[Boatanchors] Silent Keys

[manualman at juno.com]

There probably have been many new licensed hams throughout amateur radio
history that came into the service for just the "communications thrill",
the fun of talking to people on the other side of the world, public
service type activities, etc. and were not technically inclined (i.e.
diddler's on the workbench) such as housewives, factory workers,
gardeners, lawyers, etc. etc. It's not a requirement that a pocket
protector is required to be a ham. A "real ham" is sometimes an oxymoron
phrase.

Pete, wa2cwa

On Thu, 22 Sep 2011 08:15:40 -0400 "Tom Chesek" <tchesek at epix.net>
writes:
> 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.