[Elecraft] Reaching across the chronological divide

[David Gilbert]

This of course is a discussion that isn't likely to die before we do, 
but I really don't think that any significant portion of today's youth 
will ever look at amateur radio like we do.  I wish that weren't the 
case, but reality bites.

1.  The major lure of amateur radio for most of us was the ability to 
freely talk to faraway places.  Young people today can do that with FM 
quality and yet often they don't ... they text or chat via message 
groups and forums.

2.  Communicating today is license free, and while even now with today's 
lesser requirements getting an amateur radio license is maybe not a 
roadblock it's a nuisance to have to study for something that you don't 
otherwise care about.

3.  Effectively communicating today is far cheaper hardware-wise than 
for amateur radio, especially for long distances.

4.  Communicating today is independent of time of day or position in the 
sunspot cycle.

5.  A basic competency in amateur radio was once considered a stepping 
stone to a technical career.  That is hardly the case today.  In fact, I 
remember one manager of a test department in another company telling me 
he tried to avoid hiring hams because they talked about it too much on 
the job.

One thing I do believe has carryover appeal is the spirit of 
competition.  Humans in general always seem keen to compete at almost 
anything ... from eating hot dogs to running to vicariously watching 
football to quilting to barbeque.  Young people today have video games 
that provide a FAR richer competitive environment than any ham radio 
contest (I do both, by the way), and I've always thought that one way to 
drum up interest in ham radio is to develop a contest format that has 
similar elements.  Ham radio contests are essentially endurance events 
that involve independent action throughout the contest with the 
comparison occurring at the end, and often weeks or months later.  Video 
games require different but otherwise comparable proficiency (both 
mental and physical) but involve real time counter moves to any 
opponent.  The closest we hams come to offsetting somebody we view as 
competition is to steal their frequency or QRM them.  I'm not at all 
suggesting that we do any such thing, but a contest where we could take 
some action that subtracted from somebody else's score is the kind of 
thing I'm talking about.  And no, I don't know how to do that either, 
but it illustrates what I'm talking about.

It's not any surprise to me that contesting is one of the few surviving 
ham radio activities with high participation.  Even ragchewing has 
practically died out, and if anyone disputes that take a look at how 
much time you spend each week reading email reflectors versus being on 
the air (other than in a contest).

I'm not really sure what Wayne was referring to here, and maybe he 
implied that same thing that I'm saying, but we aren't going to bring 
young folks into the hobby by trying to convince them that the same 
things that appealed to us 40 years ago are going to appeal to them.  
This isn't a communication or publicity problem.  In spite of the 
comments from hams I've seen over the years, most young people pretty 
much know the general framework of ham radio and they've simply rejected 
it in favor of other things.  There are always a few exceptions, of 
course, but I'd bet $100 that the bulk of those young people who pop up 
online or in QST as shining examples of young blood in the hobby are 
nowhere to be found two years later.

If for any reason we want young folks to embrace the hobby, the hobby 
itself is going to have to adapt.  That most of us seem unable to 
understand that fact is probably another facet of the problem ... we're 
old and inflexible (in both appearance and in fact), which doesn't help 
the image of the hobby one wit.  The pictures from Dayton or any other 
hamfest have the same appeal as if they were taken at a Lawrence Welk 
concert.

I guarantee that those of us who are still above ground five years from 
now will be having this same discussion, and it won't be because we 
weren't persuasive enough.

73,
Dave   AB7E


On 12/13/2019 7:24 PM, Wayne Burdick wrote:
> Hams of a certain age, including yours truly (first licensed in 1971) recall their excitement on joining the hobby: there was the promise of contact with faraway places, collection of vivid QSL cards, mastery of esoteric equipment, synchrony with the rhythms of Morse code, and the crafting of antennas to harness action at a distance.
>
> Most of us still feel that spark, occasionally--some on a daily basis--experiencing the wonder all over again.
>
> While the accoutrements and equipage of youth have evolved over the decades, their DNA has not. Somewhere, nestled between the genetic codes for half-pipe snowboarding, Instagram, Juul, and ambient house, there's a dormant sequence for the Radio Art waiting to be stirred.
>
> Is there a Battle Royale for ham radio? A tactical RPG?
>
> What is our sorcerer's stone? Our rap?
>
> Will Gen-Z or Gen-Alpha tickle the ionosphere, and if so...why?
>
> To hand our batons across the chronological divide, we'll need empathetic, open-ended inquiry.
>
> 73,
> Wayne
> N6KR
>