Hey, before we get started, be sure to head over to Hamradio two dot com forward slash email dash sign up to join my email list of over nineteen thousand subscribers, where I like to send emails about upcoming events, upcoming shopping deals, keep you updated with all the stuff going on with my videos. Once that list reaches twenty thousand, I will be doing a giveaway of another HF radio sign up today and thank you for the support. Reasons that someone might avoid amateur radio as a hobby. Now,
hear a lot of these in comments. I hear a lot of responses to social media posts I make. This one comes from Reddit. Someone else wrote it, and it kind of aligns with what I have been saying in some regards. But I'd like to know what you guys think about it. So let's read this article real quick. One of the many reasons people avoid amateur radio as a hobby. So I saw that title, and of course I had to take a look and read through this
because you know, that's that's a catchy title. It's a catchy title, and it's not clickbait because he goes on to explain several things about why he wrote that. So this comes from commercial Underscore school five one seven, okay, and Tldrup there at the top says, stupid amateur radio operators chase away interested potential amateur radio operators. Now, I have said before in many videos that I don't think amateur radio is dying. It is changing, it is evolving.
It's not dying. As we have seen post hurricanes Heelena and Milton just here recently. It's actually quite useful in many, many situations. So it's not dying. But if anything, because you hear sometimes oh DMR is killing Ham radio. FT eight's killing him radio, the Internet's killing him radio, all these kind of nonsense. If anything was to ever kill Ham radio, it would be us, you and I, those of us licensed who have a bad attitude. And that's what this article is about. So let's take a look.
So this is this is several pairs paragraphs here, and he edits it at the bottom because he's he comes back and he reads some comments and he adds that edit down there at the bottom. But he says he was trained in radio repair in the army at age eighteen. He studied to receive a minor and electrical engineering technology in his late twenties, three decades of amateur radio under my belt. I still have a lot to learn. Okay.
I was not in the army and I'm not a I don't have an EE degree, but I do have three decades of manager radio under my belt, and I still have a lot to learn. Also, so I know where he's coming from here. In the ensuing decades, I've done both network engineering and security engineering, and am currently a solutions architect. I'm well aware of the features, cost benefits, technologies and how they've changed. He bought two radios at the same time, the Radiotity GD eighty eight and the
Vero VGCN seventy six, signed up for both Facebook groups. Okay, and the first comment is the best write down here. He's like, Facebook groups, found your problem, and he's right, this guy KC two syk. He's he's right, that's his problem is Facebook groups. But let's go on. I've had problems with the software that controls the VGC in seventy six. Now, this is a neat radio that I've seen a couple other YouTubers do videos about. I don't have one of those in my hand yet, but after reading what he
says about it, and seeing a couple of videos. I should probably order one of these and do my own video about it. He said he had problems with the firmer on the GD eighty eight. The GD eighty eight I do have. The first one I got was really fubar. I sent it back to Radiodity. They sent me another one, and I haven't made a video with it yet because he's right, the firmer's a little wonky on it, but it's not a bad radio. I should probably circle back
through that one one of these days, he says. First, the VGC, when I saw demo what you can do with it, I thought it would be a great tool to have for aries use. It has a built in twelve hundred bod TNC. You can Bluetooth connect to handheld and use the TNC. This means I could use radio mail on my iPad form wind link. That's one use case. The app just called HT in the app store. It's the same the VGC in seventy five hundred has an app in the app Store called just HT. It's a
dumb name, but that's what they call it. And the app has built in the ability to handle SSTV that I did not know this would be useful for the disaster response because I could take a picture of my phone immediately transmit it via SSTV. Hmm over VHF. Interesting Okay, I found out I was sold a bill of goods. I don't know what he means by that. This app I saw used? What? Oh, I remember what he means by that. Now? This app I saw used was using
features that are only available in Android apps. I can't expert configurations to a CSV or in the iOS app. I can't send SSTV using the app, so maybe it's Android only. Okay. The app has a hard time keeping the configuration straight, loses changes parts. I posted this in the Facebook group the issues I was having and made some recommendations of possible solutions. Then a helpful forum member
entered the chat. He informed me that I needed to not waste their time with my feature requests because he knew more about feature complexity than I did, regardless of it being my job. The guy he's talking about didn't know his job, probably, but there's no cause to be rude, and that the manufacturer needed to handle the broken stuff. That's right. He didn't see nonfunctionality as broken because it didn't impact him. He knows what I need and he's not afraid to dictate it. I tried to reason with
the ignorant I know better, but I tried. I left the forum after being shown the admin was of the same mind. They were always right, regardless of the facts. Okay, and then he starts to talk about the GD eighty eight radio. So a couple of notes there. Number one, I could talk about the difference between Android and iOS and I think you guys know where If you've never watched my channel before, maybe you don't know. I don't like Apple. I don't like Apple products. They're limited. Android
gives you a lot more stuff. Now, we could talk about that all day. A lot of you will probably disagree with me, Okay, but it is Ask any app developer. It is harder to get app updates, to get apps added to the iOS story, and get app updates in the iOS store because of extra hoops that Apple makes you jump through Android place to where Google place stoard is not that difficult, so the Google app. When I first got my first VGC ht VG, I don't remember
as the ht or the mobile radio. My first VGC radio, it did not have an iOS app at all. So I assume that the iOS version of the app today, since it's in both places, is probably not as mature, not as old, not as futuristic as the Android app, because the Android app has been around longer. Be that good, bad, or ugly. I'm not saying. I'm just saying it's the fact, So probably not now, Yes, it should. I mean the guy in the forum should have come in and said
he should have been nicer. He should have just been more welcoming and nicer and that kind of thing. Yeah, I don't agree with that type of attitude. But serious note on this. Part of the problem is that you're on a Facebook group. I'm not even on any Facebook groups anymore because I got my account hacked and I never got it back, not yet anyway, and I have another account now. But I haven't even joined any face Book groups for hamd Radio because a lot of them
are like that, this is just a Facebook thing. Join me on Discord hand Radio two dot com forward slash Discord. Everyone is welcome, regardless of your level of experience. Join me on Discord, ask questions anything you want to. I'm in there, but there's a lot of other people in there that are helpful as well. A lot of the ham radio groups have moved to a discord server somewhere.
Mine is one of many out there that are very helpful and you can get your questions answered and have more of a real time chat with people instead of posting on Facebook. Now, if you're interested in obtaining an amateur radio license, if you're interested in learning more about ham radio, head over to hand radioprep dot com. Hamdradio Prep is in both the Android and the iOS store. It is the same app in both stores, and the
app is free. You can download hand Radio Prep get started on your learning today for your first technician license or for further licenses, and you can purchase expanded learning features of all three licensed courses, plus their MCM course plus their Bowfang Basics course plus their HF Masterclass. You can purchase all of these things and expanded stuff, and you can always save a twenty percent discount with the
coupon code of Jason twenty. So go head over to ham Radio Prep today and get started on your amateur radio learning journey. So then he goes on to talk about and this is a different Facebook group. He calls him a forum, but I assume he's talking about Facebook groups. The GD eighty eight forum. I explained how the purchase of a how purchase of a single cable could make it so you can use the GD eighty eight to
do SSTV regardless of being Android or iOS user. I explain how to use APRS app and the cable to overcome the GPS issue that the most recent firmware update broke, regardless of OS. Okay, cool, I'd like to know that myself. How are you using the cable to overcome that? Email
meet case five hwbtgmail dot com. I explained how win link and the OS appropriate app worked with the cable on the GD eighty eight, and that if the creators of whin link added to virtual T and C. I think he's saying that it would work if when Link would add virtual TNC. I don't know if when Link would add GD eighty eight to their software. Maybe I'm
I'm not. I don't understand that statement. The same person from the previous form that I unsubscribed from helpfully told me to get rid of that piece of junk GD eighty eight and get the b tech version of the VGC. Arrogant, self centered I have all the answers without even knowing the use case. Stupid people, simple as definition, people that do things that benefit neither themselves nor other people, are
imposing on other amateurs and protector amateurs so much. The best way to avoid these helpful individuals is to not be associated with this hobby. Go buy an Xbox instead. I don't agree with that statement. I don't agree. I would agree with most everything this user saying. I don't agree with that statement. The best way to avoid these helpful individuals is not be associated with the hobby. Do
not let some jackwagon. Do not let some Facebook admin. Okay, on Facebook, the literally the worst social media platform in existence. Do not let Facebook admin jackwagon take away your ability, or your right, or your freedom to do it, or your enjoyment of amateur radio. Don't let them win in that regard. That's what I would say to that. And he comes back here and he said his edit. He goes, I really appreciate the comments of concern for me. Thanks.
I'd like to point out, get ready, for the first time you'll have heard this on Reddit, it's not about me. Okay, this story really isn't about me. I'm trying to explain that I'm concerned for newly licensed hands or people just entering the hobby, They're going to get chased away. And he's not wrong. He is not wrong. I'd rather they weren't. I'm hoping that if I keep posting these things, maybe some people will go to these Facebook groups, find my
post and ad comments not to insulting one. Hey, I heard about this, came in, looked it up firsthand, and see what happened. If I'm right, then the others involved may get enough constructive feedback to change. They'll reduce attrition. If I'm wrong, you'll see firsthand. Well, first of all, I don't think. I don't think you're gonna do it that way, because there is such a thing as QRZ forum and qrzed forums are worse than Facebook. I'm it has been my experience. But join us on discord. Like
I said a minute ago. So yeah, so the comments here Facebook group found the problem. Facebook is the worst. That is probably true. There's nothing less social than social media, that's true. Like that, This is good comment here, a comment here. The usual advice for this hobby is spend the doll and move on. It's usually the best course of action. People like that, get off on being the biggest know it all in the room and actively seek out people they can belittle, don't give them the attention
they want, and just go elsewhere. It's unfortunately the same person. What's on both forums. There are lots of other places you can go. I mean you're here, for example, Yeah, you're on Reddit. Okay, cool. The unfortunate truth is that these types of people are more often found in these types of hobbies. It's not just radio block them, ignore them, go somewhere else, don't engage them. Once you realize that you're who you're dealing with. I hope you get your
issues sorted out. Software is the biggest spot in the amateur radio these days. You're not alone bubble. So there's some other good there's some other good comments in here, quite a few, actually quite a few comments on this, because that's a it's just to catch you title. It's just to catch you title talking about how we we the group of us, you and I the group of
us as hammer radio operators. We get to determine how welcomed newcomers feel in the hobby, whether they just discovered what amateur ready is and they start reading forum posts Reddit articles, or they're watching this video right here. We get to determine that. Okay, And let me just tell you something, and I've said this before too, I feel like people who act like that are all on the internet. They're not on the air. You're not going to meet
people like that on the air. You actually can meet people like that on the air if you know where to look and you just avoid those two or three or four different frequencies, and then ninety nine point nine percent of the time you will not meet people like that on the air, not on repeaters, not on HF, not over the air, not over simplex nowhere. Okay, these guys hang out on the internet and they troll people. And if you're an admin of a Facebook group, you
probably Yeah. I've been the admin of a Facebook group before I lost all my Facebook groups when I lost my Facebook account. I don't miss them, okay. In fact, my Ham Radio two point zero Facebook group I for the last year and a half that I had it, I was telling people, we're in discord, Join us in discord, don't I don't post here anymore, Join us in discord, Join us in discord. So Ham Radio two dot com, forward slash discord. That's where you need to be right
now or read it. Reddit can be good too. There's a lot of helpful people on Reddit. But Reddit still social media kind of well, it's still a website. Have you ever been treated that? If you're watching this video, have you ever been treated this way? Have you ever?
Can you name a story or an example of where someone else, you saw someone else do that behave this way perhaps to you, perhaps to someone new better yet, share with me a story where someone was looking for help and actually got it on the internet, because that happens too. That happens too. Share with me your good and bad stories in the comments section below. Thanks for watching today, and if if you like this video, check
out these videos over here. This is what This is the one that YouTube thinks you want to watch next. Seventy three