RE: [amsat-bb] Digital is worthless

[Jamie Hutches <kd5gob@xxxxxxx>]

I don't agree. I assembled our APRS demo station in less time than it took to rig our dipoles up for HF.
That was even setting up a big tower computer.. It is even simpler for a Laptop.
Digital have many uses. Especially APRS with its ability to plot your position on a map with GPS accuarcy. One one-second packet burst of APRS will tell a SKYWARN op at the National Weather Service exactly where you are and another 5 second voice exchange will tell them a bearing from you to a tornado touchdown, or a funnel cloud.
THat is just one use. 
I can hardly find that useless..  rather it is use-ENDless

Jamie Hutches, KD5GOB
Vice-President, 
North Central Arkansas Amateur Radio Service

-----Original Message-----
From:	K3ROJAL@aol.com [SMTP:K3ROJAL@aol.com]
Sent:	Monday, June 26, 2000 8:23 AM
To:	amsat-bb@AMSAT.Org
Subject:	[amsat-bb] Digital is worthless

Field day was great for our club out in the open and on a hill in north 
Baltimore county. One thing was noticed when trying to operate APRS, packet 
and the sats.  Digital modes are worthless for any type of emergency, either 
simulated or contest setup. The time it takes to  get them setup and working 
is not worth the effort at all. Computer screens cannot be seen during 
daylight hours oudoors, various rigs will not work with just any TNC etc.  
Our club has found that the only dependable means of communicating every 
single time is the use of CW. A message can get through just by touching two 
wires together if need be. Fortunately there is still much use of CW in the 
HF bands where we racked up a very good score because CW contacts were worth 
2 points this year on Field Day. The visitors that brought the digital 
equipment to try and help our score had no expertise whatsoever in using CW 
and had to just sit around and listen, ( we used them for the labor part of 
breaking down ).  Anyway, is is terrible that many hams no longer are 
interested in using the simplest and most reliable mode of communications.  
Thanks
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