Landlubbers

By

Eric P. Nichols, KL7AJ

There are some surprising similarities between Amateur Radio and sailing. Both involve a good deal of adventure, freedom, unpredictability, and danger. Or, at least, they should.

The sailor is at the mercy of the elements. Sure, he has tide tables and weather reports, a sound vessel, and millennia of sea lore to guide him; but when all is said and done, it's just the wind and the sea. A good sailor knows how to make the best of whatever blows his way; a bad sailor gets an outboard motor, commonly known in sailing circles as a “stinkpot”.

Likewise, an amateur radio operator is at the mercy of sunspots, magnetic storms, QRM, static crashes, and Murphy. A good radio amateur learns how to work with the elements, using his ever-expanding knowledge of his equipment and well-honed operating skill. A bad radio amateur uses Echolink.

Alas, amateur radio seems to be proliferating with “stinkpots” of various mutant forms: Winlink, IRLP, Echolink…even repeaters. Each of these “enhancements” effectively serves to remove any semblance of danger, unpredictability, or challenge from the high seas of ham radio.

Let's face it; we have become a bunch of pantywaist landlubbers, lolling about on the shallow shores of the great ether. Isn't it about time we launch into the deep and set sail?

**************

I was exposed to both sailing and radio at around the tender age of eight. My dad had fulfilled a long-time dream of buying a sailboat, a Danish Folkboat, specifically. We spent innumerable weekends sailing around the San Francisco Bay in that 24 foot racing sloop (still one of the most beautiful boats ever created by Man). Since the boat was wood, it required a good deal of maintenance, which was really no problem; Mom and us three kids were a good source of slave labor. I knew how to sand and varnish and splice ropes as well as the best of them by the time I was in fifth grade. It didn't seem like a lot of fun at the time, but it did wonders for me in the long run.

Although my dad wasn't a ham, he had quite a few friends that were, and I just seemed to grow up knowing about radio. My brother and I had a land line telegraph between our bedrooms, and Dad didn't seem to object too strongly to us staying up till the wee hours sending secret messages back and forth; at least we were learning a skill.

Now, maybe I was smacked in the head by a wayward boom a few too many times in my formative years, but my few remaining brain cells still suggest that one isn't going to learn a lot about radio unless one actually DOES some radio. Doing radio, furthermore, suggests transmitting a radio signal from an actual transmitter to an actual receiver.

Using a motorboat isn't inherently evil. Neither is standing on the shore, collecting pretty shells. It's just that neither activity qualifies as sailing. Sailing implies the use of sails.

In the same manner, there probably isn't a sinister plot behind Echolink, IRLP, or other overlooked or yet-to-be-conceived pseudo-wireless communications modes. It's just that they aren't radio. It would seem fairly obvious that Amateur Radio would involve the actual use of radio.

Or have I just been inhaling too much salt air?