Re: [IRCA] UltraLight Yahoo Group or Similar

[D1028Gary@xxxxxxx]

Hello All,
 
     The SRF-59 radio review, a little fun project  written in a couple of 
days, seems to have
had an impact on IRCA like a Class 5 Hurricane.  For those traditional  DXers 
who feel like
their club has been hijacked out from under them, along with my own  personal 
bewilderment,
I will offer the following suggestions why the Ultralight Revolution  
occurred (in order of 
importance):
 
1)  Technological innovation in pocket radios has proceeded at an  
astonishing pace in recent
years, with revolutionary IC improvements making these tiny radios fully  
capable of serious
DX.  This fact was almost completely unknown to AM-DX enthusiasts...  it was 
truly 
"an accident waiting to happen."
 
2)  The IBOC gloom and doom had truly reached an oppressive state,  turning 
what is 
supposed to be a fun hobby into something akin to a funeral procession.  IRCA 
members
were more than ready for an exciting, positive new activity to shatter the  
IBOC gloom.
 
3)  An old Navy acronym, K.I.S.S., comes to mind!  Megabuck,  mega-heavy, 
mega-complicated receivers are simply a turnoff to many members of  IRCA.  
Ham radio
QRP experience made it obvious to me that if we could somehow apply the  
"skilled,
motivated operator making fantastic contacts with basic equipment" formula  
to medium
wave DX, it would catch on like wildfire.  The SRF-59 surely was the  classic 
radio to
exercise this sneaky little plan of mine.
 
4)  Pocket radio technology is the exciting new future of AM-DX!   We no 
longer need to
wistfully look at the past, as if our hobby is fading into the  sunset.  Sony 
and Sangean
currently have an incredible level of competition underway in pocket  radios, 
currently
packing the performance of older table receivers into a package the size of  
a cigarette
lighter.  These are already serious DX machines, but Sony, Sangean and  
C.Crane are
not content with these... they want to thrill us even more!  Why not  
graciously let them
do so, and anticipate the exciting future with eager anticipation?
 
     Finally, the Ultralight Revolution truly belongs  to all of us, and 
there is no way to put
the Genie back into the bottle.  Nobody can control such an explosion,  
certainly not me.
We can do our best to guide and assist it, but it will ultimately go where  
the majority of
IRCA members want it to go.  I personally hope that it remains a very  
integral part of 
IRCA and the list, because I truly enjoy being a member of this great group  
of DXers, 
and I feel awed by the accidental help of Colin Newell to start the  
Ultralight Boom, the
help from technical experts like Nick Hall-Patch and Steve Ratzlaff, Lynn  
Hollerman's
patient toleration of our verbosity (and her possession of an SRF-59), and  
even the fine
support and encouragement of a master DXer like John Bryant.  With  IRCA's 
best
minds guiding the Boom, how can it possibly go astray?
 
73 and Best Wishes to All,
 
Gary DeBock



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