Gary G see.signature@bottom wrote in
:



Ahh...I see your point. Sat phones make a big difference. Repeaters
revolutionized VHF/UHF and now sat is doing the same for tele. So it
is either cell or sat. I see that most all of the ship to shore tele
venues are shut down.

Speaking of satphones....

A friend of mine called me just today! He has 65 Qualcomm satellite
phones, batteries and chargers on Qualcomm's system that was used in a case
for data only service and never carried. They are all new! He's sending
me a set down so I can show it around the boats. $500 too much for an
almost new, unscratched $3200 satphone?...(c; He's using one for
emergencies out in the boonies where he services towers for the big
companies like Pinnacle Towers across the country. 300 minutes per year is
$300...a dollar a minute, cheap for direct satellite phone service anywhere
on the planet.

I have an Iridium satphone I paid $25 for...2 batteries, charger and all.
Boater with big yacht was told by Iridium they were closing. I asked him
how much for the phone, just for oldtimes sake. I gave it to him never
expecting to be able to ever use it. Now, the military has the system back
on the air! It cost something like $3500, new.


I don't know about military and hams but I do see ham radio dying.
I see the same thing happening with my RC airplanes (53MHz for me,
thankfully).

You are absolutely right on that point. Go to any hamfest convention and
you'll soon see the average age of the ham ops is about 60, now, and
climbing. The kids could care less having internet phone, video, broadband
on demand. Ham radio is archaic by comparison. I hardly use it myself,
any more. Noone bitches at me about their private net frequencies on the
internet. Noone cares how much bandwidth I use on here.

73 DE W4CSC

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