[ARC5] Interest in "command" sets - where is a new generation?

[Dennis DuValll]

Well, still some interest out there in building stuff, see:
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HCmcIL0cOY <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HCmcIL0cOY> >

Dennis D.  W7QHO
Glendale, CA

******************
> On Nov 19, 2015, at 10:19 AM, Leslie Smith <vk2bcu at operamail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
>          The next generation of engineers (or hobbyists)
> 
> I am a member of Westlakes Radio Club.  We have few members under 50
> years of age.  Yet 30 years ago the situation was the opposite.  The
> club founder, Kieth Howard, was the science master at the local high
> school, and every Saturday afternoon the train station near the club was
> flooded with teenagers - all going to Westlakes Radio Club.  Today, our
> club has about 200 members; but nearly every club member joined in the
> 60s and '70s.
> 
> I spoke with several people directly engaged in teaching science at the
> secondary and tertiary level.  There is some interest in computing, but
> little for physics, chemistry or maths.  You may substitute the word
> "electronics" or "radio" for physics.
> 
> I don't know a single reader on this list under 50 years of age (but
> then I apologize to those whose age I estimate incorrectly!)  In the
> recent thread about the Hallicrafters S-38 I read (or at least infer) a
> lot of enthusiasm for radio/electronics in teen-years; I read about
> school-teachers teaching with infectious enthusiasm.  I read accounts by
> list-readers who caught that enthusiasm (and who made two-way radio
> contact around the world using basic stations cobbled together from
> "command" sets or Hallicrafters S-38 and a one-tube MOPA).
> 
> Now, of course, we can talk around the word for a ten-cent phone call. 
> We can use Skype to do the same thing for nothing!  Has the PC killed an
> interest in radio?  Dare I ask a question,  "Who will continue our
> interest in these old radios?"  More than our narrow interest in
> "command/ARC-5" radio, who will make the next generation of engineers
> and technicians?  This is an interesting question?  Is there some way to
> re-kindle interest in radio/electronics?
> 
> Les
> 
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