American Ham Radio Operators, We Need To Have A Talk.

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[kicktree]

some folks won't budge a millimeter but when given an inch... they'll take a

[tomg]

When I was a Kid, and I’m far from being a kid, the USA was dedicated to switching to metric. All the talk was about how are car’s speedometers, mile markers, milk, would all change…. That is exactly the time when Coke changed to metric and we got the 2 liter bottle. I was taught the metric in grade school!!!. NASA uses the metric system. Chemistry, Pharmaceuticals, Medicine, Cars for the last 30 or more years all are in metric. Heck, our freedom creating and keeping military uses the metric system… It is time to embrace the metric system!!!!

[rafaelgcpp]

I live in a metric country.

Although metric system was adopted for over 150 years, up to 30 or 40 years ago, engineering material still used imperial measurements. What did we do?

Well, I have two sets of tools, my measurement tools can do both.

You don't have to convert. You need half inch, pick an inches ruler. You need 5 meters of wire, use a metric tape measure! That easy

Mike, you are absolutely right. You rant is my rant. You rule!

[mikesradiorepair]

I started buying metric tape measures 30 years ago. Trying to lay out evenly spaced holes into random length is much easier using a base 10 system then one with fractions. Trying to divide 256 3/8 inches (21 feet 4 3/8 inches) by 23 in my head requires a bottle of Tylenol. Dividing 6.512 Meters by 23 is so much easier. Want to switch to the next larger or smaller measuring increment in the metric system just move the decimal place one space to the right or left. Try doing that with imperial.

Another point, the radio hobby is a electronics hobby. Everything in electronics is in metric. Tera, Giga, Mega....Micro, Nano, Pico... All metric prefixes. Everything I do in electronics all day, every day is measured in metric units. Microvolt, Gigahertz, kiloohm, picofarad, nanohenry, milliwatt.

[DellFargus]

My car gets 40 rods to the hogshead, and that's the way I like it!

[HAMFunkopdi]

It makes no sense to change everything. I bought a metric tape measure long ago and it is so easy. Keep fighting the good fight my friend.

[reloadnorth]

I am from Canada, 61, and use both Metric and Imperial systems daily. No issues. Just go with the flow.

[ryano]

I bought a funky tape measure off eBay a while ago because it scratched two hobby itches of mine, ham radio and vintage military equipment. It’s a U.S. Army Signal Corps frequency tape measure from pre-1960, as it still uses the term “MC” (Mega Cycles) instead of MHz.

It’s a 156-foot tape measure with a few odd features. One side is marked with frequencies like “7.0MC” or “7.0MHz, ” meaning if you cut an antenna at that mark, it will be a ¼ wavelength antenna resonant at 7.0 MHz, or in the 40-meter band. If you flip the tape over, it’s marked in feet, but in decimal form instead of inches, so at the 7.0MHz mark, the reverse side shows 33.4 feet, or approximately 33 feet and 5 inches, for a ¼ wavelength antenna resonant at 7.0 MHz.

Haha, it’s funny how much effort went into making the tape measure for antennas that didn’t use meters. Still, it’s a cool piece of military history.

[SteveSinghose]

Well said sir. Concise - unemotional - logical - accurate. No system is perfect. Metric makes the math much easier.

[justincompton]

I’m with you. I work on German cars and I only know metric tools and measurements. The one thing I’m still not giving up is the solid inch. I’d rather say “an inch” than to say I “25.4mm”

[kennethblackwell]

I'm comfortable....either system. My measuring devices go both ways.

[JanPeterson]

The Harvard Bridge between Boston and Cambridge is measured in units of Smoots. In 1958, fraternity pledge Oliver Smoot laid down on the pedestrian walkway and had his length marked. He then got up, moved a little further along, and did it again. The bridge is 364.4 Smoots long, plus or minus one ear.

The markings have been maintained over the years and the city even uses the Smoot offset to identify positions along the bridge. When the bridge was renovated in the 1980s, the Cambridge police department requested that the markings be preserved. The workmen performing the renovation even scored the pavement at Smoot lengths instead of the conventional six feet (a Smoot is approximately five feet seven inches).

Next time you find yourself in the Copley neighborhood of Boston or in Cambridge, take a few minutes to walk across the bridge and observe the Smoot markings. You'll be glad you did.

[techiephil]

Both systems can work together. American here, moved to Chile where everything was metric. No problem, you get used to it. Then moved to UK. Guess what? Car speed is miles per hour. Weight can be kilograms or stone! People have no problem with inches or centimeters. I just watched a video from my favorite British ham in which he gave antenna lengths in feet, but said, “that’s __ for those that prefer metric, I learned in Imperial measurements, so that’s easier for me.” Use what you like, no need to get all high and mighty about your preference.

[ailivac]

Does it bother anyone else that most people who talk about the "imperial" system actually mean US Customary, which is different in some of its units than the British imperial system? Length units are the same, but liquid volume? Not only is the gallon completely different, the way it's subdivided is different, despite the smaller units having the same names.

And let's not even get into US survey feet. Or troy weight.

[Eric]

As a Canadian I think I’m highly qualified to speak on the Imperial vs. Metric debate (jk I’m not qualified to tie my own shoes). We use and are forced to use both systems on a daily basis and in science.

And let me tell you it’s an absolute nightmare

Im currently in college for Power Engineering, so we essentially play and work with steam (too long to fully explain lol). Inches of water column, pounds of steam, foot-pounds, pound-feet, inch-pounds, pound mass, pound force, BTU’s, BTU-Hours, it’s a disaster. Thermodynamics, linear motion, moments and torque, all that stuff is hell to do in imperial.

Metric on the other hand? An absolute breeze. Newtons, meters, pascals, kilograms, joules, watts, everything just works together and math’s so nicely. I cannot fully explain how deplorable the imperial system is without getting my YouTube account banned lol.

Love the video tho and love you silly Americans. Keep doing you and don’t let anyone tell you different 😉😂

[NovemberOneOscarGrouch]

Now listen here good sir, I measure tapes in children's toes divided by the number of 30-06 cartridges and my measurements are never wrong.

😂

[luisfigueiredo]

Luis Figueiredo VE3FIG
Hi Mike! Great point on measuring antennas, metric system only simplifies and makes the process of cutting antennas so much easier and leaves no room for error. Take this example, 2.5 meters is bluntly simple: 2 meter and 50 centimetres; 250 centimetres; 2500 millimetres. Easy enough, try to do the same with imperial : 16.47 feet ; 16 feet and 5.64 inches; 16 feet 5 inches 5/8. Some times people don’t realize, for example, that 1.5 feet is 1 foot and 6 inches but 1.4 IS NOT 1 foot and 4 inches but IS 1 foot and 3 inches.
Thanks for the work on education of the ham radio community.
73 Luis

[Bobu]

Soapbox: When I was sailing at 15 knots in 28 fathoms of water with my English Father-in-law he asked me how many stones I weighed. After traveling 30 furlongs I asked "What?" Your channel your rules. I bought a 25 foot metric tape measure just for antenna building. My wife stole it to use for her sewing as her patterns are in metric.

[longfeather]

Mike, I worked for a German Company for 29 years, the blueprints for the items we built were in metric, it took a little getting use too but it got easier. I downloaded a woodworking project a few months ago and the plans were in both standard and metric, I found it easier to do it in metric than standard because metric was more rounded then trying to go with something like 5-55/64. yes we were brought up on standard and not metric, but once you get to using it then it comes natural.

[simonforget]

If I remember correctly, the legal definition of an inch in the US is 25, 4mm...
Keep up your excellent work!