This sort of follows on from my semi-satirical “real” ham radio post. I first heard about QSO1 while lurking on the Brandmeister Worldwide talkgroup. It’s a very nifty app to be sure, but sometimes I do wonder if I’m fooling myself. Like what separates the average QSO1 experience from, say, Discord, besides worse audio and fewer text chat features.
Yes, you are potentially transmitting over any number of repeaters on RF, but if QSO1 becomes the path of least resistance for rag chewers like myself and everyone ends up using it, what makes it “real” ham radio?
almalexia@lemmygrad.ml 19 hours ago
I have no issue with digital radio at all and in fact use it quite a bit. But I do find that there has become an over reliance on VOIP in place of actual RF communication.
In my opinion there is no difference in using an app like QSO1 in place of any VOIP application. I just feel as if there are far more interesting things to do within the hobby.
If you are interested in VOIP try out some of the more interesting programs like Mumble, Matrix, or even something radio related like Reticulum.
I see the use case of things like echolink or dmr but I find that most people simply replace their radio with a phone as it is easier. It’s far more fun to use RF