Foundations of Amateur Radio

On a regular basis I receive emails from fellow amateurs and shortwave listeners who provide feedback and ideas about this weekly segment of Amateur Radio. It's a joy to read how they feel that my little contribution encourages them to continue in the hobby, or come back to the hobby, or to build something, or to do something, to participate, to experiment.

Yesterday I received an email from an amateur who came up with an idea that's worth sharing. The idea was pretty simple. Encourage every new entrant into our hobby to build a crystal radio. I know that this might sound like a trivial thing, even silly, but for me it makes complete sense.

Imagine that, building a receiver and understanding how it actually works. I know I've never actually done that and I suspect I'm not alone.

So, here's a thing. Next time you're looking for a project to do, for a thing to make, for some soldering practice, try making a crystal radio. There's opportunity to make it work for CW and SSB - think of it as an upgrade - and from an electronics perspective, this can be as complex or simple as you like.

Dovetail that with the notion of harmonics, how resonant circuits work and you're well on the way to making your first transceiver.

So, the real takeaway from this idea, not only the idea you can build a crystal radio, but that there are electronics project to be found that enhance your understanding of how radio works and are easy to build.

Now I should hasten to add, that I'm not advocating that we all become electronics experts. I know this isn't going to sit well with everyone, but let me say it again. I'm not advocating that we all become electronics experts. I know that the Standard and Advanced licenses in Australia require a fair bit of electronics, but I have to say that I think this is unhelpful.

It's taken me a long time to get to this point, so before you sharpen your pitchfork and heat up the tar and feathers, hear me out.

In Computing, which is a topic I know a lot about, having been intimate with it for nearly 45 years, there's a similar analogy. The notion that you need to know about memory, registers, about CPU clock cycles and a stack, accumulator and all manner of esoteric detail. I know all of this because 45 years ago, that defined what computing consists of. It stands me in good stead today, it makes it possible for me to conceptualise a super computer with little effort, but it's not required for someone coming into the field, learning to program and make the tools useful. It helps, but it's not required. We abstract things more and more in computing and we do the same in amateur radio.

If you think back, a spark-gap transmitter, valve based radios, transistor based radios, integrated circuit based radios and now software defined radios went through the same progression. Today an amateur doesn't learn how to build a spark-gap transmitter, though if you did, it would help your understanding of high-voltage electronics, harmonics and all manner of flow on. It's not required. A similar thing is true for building a valve based radio and over time the same will be true for transistors, integrated circuits and software.

You might think of this as a dumbing down, and to be fair, I thought the same thing for many years.

In reality, it's not dumbing down at all, it's focusing on what's important, on what makes progress, on what grows a field.

There will be always room for people who understand the difference between an NPN and a PNP transistor, but it's not required to be an amateur, even if today's amateur education system still requires it.

So what I'm saying is that, you should build a circuit, build a radio, go on to build a transceiver. You should understand what goes on under the hood because it helps you understand the implications of things when you make changes. Just like a racing car driver has no understanding of the chemistry of the fuel that is put in his car, there should be no need for you to be forced to do electronics, but it can be loads of fun and you might surprise yourself and learn something.

I'm going back to my Morse, another one of those skills which is immensely helpful, but no longer required.

I'm Onno VK6FLAB