[Boatanchors] TURBO RANGER FS

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

On Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 9:21 AM, RAY FRIESS <rayfrijr at msn.com> wrote:
>
>  If you demand FM quality or even extremely high quality AM audio in order to make a contact and understand
>  what someone is saying, or to enjoy a qso, then, personally, I think youre in the wrong hobby.

You could say that about any number of aspects and interests in our
hobby, Ray. For example, if you're into bragging rights and
recognition of your collection, you should be in car/stamp/coin
collecting. If you need attention and accolades for your
accomplishments and need to compete with others for points, you should
be in NASCAR. If you enjoy the sound of SSB contacts, nets, etc, you
should be in the military. If you enjoy rag chewing about nothing in
particular, you should use the telephone, an online chat room, skype,
or whatever.

One could just as easily say - if you enjoy the AM QSO with
communications-quality audio when you could have something more
natural and pleasing, you're in the wrong hobby.

>  I'm in the hobby to make contacts and, yes, to chew the rag.  But I dont need studio or FM quality audio
>  to understand what someone is telling me about their station or where they live or other parts of a QSO.

Which gets to the more annoying point: someone else deciding and
telling you what you 'need'. Amateur radio in general isn't really a
case of 'need' so much as 'want' and 'enjoy'. Some people really enjoy
CW still, but they don't 'need' to use it.

>  What's next ... a specially designed shack with soundproofing on the walls like our recording studios to prevent
>  echos and other things we used to do in radio station sound rooms?

If you enjoy that side of radio - sure, why not? Why do some guys take
old cars meant as basic transportation and add superchargers, headers,
better suspension components and so on when they don't need anything
more than a Yugo, bus, or even a bicycle to ride to the store?

Do the big contest stations really 'need' multiple towers, rigs, and
amps to make contacts? Not unless they want to win and show others how
serious they are.

>  Again ...  just MHO.  I freely admit, different strokes for different folks.    I'd rather spend the money on a good
>  amp and antenna system instead of on a thousand dollar Sennheiser mic, audio processors, and things like that.
>
>  But ... tha's just me .    HI HI

And that's your free choice, Ray. Personally, I can't understand why
anyone would spend money on an amp when they could buy or build an
entire transmitter, convert a nice broadcast rig, and so on. You don't
need an amp to talk with others, after all. (o:

Once upon a time, getting through the heterodyne noise was priority
one. As a result, manufacturers concentrated on restricted audio with
more punch. Collins even did this with the venerable KW-1 about midway
through production, taking it from sounding reasonably good to very
restricted. Folks cared much more than about being heard than sounding
good.

Today we're fortunate to have such opportunities to pursue our
particular interest, including more pleasing audio. Compare listening
to a restricted AM audio signal and a smooth, full AM audio signal
over a period of time. See which one you get sick of first. I suspect
it's the same mechanism at work that makes use tune around the AM or
FM broadcast dials looking for a signal that comes in better so we can
enjoy it. It's not such an issue if you're making brief contacts, but
one of the attractions to AM is the more laid-back, relaxed approach.

If it was only a matter of making contact and being heard, we'd all be on CW.

~ Todd,  KA1KAQ

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