When I started at Bell Labs back in 1984, I was introduced to a team of watchmakers in the building. It was explained to me that the company hired watchmakers to make the small mechanisms–essentially, transmissions–to allow fine control of adjustable components. The watchmakers made vernier scale controls for the ceramic filters (AKA “toilet bowls”) used in the Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS) analog cell site transmit combiners.
Fast forward a few years and digital technology replaced the combiners with integrated Class-D RF power amplifiers with feedforward controls–thus eliminating the “toilet bowl” filters, the need for vernier scale tuning controls, and the jobs of the watchmakers. This is just one of many stories of how technological advancement eliminated jobs.
This is just one of many stories that makes me wonder if, as ham radio operators, we haven’t become like the watchmakers of old times: are we losing our relevance as technology advances?
Certainly, we hams were behind many of the technologies that some of us blame for stealing interest in the hobby–the Internet and cellular telephone, for example. Most of us know about the hams involved in developing computers and Internet. Indeed, many of my colleagues in AMPS and the Wireless Center of Excellence were amateur radio operators. And over the years, ham radio has evolved. We have adopted and adapted these same technologies into our stations and radio practices. I check solar weather conditions and search for information about rare stations on the Internet before I jump on the air, I keep my log online, and I frequency chat on the cell with other ham buddies in the DC and NJ area about DX and the latest equipment we bought.
When I started in amateur radio back in 1974, the HF bands were full of signals. When I joined bell labs in the 1980s, I walked into an organization with active amateur clubs (note the plural)–with one radio room or shack at many of the company offices. I remember a huge beam antenna above the Holmdel facility–home of the horn antenna. I worked at Holmdel as a summer employee while I was still in college.
Now, the HF bands are not as full of signals as they were back in the day. Now, most young electrical engineers, it seems, are focused on AI and see wireless technology as just some module to buy–not a serious field to explore. STEM education organizations seemed to be similarly oriented to AI and robotics. Is amateur radio still relevant? Are we, amateur radio operators, like the old watchmakers–replaced by technology and the “advancement of science”?
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, at the National Makerfaire, I had a conversation with a watchmaker!
I remember mentioning how glad I was that watchmakers still exist given my experience at Bell Labs. I also remember how happy and proud he was and how he genuinely enjoyed his profession. Watchmaking has a place in the fun of repairing, tinkering, and making small, whirling, intricate mechanisms–even if its place in cellular base station RF chains is no longer needed or relevant. What is relevant is that joy.
The joy factor holds true also in amateur radio. Amateur radio is relevant–not because it is useful in emergency response. One could make a convincing argument that we have satellite phones and other unlicensed wireless devices for that. It’s relevant–not because it will help get you a job–as it did me. These are different times than when I got started. I would guess that there are only a few companies that still have active, in-house ham radio clubs. But the basic knowledge of how wireless systems work is important, and amateur radio helps you build upon that knowledge with real-life experience. It’s relevant–because it’s fun and enjoyable to talk with random people in morse code, digital, or voice from a mountaintop, park, or basement. Amateur radio remains relevant because there’s nothing quite as exciting as hearing your own callsign coming back at you over the static on the radio! Joy is the key.