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 Previous: SuitSat-2 Goes to College |  Next: ARRL Board Accepts National Emergency Response Planning Committee Report |
By George Kuehn, N4AUP
n4aup@arrl.net
January 25, 2007
It seems the price of ham radio equipment gets higher every year. But what happens when you take yesterday's technology and apply it to today's problem? A cheaper radio!
I've always been happy to see QST carrying a healthy load of advertising. That's good for the League and good for Amateur Radio in general. It means that a meaningful proportion of the ham fraternity is willing and able to part hands with wads of money to have the latest and most sophisticated equipment. In addition to the positive effect of hams wishing to stay current with technology, there is also the benefit of feeding the success of manufacturers and dealers of ham equipment. This success creates a business community with a vested interest in helping us protect Amateur Radio from those who either want our spectrum allocation or don't like our antennas.
There is a downside of sorts to these commercial goings on, and that is the fact that ham radio can cost a young fortune. This isn't some sort of rip-off. The prices of today's equipment are justified by the features and performance that these modern marvels have. Just the same, reading the reviews of new equipment in QST almost always ends in a healthy dose of sticker shock when the current price is revealed at the end. A person casually interested in Amateur Radio will eventually investigate potential cost and receive this shock treatment. Interested youths typically don't have the apparent cost of admission. Older adults who might consider getting started in radio might reasonably not be willing to drop a bundle to get their feet wet.
From time to time, QST authors and others have written "getting started" advice that usually consists of searching out used equipment. The savings in used equipment as compared to new can be considerable, but in no way does this approach reduce entry cost to a casual purchase level. The growth in the number of Amateur Radio licensees has not kept pace with general population growth, and there can be no doubt that cost does constitute a significant barrier.
The ARRL has wisely supported ham radio in the schools and through community clubs. These are potent entry points to Amateur Radio that might allow newcomers to get started without large cash outlays. League publications have, over time, amassed an amazing collection of build it yourself information that makes it possible for determined people to get started in ham radio. Until now, the word hasn't really gotten out very well that ham radio can be explored for extremely modest costs. In August 2006, the League issued a Homebrew Challenge to build a station for $50 or less. To my way of thinking, that's a step in the right direction.
In 1957, I built a simple transmitter on a wooden frame with used parts scrounged from my high school ham radio club; the plans came from a League publication. I made my first contact with that transmitter and a kit-built super-regenerative receiver. Fortunately, the laws of physics haven't changed in the nearly 50 years that have passed since my first contact. The good old F layer still bounces signals, and one can still make contacts with very simple equipment.
What has changed is the astonishing availability of new and surplus electronics components at very modest prices. The Internet has played a big role as a source of designs, as well as a tool to search out and order materials. In a way, the potential for do-it-yourself basic radio has never been better. The problem is that we haven't done as much as we could to show newcomers how much fun you can have from the cheap seats.
Having an HF through 6 meter, DSP, dual VFO, 1000 memory, spectral display whiz-bang 4000 and an overhead aluminum overcast mounted on a 50 foot tower does make getting contacts easier than a using a homebrew direct-conversion receiver, MOSFET amp transmitter and a wire antenna. But a "most fun per dollar" calculation can tell a different story. On a hot summer night in 1978, in the midst of considerable interference, I worked New York from Florida on 80 meters. I did that with a two transistor transmitter and a dipole. The rig was built from a League publication and used the same crystal I had employed for my first contact made 21 years earlier. I still smile when I think about it. Then there was my bamboo pole 10 meter beam and the time I worked Sydney, Australia on 5 W AM phone. I could go on, but you get the idea.
There are things we can all do to spread the word and attract newcomers to ham radio. The next time an inquisitive person asks you how much it costs, tell him that some equipment is expensive, but that you can build your own simple station for hardly anything at all and make contacts anywhere in the world when conditions are right.
You also might want to try some basic radio construction of your own. I'd suggest hunting up plans for a 40 meter direct conversion receiver based on the dirt-cheap NE602 (SA602) IC and a matching 10 W or better double-sideband transmitter that uses one of the surplus switching MOSFETs as the final. There are technically superior approaches and better DX bands but the rig suggested here will be very simple, very cheap and very likely to be successful. Whatever approach you use, I guarantee that the first contact you make with your own homebrew station will be just as memorable as the first one you ever made.
As a radio club member you can share your own basic radio experiences and help others build their own basic radio rigs. Clubs might want to sponsor a contest that counts contacts made with a station built for a maximum $50 outlay and all homebuilt including the antenna. School radio programs could similarly help kids get licensed and then operating with their own self-financed homebuilt stations.
I think the League has done well by encouraging its Homebrew Challenge. I would urge the ARRL to continue in this vein by putting together its own "greatest hits of basic radio" [the ARRL publishes many books along this vein, namely More QRP Power and Basic Radio -- Ed.] made up of plans from past publications, either in print or in the public area of its Web site. Talking up the plain old fun of basic radio and continuing to encourage the "minimum outlay station" idea would also be helpful. I'm reminded of the old days when designs appeared that borrowed heavily from defunct tube-type TV sets. The innards of defunct VCRs may well be the new junk parts source for the 21st century.
First licensed in 1956 as KN9MNW, George Kuehn came back to Amateur Radio and was re-licensed as N4AUP. He received his BS and MS from Southern Illinois University and taught developmentally delayed children before earning his PhD in special education from the University of Northern Colorado in 1969. Now in "light retirement," he works part time as a technical advisor specializing in the design of computer based applications for instruction and assessment of technical and industrial subject matter. George has been interested in homebrew construction and low-cost operation, particularly at HF, for a long time. He is currently interested in coming up with ways to help other hams who do not have strong technical backgrounds with experimenting and building their own equipment. He lives in Oak Lawn, Illinois.
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