May 27, 2011 | Amateur Radio & Scanning
This seems quite bizarre — members of the AR902MHz Yahoo mailing list are less-than-enthused after Alinco announced a new dual-band 220/902 MHz field-programmable handheld at the Dayton Hamvention last week. And, shockingly enough, the discussion is showing a rift in the community between the self-described “techies” on 902 MHz, and the “appliance operators” on VHF and UHF.
After news of the new rig broke last week, AR902MHz was abuzz with chatter about the new announcement. After the initial e-mail was posted on May 23, the discussion devolved later that night with one member asking “Why would anyone want to see low quality/cheap radios sold at HRO. Wouldn’t this just open 900 to the hordes from 2M? I, for one, like 900 the way it is.”
That user, of course, was referring to the current 902 MHz culture of modifying surplus commercial equipment to work in the amateur portion of 900 MHz, something that kept most hams off of 902 MHz.
Some members on the mailing list believe that with the release of the DJ-G29T, 902 MHz will see an influx of users in that portion of the spectrum. In its current state, 902 MHz is relatively quiet with few users in most of the United States.
One member commented “Make it too easy and we are likely to regret it.” Another took it to another level by bashing the entire user base of D-STAR: “Can’t be as bad as the D-Star repeater owners! Plug and play is the only way for them (at least the ones I’ve met).”
In a nutshell, some of the members in the community want to keep 902 MHz all to themselves, because they like to keep a tight circle of friends in that swath of the electromagnetic spectrum, and don’t want to bother with helping the (apparently) dumber “appliance operators.” This is enforced by the comment by one of the users, “In my opinion, I feel that the owner of a 900 repeater spent the money to have some privacy, to talk with the friends that he knows. Otherwise, he’d have put up a VHF, or UHF repeater.”
Here’s my key point: those hams with that mindset, I believe, are indeed not on the “cutting edge” — but those are hams that are the definition of “curmudgeons” who want to hold back their 902 MHz spectrum from future development.
I understand that a similar rift occurred between VHF users and UHF users when manufacturers began mass-producing amateur equipment for UHF, and again when amateur equipment was being produced for 1.2 GHz. One user was smart enough to point out that 1.2 GHz isn’t quite a cesspool yet, either:
There have been commercially manufactured radios for 1.2gHz (23cm) for a couple of decades now and I’ve never heard anyone complain that that band has become a cesspool. So, I’m not sure that having manufactured gear available for 902mHZ (33cm) is going to turn that band into a cesspool.
Another user was able to use very good reasoning that I think both sides of the argument could agree with:
We have had a free-for-all on 900 for better than 20 years all to ourselves.. Some of us who have been here since the early 90′s do welcome new blood. Maybe some of the late converts who have recently found our little patch of technical toy heaven resent the new “intruders” who may come. Keep in mind we could have said the same about anyone after us. and in some cases did.. but we are all still here and the Earth is still spinning..
The hobby moves on. If the annoyances get too high we have plenty of other options going to digital or higher in the bands etc. My M-RK and my Orion both do AEGIS .. If I wanted, it is not hard to make my repeater do the same. Let us not get too worked up about what might happen, I think we will see some new blood good and bad, but that is the hobby.. I am thinking more like now we can use the whole band not just parts of it. I still plan to keep my commercial gear. I will probably add a G29 for a toy to play, it is not really going to change my world..
That was perhaps the most quelling message in the entire discussion so far. I am just quite surprised that some of the members may have such an attitude towards newcomers if 902 MHz becomes more readily accessible to the masses. While I am sure these are only just a few vocal members that certainly don’t speak for most 902 MHz users, I was surprised to see such a rift exposed between 902 MHz veterans and those from 140/440 MHz. I would think that those who have been pioneering the 902 MHz band were a little bit more progressive-thinking, especially in terms of being eager to share and develop the spectrum they love so much.
Tags: 902 MHz, Alinco, Amateur Radio & Scanning, Dayton Hamvention, Dayton Ohio, Ohio, opinion
K0KDS on Twitter
the 902-928mhz / 33cm belongs to ALL licensed operators in this country, you know, america! damn the arrogance of those few ritchie rich’s who think because
ssince they have the $$$ to use 33cm that the rest of use are not entitled.
i know not all operators are like this – but there are enough on 2m/70cm with the same attitude/club/repeater turf battles to the point that i rarely get on the air anymore unless i’m in a “civilized” locale.
congrats to alinco! now lets see wouxun get on the wagon too!
i thought about saving a few bucks fo the yeasu at 450 but if all i’m gonna find on the air are “paper chasers” the hell with it! i’ll stick with echo=link!
rufus firefly
ke5@#%
Unfortunately several years to late Alinco.
I had been on 900 MHz since 1998, I had an open repeater with a 6 meter frequency agile remote base up in a high location of Northern AZ for the last 9 or 10 years on 900 MHz.
Back then and now I couldn’t give radios away as nobody was willing to stray away from their 2 meter band, especially since they’d need to carry a 2nd HT around.
My remote saw lots of DX on FM at the time, hawaii and Alaska on 52.525 and 50.3FM but I was the only one using it, even the others who I helped get radios and converted/programmed these radios never showed up during these band openings.
Hence I took it all down, scrapped it and moved away but even at my present QTH I still will not put another one on the air as there is zero knowledge up here in the pacific northwest that the band even exists.
Those hams who are crowing that the sky will fall if plug-and-play 33cm gear comes on the market are making a mountain out of a molehill.
Remember a couple of years ago, when the Morse code test was scrapped and there was all manner of hue and cry that the HF bands would be awash in jamming? And yet the worst offenders were Extras who passed the Morse code test.
And as far as the “exclusion” mentality goes… there IS a notorious local repeater in the Los Angeles area whose control ops use 33cm for their remote—I found them on there by accident.
But on the flipside, sure… I’d be more than happy to work 33cm, because here in L.A. we have a LOT of closed repeaters on 70cm, and working 33cm gives us a great opportunity to understand how the multipath propagation works in that band. If you live in a big city with a lot of tall buildings nearby, 33cm is the band for you.
As an afterthought… I think this little handheld, if it gets the FCC’s ok, will be the start of an arms race. Icom, Yaesu, and Kenwood will all come out with their competing 900-banders, and eventually one of them will come out with a 6-band hotrod mobile radio that has everything from 6m to 1.2ghz and will tell me my horoscope.
Bring it on!! I will be glad to see more users! i have a 900mhz repeater on the air here in AZ. It has a 10 meter remote on it and i will welcome more local users with open arms!! I cant wait for this radio to become available! i have its brother already ..the DJ-G7 so i am on 1.2 already!!! All the whiners can move up to 1.2 or higher. Or go to DMR/Mototrbo. There is room for everyone!
I cant wait to see it come out either. We built a 220/900 repeater system in South Florida and it’s a perfect match for this radio!
This is the first non commercial radio I have bought in years, so what? We have linked 220/900 repeaters down here and this radio fills the bill. Besides it’s no great mystery to own a Motorola 9250 or any of the other commercial 900 radios out there. The sky is not falling. This is called progress. Better to have the bands utilized then see them converted to FCC revenue generators.
I hope Alinco makes a mobile version of this 220/900 radio. It has been long overdue and fills a gap. These are great amateur radio bands, and I never understood why they were left out of the majority of radios that covered VHF/UHF in the first place. That is like leaving out 17m and 12m on HF radios. 220 MHz range tests that many of us did in NY and MA proved that 220 worked far better than 2m or 440 from the same repeater locations with similar antenna gain and power levels, and right up there with 6m (using commercial Moto gear with tuned noise blankers…GE blankers and sens not as good on 6m…220 wins in that case).
The “appliance operator” problem is a problem with the hobby in general. Back in the day when I modded Moto radios onto 6m, I met many interesting tech like hams that I enjoyed to talk with and share knowledge with. It was great when the band opened. Most stations were equal (except the GE guys…jab jab). Did the 6m band change with the advent of 6m commonly added into HF rigs, and the production of cheap 6m mobiles? YES, it did. The 6m FM band turned into a joke, and most of those cheap mobiles can’t hear squat without a commercial grade noise blanker, like the Moto Extender. Not as fun to operate on anymore because those radios can’t hear through the noise. And the noisy hambox cross-band remote base garbage that spews noise all over the calling channels (on 10m too) have made the call channels hard to use. Most can’t even get the audio and deviation levels right. Just a bunch of noise. Heck, even D-STAR has turned into a pool mixed with many lids since it grew in popularity. It used to be interesting before with the early adopters. To listen to it anymore is an international embarressment. What have hams become? But this is a problem with ham radio in general. Standards have been lowered, and now we see the aftermath. Today’s ham radio is not on the same level of ham radio I knew back in the 70′s. Not even close! Those were some smart guys! But it is what it is, and too late to undo the damage done by lowering the requirements to get a license. At this point you might as well make gear for all ham bands. It would be nice if the gear was up to commercial standards though, and not some cheap junk that adds to poor operation…like what happened on 6m. I wish someone made “all band” ham gear (with D-STAR and P25) with no gaps up to 1.2 gig, and made it like commercial gear with that level of quality and type of priority scan. The gap between commercial gear and ham gear has never been bridged. The IC-9100 is no cheap radio either, so price is not the issue here. Design is. I do think Icom is getting better though. But I applaud Alinco for producing radios on the 220 and 902 bands.
Mine will be delivered on 1/5/12. HRO was sold all out of them on 12/29/11 which was my birthday. My wife ordered it from HRO in Delaware. Looking forward to getting it on the air this weekend. No more shipments to the USA until January 2012 most likely the end of the month. Regards to all from So Ca.
I went to the local AES store and got me one. Plying time is on the horizon.