Essex Ham Chat Forum

Got my first iphone yesterday which was a hand me down after many years of nokia phones. Only got it so I can use it in the car with the apple play system. Anyway long story cut short I was having a qso with a couple of locals on 2 metres in the early hours and mentioned that I had got an iphone and some gentle persuasion was thrown towards me to try out the zello app. Now I am not keen on network radio or voice over IP systems but I thought I would be nosy and see what all the fuss is about zello.

I can see that zello can be very addictive as it is a more relaxed atmosphere, You are not restricted to sitting behind a base station to make contacts, You can talk to someone in Australia while doing a number 2 if one so wished or making a chicken sandwich or even taking the dog for a walk, You don't have to reply on conditions, antenna's, regulations, logbooks infact you don't even have to be a licensed radio operator to use zello or have any knowledge of radio what so ever.

The audio is off a very good quality which you would expect over the internet and certainly better then the local dmr repeater which is also linked to the internet, Plenty of activity as there are many thousands using zello. One positive aspect to zello is that you are not going to get keyed out or abused as abusers can be banned.

So far I have been listening all day although it has been interesting however at no time have I felt inclined to have a chat with anybody as would not know what to talk about as can hardly discuss my radio, antenna or conditions or feel proud of the contact through my personal achievement or the hobby, It seems rather daft to disappear to zello to talk about amateur radio which in all honesty is glorified skype, mobile phone however I can understand that it has it uses if you add personal friends as a good way to keep in touch with no worry about using your inclusive minutes, Not as if you get a shortage of inclusive minutes these days on mobile phone packages but some may prefer zello as you still have some form of push to talk which probably reminds them of real radios.

I am not knocking zello as some people are not able to have antenna's where they live and some may not have the money to afford real radios and it is also a way to listen to others without engaging if you don't want to or are busy, I might even use it myself for personal contacts when out and about and radio is not possible.

There is no fact about it technology has been killing amateur radio for decades very slowly and the mobile phone has the majority of blame for that and then with the smart phones of today that support apps has just helped a bit more. It is far easier and cheaper to use a network device albeit a mobile phone or VOIP then to go out and deal with people that interfere with the ham bands plus these days there are more and more people who prefer just talking rather then conducting technical experiments on real radio, Times have changed.

What I noticed when I was sat on one busy zello channel is someone was moaning that there were 167 users and no one was chatting and the next conversation followed was about dogging, politics and Hitler oh and brexit! that one had to come out! lol

Just remember it is only a hobby and do what makes you happy at the end of the day so happy hamming (phrase stolen from a nice ham I know called Dorothy)

It would be great if the manufacturers of ham radio made a Bluetooth unit that could be linked to the base station radio so people could at least wander off from the radio around the house and even in the garden and could still enjoy and participate in radio as we need something to keep everyone interested in still buying more radios and something to make ham radio more interesting.

Wishing all my ham friends worldwide 73s.

Paul M0DVD.