I just wanted to announce a brief update on the Radio Hackers YSF Reflector. I’m shutting it down for due to a lack of interest on my part, declining use by others, and for financial reasons. It only cost me a few bucks a month to keep the server running in AWS. But with it and my other side projects the cost does add up each month. It is possible one day I might bring it back online, but I’m not committing to that at this time. Thanks to everyone who enjoyed meeting up on the reflector.
“Ham Radio is dying!” A phrase all to often uttered that it’s become cliché, but it’s partly true. You can’t deny a considerable section of the ham radio operators in the world are in the latter part of their lives.They won’t be around forever so naturally new people must assume their place. The good news is amateur radio licenses are on the rise. The bad news is the people induced to ham radio these days aren’t interested in pushing the limits of RF technology. To be blunt I’m talking about preppers and those solely interested in emergency communications. Neither of which have any desire to explore ham radio beyond a disaster fetish in which they use their $25 BaoFeng HT to save the world.
If you’re reading this post on my new LoneStar Electronics MMDVM hotspot, then you no doubt decided to explore the option of buiding one yourself after noting the price of some of the commercially available hotspots. For example the Zumspot form Ham Radio Outlet retails between $150 - $160, and that’s not including a case to safeguard it. And let’s not forget about BridgeCom Systems who absolutely rape you on the price of their SkyBridge Hotspot; $299 is rip off.