"Wonder why it never seemed to crop up in the 40 some years I've been around radio before now?"
some hams take their ticket to talk, they memorise answers to pass the test in order to be able to get on the air and talk,
they forget most of the little they had to memorise to pass,
they will more than likely talk to none techie folk steering well clear of the techie type because they aint interested in tech they are yappers tech is boring to them,
they talk about their aches and pains what they did yesterday after cutting the grass what they ate today and what they intend to eat tomorrow, they likely know all the local repeater frequencies and tones and have them in their radio or on a chart, yapper often sits hitting a button operating digimodes but not always, yapper may be a keen dxer chasing that rare dxcc that has eluded him, he knows guys that have it but cant figure out whey he is struggling to get it in the log, he wont ask techie because he dont want a hour lecture on radiation angles antenna petterns and propagation so he plugs away hoping one day he will get them all,
when yapper gets a problem with his station he will ask his yapper friends what could be wrong, between them they will come up with half a dozen things to try based on past experience using trial and error,
when yappers finals or some other fault develops on his radio its off to the dealers with it, yapper may know a local techie type that will check it out for him before they get backshafted at the dealers, only now does he really want to talk to the techie,
at rallies you will find yapper in the bar with a beer, in his bag of goodies he will have a half dozen new pl259's, a cheap 30w soldering iron some horrible lead free solder a cd with software for digimodes an icom world clock and maybe the latest dual band handie if the rally happens to be close to his birthday,
yapper has books by lou franklin in his collection,
others are interested in radio as opposed to yapping,
they memorise what they need to pass the test and see that as an introduction to radio, for them the real learning starts after they pass,
techie wants to understand radio and is more likely to seek out like minded techie folk who talk about radio as opposed to things in general, they may not always agree but they share a common passion, your gout, your daughters wedding what you ate for lunch or the accident you had last week in walmart carlot is of little interest to him, he tends to steer clear of repeaters prefering to work the birds or weedle out that qrp station on his newly built 4 square array or bobtail curtain, he is not baffled by terminated rhombics and magnetic loops.
he may be a dxer too, may even use digimodes but he will use his better understanding of radio to whip you in a contest,
when techie type has a problem with his station he has a gut instinct, his analytical mind gets him in the ballpark, he sees no reason to share his troubles with one and all looking for half a dozen ideas based on precision guesswork,
when a fault develops on his radio the last place hes taking it is the dealers, he will fix it himself,
he may or may not prefere the older radio with real components but if hes not too old and his eyes are good he will tackle even the smallest surface mount componenets and relish the challenge, old tube radios may arouse him,
at rallies techie type only visits the bar if hes genuinely thirsty, he has no time for banter with the guys from the local repeater groupe hes on the hunt for something interesting to play with, something in need of tlc, something he can convert to do what he wants it to do, those rare hv caps hes been needing for his project,
hes easy to spot his bag is full of things you have no idea about hes the guy ballancing the ex military antenna coupler on his shoulder, it looks nothing like your mfj but it has vacume variables and all silver plate inductors, you think you know what it is but you aint sure, is it a tuner or is it a marine bandpass filter from a ww2 battleship, it kinda looks like what you saw in ya mfj when you first bought it and had to take the lid off to add a few missing bolts and tighten everything up,
dont step on that mains cable hes trailing behind him on your way to the bar, its fastened to a hot air rework iron stuffed in his bag along with his russion triode and faulty grid dip meter complete with full set of coils,
with coupler ballanced on one shoulder and the old ft7b with leaky mixer fault in his other hand stepping on that trailing lead may pull the bag off his shoulder and the whole shebang could hit the ground, you will have his vacume relays pin diodes triacs and thyristors spilling everywhere, he will not be impressed with you,
techie has a well thumbed copy of maxwells reflections beside his bed, and a second copy in the bathroom.
