[Boatanchors] Silent Keys

[Tom Chesek]

I've tried to imagine myself as a young person in today's world and what my 
view might be regarding technology.  Although I am a licensed ham for only 9 
years I've had an active interest in radio and television technology all of 
my life.  That spark was ignited by my father, an engineer for the company 
called Verizon today.  As an adolescent I remember dad taking our family to 
a hotel in Harrisburg PA for a laser demonstration where voice was 
transmitted over a light beam.  It was amazing stuff to us back then.  At 12 
years old I placed an ad in a free weekly newspaper asking for old radios 
and televisions.  My parents found out about it when the phone calls came 
in.  Both my mom and dad took me to several homes where we collected those 
items for me to experiment with in our basement.  We also had chemistry sets 
during that era and stunk up the house on numerous occasions.  My point is 
what does today's younger generation have to spark that interest for 
hands-on learning?  Our technology has advanced so far that everything that 
you need is in a Dick Tracy 2-way wrist radio.  There is a lot less of an 
opportunity for kids to see and feel the thrills of fixing something 
physically.  I can't help but wonder what those CBer's thoughts were after 
getting their licenses.  Maybe they did not have that connection to 
technology like my generation and those before mine had embedded into our 
being therefore they didn't develop an interest other than talking to their 
friends.

Tom K3TVC


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "DAve Mayfield" <laptop at gwltd.com>
To: "David Knepper" <collinsradio at comcast.net>
Cc: <boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>; <collins_radios at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2011 7:34 AM
Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Silent Keys


> It is growing, around my QTH a local ham who owns a CB shop is helping
> all his CB buddies get their Tech ticket. At first a few of them were
> using some of the repeaters, now they have moved to simplex and just
> went back to CB. So while the numbers are up on paper, I think the
> actual number of real hams is going down fast.
>
> David Knepper wrote:
>> I heard someone this morning on the "Old Buzzards Net" on 3905 Khz. 
>> exclaim that there were 100 silent keys listed in this issue of QST.  Is 
>> that correct?  No wonder the hambands are suspiciouly quiet these days. 
>> Yet, we are told our ranks are growing - I truly hope so.
>>
>>
>> David Knepper, W3CRA/W3ST
>> Collins Radio Associaton - Join Today
>> www.collinsra.com
>> Editor of the Collins Journal
>> Secretary of the Collins Radio Association
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>>
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>>
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