New technology will always replace old technology

[WRZK526]

Now Starlink has a mobile unit for your cell phone. Global radio's, just bought a pair and my wife and I can connect instantly with a push of a button. We still use GMRS radios but these have no limits except they have to connect to a cell tower, no contracts or charges. I grew up with a rotary phone at the house. Watched the evolution of the internet, does anyone remember dial up. Watched cell phones go from the brick to mini computers that take pictures, gets on internet and does so much more.

No matter how you upgrade old tech it eventually becomes obsolete. Imagine what will happen to all radios in the future. Will HAM and GMRS survive or become a thing of the past? Maybe survive but will not look like it does now. 

[WSLH454]

But aren't you still paying for Starlink? I saw something about T Mobile/Starlink $10 but not sure what that gets you or how that works. I got my GMRS radios in case something happens, and there's no cell service around. I had a rotary phone back in the day and you got it from the local phone company. Once Radio Shack started selling aftermarket phones, we had extension phones in several rooms lol. Yes I remember dial up and those 56K modems too. Will GMRS be around for a long time? I think so since its a simple purchase of the radios and then you're done. No monthly fees etc...You can upgrade to better units, antennas etc...Spent as much or as little as you choose. As far as HAM radio goes (I'm not a HAM), I see still being used to talk around the world for years to come. 2 meter etc...not sure how long it will last. You don't need auto patch like you once did. Cell phones have replaced a lot of things we once had or needed. In some peoples mind I've got a house full of obsolete electronics lol. CB channel 14 walkie talkies, a Bearcat scanner, reel to reel decks, cassette decks, multi band radios etc...Things are changing faster than we can keep up I guess

[amaff]

50 minutes ago, WRZK526 said:

these have no limits...

Woah!

50 minutes ago, WRZK526 said:

...except they have to connect to a cell tower

Oh.

 

 

 

[amaff]

52 minutes ago, WRZK526 said:

No matter how you upgrade old tech it eventually becomes obsolete. Imagine what will happen to all radios in the future. Will HAM and GMRS survive or become a thing of the past? Maybe survive but will not look like it does now. 

No matter how much new tech comes out, many people (some might actually say "SOME people") like having independence from infrastructure they don't own and control. One day, someone can flip a proverbial switch and turn off starlink. It's space-based, but still relies on ground-based control and networking. Ground-based outages still affect them, depending on what's having issues. 

[WRZK526]

19 minutes ago, amaff said:

Woah!

Oh.

 

 

 

For now, how about when they can connect to Starlink? 

[amaff]

2 minutes ago, WRZK526 said:

For now, how about when they can connect to Starlink? 

Hol up...so those mobile starlink units don't actually use the starlink network right now and just use the cell network?

[WRZK526]

22 minutes ago, amaff said:

Hol up...so those mobile starlink units don't actually use the starlink network right now and just use the cell network?

My understanding is that use the Starlink network just like my home Starlink does. But it is just an example anyway about how tech is evolving. 

[SteveShannon]

You’re correct in one regard; new technology does replace old.  Spark gap transmitters went the way of the rotary dial phone once vacuum tubes were developed.

But in a more important way, you have completely missed the point.  Many (perhaps most) of us who adopt analog radios for communication do so because of the desire to be as independent of commercial or government provided infrastructure as possible.  History has taught us that such infrastructure, as complex as it is and as reliant as it is on commercial interests, trade agreements, and the peaceful coexistence of nations, is vulnerable to disruption by overload, hacking, space weather, or the overnight whims of one unstable politician or another.

The features might change and more and more digital modes may be developed, but the basic physics never will and those physics allow a person to build a very simple radio transmitter and receiver, in spite of how far technology has staggered forward. I just need to stock up on transistors.

[WRUE951]

Talking about Starlink, anyone with Starlink experience connect issue lately.  The last couple of days i have trouble connecting while traveling up in northern Calif. I'm on the roaming plan and never had issues over the last 3 years until now.  Also streaming very slow, about 50MB where its always been 250-400 MB.    

[Bogieboy01]

2 hours ago, amaff said:

No matter how much new tech comes out, many people (some might actually say "SOME people") like having independence from infrastructure they don't own and control. One day, someone can flip a proverbial switch and turn off starlink. It's space-based, but still relies on ground-based control and networking. Ground-based outages still affect them, depending on what's having issues. 

i may fall under the category of "some people" having just purchased a 1975 royce 1-635 am/ssb cb radio.... oh the joys of a completely crystal synthesized radio....LOL 

 

[SteveShannon]

55 minutes ago, Bogieboy01 said:

i may fall under the category of "some people" having just purchased a 1975 royce 1-635 am/ssb cb radio.... oh the joys of a completely crystal synthesized radio....LOL 

 

I have an old Johnson Messenger with tubes and crystals that you might really enjoy!   

[WRUE951]

16 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

I have an old Johnson Messenger with tubes and crystals that you might really enjoy!   

i had one back in 2001,,  Why i sold it, i'll never know  

[WSLH454]

4 hours ago, SteveShannon said:

You’re correct in one regard; new technology does replace old.  Spark gap transmitters went the way of the rotary dial phone once vacuum tubes were developed.

But in a more important way, you have completely missed the point.  Many (perhaps most) of us who adopt analog radios for communication do so because of the desire to be as independent of commercial or government provided infrastructure as possible.  History has taught us that such infrastructure, as complex as it is and as reliant as it is on commercial interests, trade agreements, and the peaceful coexistence of nations, is vulnerable to disruption by overload, hacking, space weather, or the overnight whims of one unstable politician or another.

The features might change and more and more digital modes may be developed, but the basic physics never will and those physics allow a person to build a very simple radio transmitter and receiver, in spite of how far technology has staggered forward. I just need to stock up on transistors.

We had a tornado hit our small town about 4 years ago. Wiped out 100 telephone poles! Surprisingly after days without power we still had cell service. I wasn't counting on that though. I've got a 3500 watt generator to power basic things in the house. Only thing we can't do is take a hot shower (electric water heater). Our home was spared thankfully but we lost some 100 foot pine trees in our yard. While others look to the government to help, our community pulled together. There were truckloads of bottled water, free pizza, Chik Fil A, and a room in the school was setup up with all necessary essentials...toilet paper, diapers etc...Fire departments and volunteers from 50 miles away were cutting up trees for a week. GMRS is just another tool in our arsenal here. Just a side note the Red Cross had a table where you could make a donation. They provided zero assistance to anyone though.

Edited February 5 by WSLH454
added text

[Bogieboy01]

1 hour ago, SteveShannon said:

I have an old Johnson Messenger with tubes and crystals that you might really enjoy!   

sounds like fun....LOL my "bluetooth speaker" on my fireplace mantle is a 1963 Nordemende Boehm with an adapter cable to a bluetooth reciever for the DIN plug for the phono input.... this isnt mine, but mine is in similar condtion.... there has been no internal modifications to it, it also does work for FM and short wave reception, but the internal antenna isnt optimised for shortwave, it would work better with an actual shortwave aerial....

 

 

 

[GreggInFL]

6 hours ago, WSLH454 said:

I saw something about T Mobile/Starlink $10 but not sure what that gets you or how that works.

I have the free Starlink 911 service with T-Mobile. It provides texts to 911 when out of cell range. Whenever I'm out of cell range I receive a notification that satellite connection is available. If you pay $10/month you can text any number, not just 911, but I'm too cheap for that.

https://www.t-mobile.com/news/network/t-mobile-text-to-911-available-for-everyone

[WRUE951]

1 hour ago, GreggInFL said:

I have the free Starlink 911 service with T-Mobile. It provides texts to 911 when out of cell range. Whenever I'm out of cell range I receive a notification that satellite connection is available. If you pay $10/month you can text any number, not just 911, but I'm too cheap for that.

https://www.t-mobile.com/news/network/t-mobile-text-to-911-available-for-everyone

10 a month is nuts,  I'm too cheap too..  In fact I'm about ready to dump Starlink which i use in my RV.   The service is $125 month w/Roaming and lately its come to a screeching crawl.  Streaming TV is becoming almost impossible, especially the farther north you go.  My T-Mobile Hot Spot has been working out better in most areas.    

[GreggInFL]

What does the hot spot cost?

[WRZK526]

Sometimes I think I would like to find a place nearby that has no cell service and camp there. Soon there will not be any places you can hide from it. I know, just leave my phone off or at home but the last time I left it at home it drove me crazy. I have been absorbed into the collective. 

[docholliday666]

1 hour ago, WRUE951 said:

10 a month is nuts,  I'm too cheap too..  In fact I'm about ready to dump Starlink which i use in my RV.   The service is $125 month w/Roaming and lately its come to a screeching crawl.  Streaming TV is becoming almost impossible, especially the farther north you go.  My T-Mobile Hot Spot has been working out better in most areas.    

But back in the early days of cell when I had my bag phone, it was $99/month with 60 minutes. Then, you'd pay $10/month for "unlimited nights" (9p-6a), another for $10/month for "unlimited weekends", and voicemail was $5/month. That was after paying $1000 for the bag phone kit. Roaming was like another $3/min on top of the minutes you were burning. No such thing as SMS/MMS or data. But, you could take the antenna off the transceiver, put it on a 30' cable, tape it to a long stick, then stand on top of the car out in the woods to get staticy call out. 

Worst part was the battery was good for 4-6 hours max and the bag had a cigarette lighter plug in it so that you could plug it in the second you got in a car.

[beerftw]

11 hours ago, WRZK526 said:

Now Starlink has a mobile unit for your cell phone. Global radio's, just bought a pair and my wife and I can connect instantly with a push of a button. We still use GMRS radios but these have no limits except they have to connect to a cell tower, no contracts or charges. I grew up with a rotary phone at the house. Watched the evolution of the internet, does anyone remember dial up. Watched cell phones go from the brick to mini computers that take pictures, gets on internet and does so much more.

No matter how you upgrade old tech it eventually becomes obsolete. Imagine what will happen to all radios in the future. Will HAM and GMRS survive or become a thing of the past? Maybe survive but will not look like it does now. 

Replace and obsolete are two seperate things, cell phones already replaced many radios long ago, yet ham gmrs frs etc still are there. One of the main reasons they exist is because even though they can be tied to infrastructure like ham for mesh data repeaters etc or gmrs for repeaters, they can all operate completely independant of infrastructure to support it.

 

  This is the reason the military still has mars, some states troopers still use hf radio with giant whip antennas, or why in rural areas many first responders still monitor cb or even more now gmrs, it is because they are independant, and can function of other systems fail.

 

  Think more like pen and paper, the computers laptops tablets and phones are the new tech replacing the old, yet pen and paper is not dissapearing because simply no matter what happens it will just work, radio is kinda in that boat right now.

[WRUE951]

1 hour ago, docholliday666 said:

But back in the early days of cell when I had my bag phone, it was $99/month with 60 minutes. Then, you'd pay $10/month for "unlimited nights" (9p-6a), another for $10/month for "unlimited weekends", and voicemail was $5/month. That was after paying $1000 for the bag phone kit. Roaming was like another $3/min on top of the minutes you were burning. No such thing as SMS/MMS or data. But, you could take the antenna off the transceiver, put it on a 30' cable, tape it to a long stick, then stand on top of the car out in the woods to get staticy call out. 

Worst part was the battery was good for 4-6 hours max and the bag had a cigarette lighter plug in it so that you could plug it in the second you got in a car.

in 1990 I was paying about 85 month/1000 minutes that included  contentential long distance on a Panasonic Portable/Mobile phone. The phone w/mobile install was $600 bought from 'The Good Guys'.  Service was decent in most cities but went to hell the moment you got 40-50 miles away from any city.   Also had a Commercial/Ham radio with audio patch that had much better range than the cell phone..   That radio was also around $600. 

[beerftw]

5 hours ago, Bogieboy01 said:

sounds like fun....LOL my "bluetooth speaker" on my fireplace mantle is a 1963 Nordemende Boehm with an adapter cable to a bluetooth reciever for the DIN plug for the phono input.... this isnt mine, but mine is in similar condtion.... there has been no internal modifications to it, it also does work for FM and short wave reception, but the internal antenna isnt optimised for shortwave, it would work better with an actual shortwave aerial....

 

 

 

I am not old enough to have been around such radios new, but I do remember my old 1970's fisher quadraphonic sound system my great aunt gave me in the early 2000's. I do not believe the tech was better then than now, but the sound that thing put out would blow away any modern stereo by leaps and bounds. I beleive the original receipt she had in the box listed the radio the speaker set and the 8 track player and record player at over 2k in the 1970's, with the dual cassette player being 800 bucks. I got the radio and the dual cassette player with some speakers, but not the 8 track or record player.

 

  She planned to actually throw them out because they were old but man did that setup sound awesome. The tech then was older but so much better built, probably because 2k could almost buy you a new car then on the lower end, and for that kind of money for a shelf stereo system it had to be worth it or no one would buy it, while now you can buy a cheap shelf stereo for 50 bucks or a boombox or bluetooth speaker sub 30 bucks.

[WRUE951]

2 hours ago, GreggInFL said:

What does the hot spot cost?

its built into my phone (iPhone) and works off unlimited data with T-Mobile.  3 phones with unlimited phone/data $120 month. 

[docholliday666]

21 minutes ago, WRUE951 said:

in 1990 I was paying about 85 month/1000 minutes that included  contentential long distance on a Panasonic Portable/Mobile phone. The phone w/mobile install was $600 bought from 'The Good Guys'.  Service was decent in most cities but went to hell the moment you got 40-50 miles away from any city.   Also had a Commercial/Ham radio with audio patch that had much better range than the cell phone..   That radio was also around $600. 

Mine was through GTE-Mobilenet (now Verizon). Cellular One was who I switched to later and that also was a switch to the bar phone. 

Does anybody remember when Ma Bell actually charged monthly to add touch tones (DTMF dialing) to the home phone?

Funny part is that I'm not as old as you'd think...we just always had some of the newest tech around.

[WRUE951]

4 minutes ago, docholliday666 said:

Mine was through GTE-Mobilenet (now Verizon). Cellular One was who I switched to later and that also was a switch to the bar phone. 

Does anybody remember when Ma Bell actually charged monthly to add touch tones (DTMF dialing) to the home phone?

Funny part is that I'm not as old as you'd think...we just always had some of the newest tech around.

I had Pacific Bell (AT&T).  I remember the DTMF coming into play around 78ish in my town.   Also remember when directory assistance was free and the dating game we played on the time and time line.  That worked by hollering out your phone number for about 15 seconds after the announcement (apparently the time and temp line was like a party line).  Others on the line would pick ut up and call back.   I actually got a few dates back then and still talk with one girl I met on that cazy line.