The other comment on the skimmer/RBN issue

I got this mail from Alan KF3B. It is uploaded for a reference of the discussion. I asked Alan if I could upload it or not. So far, no response. Since this won't contain any personal information etc, I would quote the whole here.

quote~~~

Shin

First I thank you for your thoughtful posting about RBN and SKIMMER. It caused me to reflect on these matters.

Before talking about radio, I should share bits of my own sense of our existence. I think that every advantage is also a disadvantage. For everything we gain, we also suffer a loss. Every strength is also a weakness. This sense of duality is not limited to technology, but seems to me to be universally true about all parts of life. However, I'll limit this email to radio.

I became a ham in, I think, 1955. Technology at that time was so advanced compared with Marconi's time. Compared with today's technology, it was, of course, quite primitive. I remember having mixed feelings when I changed from my J-38 straight key to a Vibroplex bug. First, I enjoyed very much the ability to send faster. On the other hand, I always fancied myself a good code sender and felt a sense of loss because it took less skill to send a good string of dots. When I moved from crystal control to VFO I felt only slightly sad because it took skill to search for guys calling me off my frequency. With VFO control, the skill level was reduced. (I must say that I always hated the limitations of crystals, HI). Then radios were improved. They drifted less. Changing from receive to transmit became effortless. Again, a very positive movement, but a sadness because I always tried to perform these tasks well manually and that opportunity was forevermore gone. Then coaxial cables replaced twin feed lines. Again, a good improvement, but a loss personally because I had enjoyed building antennas with odd shapes fed with twin-lead and matching then with my old Johnson Matchbox. Then came broad-band transceivers. No more dipping-peaking-dipping. I was good at it and missed performing those activities. Then phase-lock-loops. Rock solid transceivers. Big forward technological movements, but a personal loss because I no longer would need to utilize a skill set I had learned.

I went inactive in 1971 until 1994 to raise my family and devote myself to my commercial life. In 1994, more or less by accident, my close friend Don brought down to my then QTH the old 75A-4, KWS-1, TO Keyer, paddle and matchbox.. We threw some wire out the window to a tree, turned it all on (nothing caught fire) and I made a CW QSO. I still could copy 20+ wpm easily, but had never heard "5NN" before. I had to ask for three or four RST repeats before I understood that 5NN was 599.

Replaced the 75A-4/KWS-1 with Yaesu FT-1000D. Began to have mixed feelings again. The 1000D was like heaven. But ... I did not have to zero beat the receive frequency. I did not have to worry about anything. The new radio did everything. What about my old skill-sets? How sad it was to use the internal keyer in the 1000D instead of my old Hallicrafters HA-1, the original "TO Keyer". On balance, forward progress, noting with a bit of sadness that my old skill sets were no longer needed.

Then replaced the 1000D with the K3. More wonderful features. Great technical progress. But what about my old skill sets? When noise reduction is active, I don't have to use my ears. I was good at picking up signals near the noise floor. But the K3's amazing technology removed the need for me to do what I had learned.

Technological progress seems to imply a shift in effort from people to something else.

Society seems to adopt a technology if the advantage outweighs the disadvantage. The not so obvious part of this is that the scale for measuring advantage and disadvantage is not universal. It depends on who is measuring. For example, a new computer program to reduce the amount of labor needed to to a job is valuable to an employer but harmful to the employees who stand to lose their job. So, the 'measure--ment' depends on the 'measure-er'.

I once tried skimmer. I didn't like it. I never will. It's not for me.

As long as I can send without friends telling me QLF (your code sounds like you are sending with left foot), I will never use a keyboard. As I age and my ability to use the paddle decrease, I might try a keyboard but it will be a difficult choice. I might also give up this wonderful hobby. That choice will come sooner than I would like it to.

But I will use RBN. There is a growing scarcity of good ops. I would prefer rag chewing with them than looking for them. To me, as measurer, the value of the RBN outweighs its cost.

Now to your point of "insulting to liberty." I learned that everything said on amateur radio was to be considered a broadcast to the universe. People always "read the mail." Personally, I have spent many hours just listening to good ops chatting. I am fascinated with how they abbreviate words or just how they generally express themselves. Some of the commonly used idioms are interesting. So I've never had thoughts about lack of privacy on the air because I never thought there was any privacy.

Skimmer or other machines that copy code well are used. They are networked together and that cluster of networked skimmers comprise the RBN world. My personal choice is whether or not I will use it.

Is it sad that machines to copy code exist? Yes AND no. The person who must answer that question will have his own sense of how to value the measurements of benefit versus harm.

Now the argument changes its form. Given that RBN exists, one can ask: Does RBN's existence cause harm? One could, indeed, argue yes it does cause harm - because, with the existence of RBN, people less skilled, people who without RBN would never call me, are now wasting my time, adding to QRM, making my life worse! That's a real argument. It has merit.

RBN usage during a contest changes everything. It drastically reduces the need for a certain kind of skill. Good ears are replaced, to some extent, with good internet bandwidth. Etc.

As technology continues to advance, seems to me that contest sponsors must consider that entrants who use RBN are in a different class from those who don't. Other technologies like remote receiving antennas are also dramatic reasons to sub-class entrants along these severe technological dimensions. Radiosport is evolving. It might not be fair or attractive in the short term, but it will probably stabilize if and when radiosport related technology stabilizes ....


Shin, I think that I'll stop now. I see technological progress a two edged sword. However, it is hard sometimes for me to apply this two edged sword way of thinking to medicine. How can tomography be harmful? How can vaccines to eliminate Polio, Malaria, TB be harmful? I don't know. Perhaps my thinking needs lots of refinement.

In any case, I am grateful to you because you say things that stimulate my addled brain.

Thank you.

Discussion on the skimmer/RBN issue

Here is a quote from face book discussing briefly on the light and shadow of skimmer/RBN technology. I would present it here for a beginning of the discussion.

~~~

I found this sentence on Jim W6YA page in QRZ.com. It made me laugh at first. Seemingly, it keeps the point. I am sure the skimmers have deprived us of more than half of the pleasure in ham radio;

I believe skimmers are the worst thing that has happened to ham radio since I started in 1954. It reminds me of using anabolic steroids to enhance physical performance in sports.

 

• James George Jr.:
•  Personally I detest Skimmer, and have never had one. But I got beat in the WRTC qualifying by technically savvy guys who recognized the importance to the Skimmer for contesting, and invested the time and money to learn how to use it fully legally, because at that time it was legal in some of the S/O contests. These things are changing ham radio. They are not for me, but they are the future for most people.
 
• JA1NUT:
•  It seems to me that it has already totally changed the ham radio as a whole. It used to be depend on the technique of operators and the fortune for the good condition. But the skimmer and RBN have made it like wireless internet. No excitement nor skills to achieve a QSO. Boring!! Maybe, we are still the Luddites destined to disappear. The idea of anabolic steroid by Jim struck me as an excellent analogy.

   
• David J Ring Jr:
•  One thing is good. Reverse Beacon Network allows me to find friends, I found you Shin one day that way. Also I saw an old friend who never gets on the air, I switched frequency band, and talked to him. Also it is good on dead band - I turned my beam short path to Africa at 2000Z and saw I was being picked up in Perth, Australia, so I started hunting for watery sounding signals, and I worked several VK, a FK8, and a FO8 via long path. I had forgotten about the LP opening on 20 meters at 2000Z to Perth (10,000 miles) on 20 meters. I worked more stations than were spottee, the RBN just told me long path was open to extreme distance. 73 de DR N1EA

   
• JA1NUT:
•  David, thanks for the comment. I fully understand that you have used it as a handy tool. It is quite evident. In my view, there could be a conflict between unexpectedness and necessity in this argument. I have got an interesting comment from Alan KF3B by peronal mail. I would put my ideas acceting your and others' thoughts into shape and describe it in my blog soon. Please stay tuned for that and give me your further comment. I haven't heard you for several months. See you again soon.

Marathon early in the spring

 

Since I uploaded the last article, I have been thinking of the problem of the skimmer/RBN. I read in the QRZ.com page of Jim W6YA telling that the skimmer was the worst thing he had experienced in his ham radio career since 1954. When I introduced it with my full approval fot him, I got a personal comment by mail from Alan KF3B on the standpoint to accept it as a cutting edge technology, which was also persuasive to me. It might be involved with the conflict between liberty and necessity in modern technology. I would further consider how to treat this interesting issue by myself andsubmit it here or somewhere else. Any comment on this issue is welcomed.

 

I have been active in FOC Marathon last week end. I was going to fool it for a while saying hello to some old friends. But, since I could spend as long time as I want now, it has lit something in my mind. I have been on any band where there were paths open to Eu or NA. They say it has been in very good condition. But, in this area of the world, the path over the pole to either the North Eu or the East Coast was not very good. They were surely open but in a manner with a veil.

 

I still had much fun working some 300 stations. Since I operated only with a pen and the check sheets, I haven't summarized it yet. I won't care for the result. My main purpose was to meet old friends and to say hello to them as told in the beginning. Ken GW3KGV told me he had been inactive because he had been caring for his sick wife. I didn't recognize Wino PA0ABM operating his fancy call of PI4HQ. I have ignored him until he introduced himself as Wino apparently in an anger. Sorry for that. I fully understood why he got mad at me. Ron K5XK seemed to have had a family member seriously ill for months, which also kept him away from ham radio. Welcome back, Ron. It has been quite sometime since I heard Dave VK2AYD as well. His new or repaired antenna made him comeback on the radio. Congratulations, Dave. And so forth. It has not been a competitive event but a real QSO party all over the world for me. I won't be so active or could not be so active as this time from now. But I still go on enjoying it every early spring.

 

We have some flowers getting ready to bud out here. This is a kind of camellia along the north wall of the house. It is one of the coldest places in the house/property. But, amazingly, some flowers are already coming out. Life is still going on. 

 





 

 

 

 

 

 

The plum tree along the street on the western side, suffering from a kind of mold, seems to be alive. I hope it will show us fresh leaves very soon. The strawberries, planted on the ground but not in a green house, are still alive. But it seems tough for them to survive. No room ro bear fruits! Spinach is almost over. I should be ready for the vegetables in the spring very soon.  

 

 

Starting with cello again

I have not touched my cello for a month or so. I did not feel willing to practise it any longer. One motivation had been a chance for chamber music with two friends. It has been cancelled with various reasons for the past several months. Another, more importantly, was that I felt it was quite tough for me to progress with it. The problems in my sights and sense of tempo or the lack of basic techniques.

 

Whenever the cello in the hard case came into my sight in my room, I felt guilty for that cello from Italy. A few days ago, I have opened the case and taken that dark orange hued cello. Bowing entire length of the bow, scaling in different tonalities and then some tunes familiar to me. One of them is the Prelude of Unaccompanied Sonata for cello by Bach. The score looks very simple. But it is a bit tough to make it sound as it should. It should sound like that played by Rostropovitch in the video clip. What a warm tone he produces with cello! This piece was told to have been composed by Bach when he had lost his first wife.

 

Anyway, it is very good to concentrate on something leaving the other things away from my sight. Cello sure gives me sometime to do so. Who cares if I won't make any more progress with it? So far as I could be in the world of music for myself, it is good enough for me. Maybe, hopefully, in some time, we could start the piano trio again. 

 

 



 

 

 

 

Hit and run operators

For the past several years, I have often been called with only the caller's call sign. Only once. No my call nor DE before his call sign etc. Very simple. I noticed those callers always make the simplest style of QSO. No ragchewing at all. When they finish the message least necessary, they always finish their sending with BK withoug IDs. As soon as the message exchanges of least necessity are over, they quit leaving least greetings to me.

I noticed they might use a memory keyer. The keyer might send his call once. All the operator is doing is just pushing a button of the memory keyer. The other messages could be from the memories as well. He might be watching the display decoding my message. It is the same as RTTY or other digital modes.

I hope I won't guess right. But observing carefully of those hit and run operators, I must say there are pretty numerous guys operating CW in this way.  I won't mercilessly deny and accuse them for their irregular CW operation. And there could be some hams who would become proficient in CW after operating in this way. However,  watching conversations on CW may promise them much faster learning of CW and much more fruitful enjoyment of CW in the future. 

Only wish for our daughter

I must admit we were not very successful for educating our children so far. At least, the things haven't gone in the way we or they had wanted. We have had our daughter take violin lesson since her age of 7 or 8 years. I knew it had been too late for her to be a professional violinist. Since I could teach her with my knowledge of cello performance, however, I was very serious and even strict to her practising it in early days.

 

What fascination I have had for her when she started playing h minor Concerto by Saint Saens or a piece from Bach's unaccomapnied partita! It was very tough for me as well as my wife working as med doctors to have brought her for lesson at regular interval for years. But, at that time I listened to her playing those pieces, I was convinced firmly it had been rewarded.

 

Maybe, I have forgot letting her know what a joy it is to produce musics of classic with own instrument. She quit playing it when she started getting ready for the entrance exam to high school at age 14 or 15. The teacher, a respectable lady, has given her, as a souvenir to quit the class, a few CDs of violin and piano music, which seemed very good choice to me. The Poem by Chausson, Piano Concerto in d minor by Mozart and so forth. Maybe she knew our daughter had needed love for music.

 

She has scarcely touched her instrument since that time, unfortunately. I won't force her to do so any longer. I only hope she would recall playing violin and would start playing it for herself sometime in her life when she needs it. Only I could do is that I go on loving music and playing cello by myself.

 

At a small concert of the violin class. She was aged 11 years or so. The piece she played was Nr5 violin concerto by Mozart, I believe. She is now studying nursing at a university. She would be a good nurse as her grandmother used to be.

 

 



Tim VK3IM

It was when I came back on the air at the dorm of a med school hospital that I met Tim with this call for the first time. My old log book told me we had met in '60s when he was VK3AZY as well. Anyway, both Tim and I were so active in '80s that we often worked on 40m. He was always on the way back home in Mt. Eliza from his office in Melbourne. There must be many CW operators around the world who have worked him, either at home or on mobile. He was running a mobile from his old Mazda van those days. His old FT101E sounded a littli bit chirpy. That chirp was unique enough to let us recognize him without hearing his call. What a charming signal he used to send out from that set up!

I have found the old photos of him and his mobile set up when I was tidying up the old stuff in the storage room a few days ago. Here are those photos he used to send me in '80s.

This is Tim in his young days. He has been a person of good will to the others. A bit shy but very sociable once he knew someone. I believe these photos were taken in Canberra when he spent the holidays there. This is his old Mazda with a home brew whip on the roof.

 

 

He used to operate radio in this way. His old FT101E was on the side seat. The paddle was beneath his thigh. He was very fluent with chatting on CW. We often chatted all the way where he drove from Melbourne to his home for an hour or so.  He used to ask me to wait for him until he bought his FT101E into his shack. With a glass of vermouth, he often came up on the band from his shack in a few minutes. We have talked for some more time thereafter. I wonder what we have had to talk about after an hour QSO from his mobile.

 

 

 

 



His home brew whip was on the top of the van. It had a top hat and a big sized loading coil for each band. This antenna was so efficient that he used to tell me he had worked Eu through long path on 80m. A friend of mine, VK1ARA, let me know he used to bring a blanket and a refrigerator on this van  so that he could stay anywhere he wanted.

 

 

 

 

 

He tuned the antenna tuner in this way. No automatic one those days. I bet this box had a lid to avoid getting wet with rain etc. Amazing the antenna tuner was fixed by this gum rope only.

 

 

 

 

The top loaded whip on the roof of the van. The size of the coil must made the antenna so efficient.

 

 

 



 

Tim has been, unfortunately, bed ridden at home for a few years. Drew VK3XU, one of his friends, used to give me updates of Tim from time to time. I haven't heard from Drew for a year or two. Tim is already over 70 years old now. I hope he is getting better and is coming back on the air soon. I surely miss him with a great fist.