I've been a longtime listener to a number of 75-meter roundtables. My days of listening in on 3898 go back more than 25 years, back to my SWL days.
I still listen to 3898 every evening. Bobby Dahl, WQ4E, Wrenford, WA4DDI, Brent, Father Paul and others usually check out by about midnight. Back “in the day”, Robert Mercer, Jimmy and a group of others would take over about that time and talk late nights until the wee hours. I used to go to bed and listen on my Sony to those guys. My wife thought I was nuts, but I enjoyed it.
3898 has changed, as have all the groups that chat at night. There's a group up the band from 3898 I usually listen to which will go nameless for now.
I genuinely like these guys and enjoy — for the most part — listening to them.
Several of the guys are really strong liberals, and for several months prior to the last election, about all they did was to complain about President Bush.
I don't disagree that it's fair to point out problems, but these guys were going way way way beyond even the lunatic fringe. Some nights it sounded like GW was worse than Hitler, Marx, Franco, Stalin and Lenin all rolled into one.
I quit listening to the frequency for awhile. They weren't having rational discussions about politics. There was a core group who subscribed to these really wacko conspiracy theories about the president and the GOP, and if you dared to disagree with them, you apparently were brainwashed.
Their lack of tolerance drove a good many of their usual group away during the period immediately before and after the election. In fact, you could listen every night and watch many of the regulars check out as the liberals took control of the discussions and it began to get weirder.
There's a good many people who bailed out on the group and not returned, or only returned for infrequent visits.
The war in Iraq gets the liberals on the frequency stirred up too. There were a couple of nights when those who have quietly tolerated their rants got fed up and there was a radio ass-whipping contest underway. Angry tirades were met with even greater rage as friends became ex-friends. It was kinda sad, but the liberal extemists guys had it coming. Who wants to come to a roundtable and hear the president and everything about the administration torn to shreads night after night after night. It was like a 7-day Liberty Net — though to the Liberty Net's credit, the commentary and arguments frequently change.
The discussion on this particularly frequency did not. I tuned them out and moved to 3990 or 3987.5.
There's been a change on that frequency in recent months — a shift away from 24/7 political rants.
But the obsession du jour seems to be hi-fi SSB audio — a contradiction in terms from where I sit.
There are guys who know what they are doing and transmit 3 kHz (and wider) signals using modified rigs and audio chains to get fuller audio. I'm all for quality audio, but on the extreme end of the hi-fi SSB group you have guys who have very wide signals which produce QRM for other users above and below them.
I've heard the arguments by the hi-fi guys, too. “It's not our signals, you just have a poorly designed receiver,” is frequently the mantra. The fact is that factory-bandwith rigs don't interfere but the hi-fi audio guys are prone to do just that.
The hams on the 75 meter frequency I monitor are newbies when it comes to hi-fi SSB. Several of the guys have been buying EQs, preamps and various microphones, seeking to come up with hi-fi audio. So far, the real trick to good audio appears to be a Heil microphone and a W2IHY EQ and preamp.
Getting the pro audio stuff to work for ham gear is haphazard at best. You really have to do your homework on the stuff, and my hat is off to those who stick with it.
There are a couple of facts of hi-fi SSB that some of these guys aren't getting. The first is that the good quality is only “good” on strong signals. In noisy band conditions, you're actually losing “punch” that SSB has by trying to go for a wide audio signal. The guys who sound best on hi-fi SSB have BIG amps.
They also have lots of experience with audio chains. Another necessity is a rig that can be modified to fully use a 3 kHz or wider transmit audio signal. Some of these guys using audio gear with newer HF gear don't realize that they can't get full range audio in a 2.8 kHz bandwidth.
You can improve that audio though, and again, I think that's a worthy goal to shoot for.
The Kenwood TS-870S is one of the most popular HF rigs for hi-fi SSB. It's not a new rig at all. Some of the rigs these guys are using — and trying to get hi-fi audio from — just won't do it. There are a group of hi-fi guys on 75 meters who are pretty damn snooty about it. They're quite a clique, and when someone comes on frequency to ask questions related to SSB audio, they aren't very friendly.
They'll ask the newbie what rig he is using, and when they answer, the hi-fi guys usually will tell them to get a real radio and then come back — or some similar answer. They're being pretty truthful, however, as they know that all the audio rack stuff in the world can't widen a transceiver's bandpass.
In the meantime, there's a rather egocentric member of the group I listen to whose goal every night is to control the conversation and solicit compliments about his station. He will ask EVERY station on frequency questions like “Is Studio 7 sounding choice tonight or what?” Who is going to say “No, it really sounds muffled and scratchy” — the truth, in other words.
It's no secret that he is a wanna-be — he wants DESPERATELY to be one of the Big Dogs of hi-fi SSB. He swirls around them like a yapping, adoring puppy on 17 meters, trying ever so hard to be “one of da boys.”
This particular ham seems to take pleasure in making comments that demean others on frequency. He apparently thinks he can mock them and no one will hear the contempt in his voice and realize he's not just kidding, he's being an ass.
Some of the gang from this frequency from the past don't tolerate this guy. When he shows up, they'll check out or move off frequency. I can't blame them.
I listen to this frequency still, though I try to keep up with the others in the group. I was a member of their Yahoo group until the irrational political crap was too deep to tolerate.
Well enough of that. I've got some hamming to do! Merry Christmas!!