You’d be not far off, if you came to believe some in the ham radio community were two feet and head firmly buried in the main Cold War era of radio, the way they declare almost any evolution of radio systems and modes of evolved operation that’s come along as ‘not proper ham radio’
But given that the affordable, not Frankenstein’s monster horror builds which actually created cost effective stable RF circuitry were pulls or evolutionary children of commercial grade circuitry subsection of surplus and current spec PMR and LMR and sometimes military recent spec kit, means it’s fairly two-faced to deny worthiness over something you can’t bring yourself to explore.
Digital radio, basic and trunking system infrastructure and it’s RoIP equiv are all just as valid ham radio areas of exploration as packet radio via unofficial gateways were the darknet of ham radio and could have been a second WWW comma underpinning if taken the distance.
Sure, stick with your comfort zone and deny what’s beyond，but don’t be running down those who actually want to explore and research and re-purpose commercial ideas and kit - it’s as much part of Ham Radio as anything else.
But I guess there will always be those who’s ham radio ideal matches what Tony Hancock’s ‘The Radio Ham‘ parodied and yet was a laughable to enjoy as it actually said more about early post-war Ham Radio that I think the ops at the time could see the funny side of.
After all, we were at one time what obsessives in the vintage and classic car world are today. I admit it was the case, but it was growing up around Ham Radio which actually made me truly appreciate it’s worth by the time I was old enough to sit an exam - the fact I put that off for twenty years is another topic entirely.
Ham Radio is what you make it, it’s what DX CB‘ers try to emulate in a lazy-assed ‘as much as we can get away with‘ manner and poorly given the truly serious got ham licenses and moved to 10m and got into ‘proper‘ HF from there. I did experimental stuff on CB, but it wasn’t trying to emulate AR/HR but more about redefining what was possible with a trash-grade average CB rig and much you could improve it’s design at a serious level rather than be a ‘dev pot tweaker’ grade space monkey. And yes, I got a lot of ■■■■ then about my interest being not right in CB circles as much.
But where they, the two feet buried kind in both communities, fear to tread is what should be embraced, the possibility and potential and the subsequent roller coaster ride along the way. Sure, the CB equiv won’t be anywhere near as fun or encompassing, but they’ve got some room to play with - like an allocation that’s more of a morgue these days.