Subj : Re: No license operators
To   : apam
From : n2qfd
Date : Fri Mar 22 2024 06:24 am

 I would tell you there are absolutely great amateur radio operators around and many of them are here actually doing the BBS thing. 
 We had BBS via radio (it was much less colorful for data speeds) and that's still out there too. I connected to a ham in Nova Scotia's BBS from my home in Elmira, NY via HF Packet so I was transmitting on 14.105Mhz BUT.. it's only 300 baud... So not as much to look at and it's the definition of whatever the opposite of snappy is! 
 I was lucky too, My dad is a ham (N2NRA) my cousin (KB2KFL) and they were great Elmers (mentors) as you had growing up lending us gear and encouraging us along the way. They hung out with others who were into the fun not so much the soapbox aspect of the hobby. 
 I can remember junior engineer that transfered to a position our town with Ingersoll-Rand where my father worked. I think the connection through radio made it easy to help Tom settle and his life more stable in the area as a young guy not to out of college. A memorable experiment: He had come from Illinois and a place where they had Touch Tone phones and we were still on pulse. His Voice mail would connect pulse but wouldn't unlock without TT so we hatched a scheme and I had an HT that did tones, so we dialed and I held the radio up to the phone and entered his pin and worked! 
 I was probably just 13, but it stuck. It was a sort of Can-Do that was there, and the ham that are making things less fun are part of the stuck in the past league of GeT oF My LaWn! type of old men who have have made an unhealthy nostalgia their everything.  
 They're still out there, there's a lot of the good people still out there doing. I was looking at my BBS welcome letter and I made it quite clear in the values. In fact I took them from the fsxNet use note. 

 - Have fun!
 - Keep it simple
 - Be kind, respectful and helpful
 - Reject disruptive conduct that willfully incites discord

  73
  N2QFD//Mal

-------------
][ bst 73  ][
][ de N2QFD][
-------------

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Raspberry Pi/32)
 * Origin: Queen City BBS (21:1/154)

.