been thoroughly dissected by YahooGroups. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that there’s even a group for hams who prefer yellow main tuning knobs…

Listening on the Short Waves: 1945 to today by Jerome S. Berg.
The discovery and development of shortwave technology during the 1920s and 1930s permitted radio stations throughout the world to transmit their programs over long distances, even worldwide, for the first time, and the thrill of hearing broadcasts from faraway places produced a dedicated American audience. Written from the standpoint of the serious shortwave enthusiast, this book begins with an examination of the broader shortwave listening audience. It then presents in detail the histories of the major North American shortwave clubs and reviews the professional and listener-generated shortwave literature of the era. It also covers the DX programs and other listening fare to which shortwave listeners were most attracted and the QSL-cards they sought as confirmation of their reception.

Don’t have enough hobbies? In addition to amateur radio, VE7SL also likes to chase broadcast DX with his crystal radios. Check out his Web page and activities with particular note to the list of crystal radio links at the bottom of his page.

This kind of reader submitted levity can be found in abundance in older editions of CQ and QST magazines but not so much anymore. It’s a shame ham radio publications have become too sophisticated these days to have a little fun.

Some light-hearted prose from the pages of CQ Magazine circa 1948. Written by W3JTC.

W.A.Z.

This is the story of CQ ham,
Born with an oscillating diaphragm.
He shocked his parents quite a bit,
For his first clear words were, “Da, da, dit.”
His ear was sharp, and his eye was keen,
And he cut his teeth on an 813.
They sent him to learn how to read, write and spell,
But little CQ didn’t make out so well.
He built his own station when he was nine years old,
But English and History left him quite cold.
The years sped by, and so he grew,
And fell in love, as all boys do;
He told her that life without her was bitter,
And he begged for her had… and her brand new
transmitter.
The girl said, “Yes”, without delay;
So their networks were merged the very next day.
Their happy life more than fulfilled their desires,
And their children were natural born amplifiers.
One day old CQ kissed his spouse
And climbed upon the top of the house,
To examine an aerial he dearly cherished…
He fell off the roof and quickly perished.
Now CQ’s wife just had to laugh,
For his will prescribed his epitaph:
”Please carve these words above my buried bones
The words: “HE WORKED ALL FORTY ZONES”.