I suppose I get why this is interesting. But I don't get why it's useful.
If no one would ever really be using this mode/frequency to communicate long distances given this was such a special circumstance, and HF is already the standard (I understand), what practical has been achieved? What is this for?
First of all, This website is called “hacker” news: practicality doesn’t have a lot to do with it. [1]
Second, practical research into how to transmit information more efficiently has many, many applications. WiFi and mobile-phone technologies would not exist without research like this. [2]
Think of this as a sport like marksmanship or hot air ballooning. There exist much easier ways to make a hole in the middle of a piece of paper, or to get from a fixed ___location in one corn field to a random one in another, but sometimes the challenge of a more elaborate process can be more fun. Particularly if no one has done it before, or done it as far with as elaborate or as simple a machine as yours.
So, I don't care about ham radio at all, but I can imagine that if you do something for fun that it's grating to have people ask you over and over again "What is it good for?" What is anything good for? What is flying kites good for? What are walks on the beach, or sunsets good for, or any of the other purposeless activities that people engage in?
It's fun to do something that nobody has done before. Even though I don't care about the actual goal, it's interesting to read about what the obstacles are, and how people overcame them.
Well, that's a legit point. And I won't pursue this topic much longer (tiring to talk meta about threads).
But equally, if someone is sensitive about being asked what's it good for, then maybe don't seek worldwide attention for it on the front page and get offended when the world asks you such questions.
I was just reacting to my post with a legitimate question being severely downvoted. And I do think a question about whether something is useful is a legitimate question, whether the answer is yes or no. Some people must be offended, based on being downvoted -- but who knows when there's 1000s of users. You can't waste your time being offended on the internet by random signal-to-noise.
It's boring to meta-debate the quality of discussion / people's voting on a story or comment, so I won't pursue it much more here. But if something doesn't have a known practical value then let's talk about what its value is, or could be. Don't just vote someone down because you're offended that your pursuit / hobby was questioned.
This feels like its a "street car mods", "CPU overclocking", or even "distance running" kind of hobby. Part ego, part technical, part seeing how far you can push something. Sometimes these things have use (to you, or others), sometimes not.
If no one would ever really be using this mode/frequency to communicate long distances given this was such a special circumstance, and HF is already the standard (I understand), what practical has been achieved? What is this for?