Good thing about analog is

[clouseau]

You might be right RF, but how many kids of age 8-14, and in the Boys Scouts, Girl Scouts, etc. are going to build CW sets? I know I didn't in my time, maybe when I was older, but we're talking about the kids whose scoutmaster would buy these sets in quantity and give out to the kids to build and explore, you remember the Pine Derby cars, right? Timeless classics that stood the test of time along with the rockets, rain gutter sail regatta, etc.

There will be a whole set of values lost to digital radio that one day will be lost!

Radiopilot

Man, I have a hard time following this thought path. Just like I-T has replaced a great deal of cart machine repair skills, I don't believe HD wil have that much of an effect. And while I love the days of crystal radios and this like, I'm far more concerned with the loss of "The Magic of radio" overall. If you suck, you used to work midnight til six until you DIDN'T suck. Now, you work at the "Sack & Save" and hope you can learn enough about something you care about to work there. And since a lot of the compelling content on the radio has been researched to be very Plain Jane, the magic is gone and these folks go somewhere else.

There's just almost no place to "Start out in the sticks" anymore.

That's where I see the issue, not that there is a different transmission system.

YMMV

Clouseau

 

[LinoNYC]

The equivalent (of putting together a radio) in technological terms for today's scouts would be assembling a pc, tweaking the bios, installing the OS, and getting that sucker up and running!

Exactly. Think of the "Vista-s" you can see when completed.

At 51 I'am old enough to remember and have patronized the great electronics stores such as Lafayette and Allied as well as the tail-end of Radio Row and Canal street.

Today, all the real electronics have either gone to mail order, closed or morphed into "housewife" shops such as Radio Shack. Although I'am inconvenienced and resentfull of this trend I realize that comsumer electronics have reached a level of sophistication and economy that setting up a "stereo" or other device (often incorrectly) is no longer a job for a learned hobbyist.

When I read these posts I realize that the sentiment expressed is akin to the simple joys of childhood such as those my late Father recounted about turning a skate, a plank of wood and an orange crate into a go-cart. My friends from Mexico and the Philipines tell of doing the same things today, but they also have computers.

Lino

 

[Dighton Rockhead]

Today, all the real electronics have either gone to mail order, closed or morphed into "housewife" shops such as Radio Shack. Although I'am inconvenienced and resentfull of this trend I realize that comsumer electronics have reached a level of sophistication and economy that setting up a "stereo" or other device (often incorrectly) is no longer a job for a learned hobbyist.
Lino

I find this trend in electronics retailing more than a little unsettling, especially when it puts consumers in the position of purchasing online or by mail order items that are sight unseen.

So much for the days of the neighborhood electroics shop, where you could give the latest models a "test drive" before making a decision, and where the staff acutally is knowledgeable about what they're selling.