Remote control of Ham stations, also - Echo Link What do you think?

I was reading the reviews on the Ten Tec Omni VII on Eham.net. For those of you that don't know what an Omni VII is, it is a new Ten Tec radio (within the past year or two) that has built-in Ethernet compatibility. That means you can plug the radio directly in to CAT-5 cable and through your network router in to the Internet - just as you would a computer in your home - and access the radio through the Internet to operate it remotely.

One guy posted on there about having another QTH and wanting to put one of these rigs there. When the propagation at his normal QTH is bad he can connect to the other rig through the Internet and bingo-blamo have an instant new QTH HIHI.

Isn't the "hobby" of Ham radio supposed to be wireless and usable when all other means are down? Where, then, does Internet remote control and Echo Link fall in the grand scheme of things?

My opinion is Ham radio is radios, and all that term encompasses (antennas, power supplies, transmission lines, user-interfaces (IE, CW key, mic, computer - digital modes/logging/computer control)). When you toss in an Internet connection you immediately suck the life out of Ham radio, in my honest opinion. How can you sit in front of a laptop miles from your QTH in Boise, ID, while on vacation at, say, Argentina, and be talking on the radio saying you are in Boise, ID??? Or, even WORSE - the other way around.

I also don't like the concept of Echo Link. I used to talk on that before I was able to get on HF. I used a repeater system and was able to dial in other repeater systems around the world. This gave me my "fix" on international communications, but boy was it short lived. For emergency communications or reliable every-day communications it is great. Dial in the code for whatever repeater or station (given they are echo link capable) and you can talk to someone on that system. It's almost like a telephone. However, in normal situations a telephone or Internet connection is going to be the better choice, I think.

What really disgusted me with Echo Link is the Internet. When you talk to another Ham through that system the Internet is taking your signal from here to there. Not radio waves and propagation. There is no skill or "magic" to dialing up a repeater on echo link and picking up a microphone and saying "hey buddy whats the weather like over there?". There IS, however, skill and "magic" in directly scrolling through the frequencies on HF and listening to the radio spectrum AS IT IS and finding that station to talk to.

I can wrap my brain around the concept of the remote station - the station is where it is, thus that is the origin of your signal - not Argentina. I just find the concept to be dumb - it sucks out the magic and the true meaning of Ham radio.

I don't mean to slam Ten Tec in their efforts, and I don't mean to speak badly about the Omni VII. Ten Tec is a fabulous company. If you don't think so I think you need to re-study their history and sit down with their current HF radios/receivers. I just think that the use of the Internet as a link in your communications system is a joke.

What do you think?

CW Progress

I am making some headway with my CW (Morse code). I am pretty much staying between 10 and 13wpm. I try to send between a 13 and 15wpm character speed and space it out so I have more reaction time between letters. I have found, though, that going too slow is just as bad as going too fast. If the spacing is too far then I can get the letters but I can't subconsciously hear the words. I am stuck "sounding out" the words and don't comprehend the message being sent. If I am at the right speed and miss a letter then I get discombobulated and mess up the word, or worse, the whole sequence. If the transmitting station is going too fast then all I hear are occasional letters. I can't seem to find a happy medium between the two. I can pick out names, signal reports, and states pretty easily at up to about 25wpm - mostly because they are repeated or are standard.

One thing I find interesting is the variability in how people reply to my CQ's. I send my call sign in my CQ's the exact speed and spacing I want someone to reply with. However, I get everything from someone sending 3-4wpm slower than my character speed with long spacing to someone sending much faster - both character speed and spacing. I might be a picky CW operator, but how hard is it to match someone else's speed/spacing? HI.

I have found, though, that it is very easy to ask someone to change their speed. Everyone I QSO with, that I have done a speed adjustment with, has been very helpful. This is one of the great aspects of Ham radio - experienced operators take the time and effort to help the non-experienced operators (myself with copying CW).

Since I cut the use of my computer for decoding I have had quite a few QSO's (I think a couple log pages, at least 1.5). I have not had any help with decoding and I have not had an SSB QSO since Thanksgiving. Now I just have to keep things rolling!