The younger generation who have ECE/CS degrees love SDR. So does the military and the commercial/corporate radio industry. Some of the older generation frown upon SDR as voodoo magic with too many computer/network dependencies.
There is a general distrust (among older hams) of computer/network technology and especially anything that depends on a non-human (computer program) to modulate or demodulate a message.
For example, you can send Morse Code with a Carrier Wave and a simple switch (on and off) that you built from wood scraps and copper. You don't need an external thing (program, software, device, etc.) to do that for you. So there are less dependencies and in general it is much simpler to reason about and use. When the shit hits the fan, you want simple, reliable things.
The problem is, most humans don't know Morse Code. So they can't decode a message anymore. Thus the reliance on computers and software.
The efficiency gains are hard to argue with as well. You can do things with SDR that would be impossible or far too costly in hardware... Like resurrecting and communicating with a 36 year-old satellite http://www.rtl-sdr.com/rebooting-isee-3-usrp-software-define...
Pretty much. There's a lot of people doing cool stuff over the radio, but the conventional wisdom is that if it wouldn't work in an emergency, you can't rely on it. So while you can rely on computers somewhat, be prepared to jump on SSB/CW/FM in the worst cases (ie, you only have power for your radio, nothing else).
And relying on the internet for anything is an absolute no-no, at least among the emergency people.
The younger generation who have ECE/CS degrees love SDR. So does the military and the commercial/corporate radio industry. Some of the older generation frown upon SDR as voodoo magic with too many computer/network dependencies.
There is a general distrust (among older hams) of computer/network technology and especially anything that depends on a non-human (computer program) to modulate or demodulate a message.
For example, you can send Morse Code with a Carrier Wave and a simple switch (on and off) that you built from wood scraps and copper. You don't need an external thing (program, software, device, etc.) to do that for you. So there are less dependencies and in general it is much simpler to reason about and use. When the shit hits the fan, you want simple, reliable things.
The problem is, most humans don't know Morse Code. So they can't decode a message anymore. Thus the reliance on computers and software.
The efficiency gains are hard to argue with as well. You can do things with SDR that would be impossible or far too costly in hardware... Like resurrecting and communicating with a 36 year-old satellite http://www.rtl-sdr.com/rebooting-isee-3-usrp-software-define...