[Elecraft] Reaching across the chronological divide

Sat Dec 14 11:32:48 EST 2019

Hi Folks,

Well, here is a young lady who has decided the Amateur Radio - and Contesting - is her hobby of choice.

Violetta (Kat) Latham, KM4ATT, has been invited to speak at IDXC 2020 in Visalia, CA.   Violetta lives in Greencastle, PA and is a 15-year old Amateur Extra.   She’s raising funds for her trip to Visalia.  

Violetta has a nice QRZ.COM page at https://www.qrz.com/db/KM4ATT

Violetta's image was chosen to be on the cover of the new ARRL publication Amateur Radio Contesting for Beginners.

Here's a link to the image:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xyd0fqm8e484x87/KM4ATT%20Cover.docx?dl=0

I’ve known Violetta and her family for a few years, and she’s a very accomplished young Amateur.  She likes contesting and being the DX in contests, too.  She’s quite excited about some South American DX she’s worked recently.

Violetta has established a GoFundMe page to raise money for her trip to Visalia here:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-a-young-speaker-travel-to-dx-convention-2020?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=m_pd+share-sheet

Here's a very direct and practical way to reach across the chronological divide.   I’ve contributed, and I hope you will consider contributing as well.

Thank you.

- 73 and good DX de Mike, K6MKF, NCDXC Secretary

> -----Original Message-----
> From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net <elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net>
> On Behalf Of W0MU Mike Fatchett
> Sent: Saturday, December 14, 2019 08:12
> To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Reaching across the chronological divide
> 
> There are many ways to get enjoyment from Ham Radio, long distance contacts
> being just one of them.  I am a DXer and Contester by heart as that is what I was
> exposed to as a young ham.  I never got into the rag chewing.  I had a sched with
> my Grandfather weekly yet we still still talked just as much on the
> telephone.  People stay involved in hobbies that are fun.  It has gotten
> increasingly more difficult to find homes that allow ham activities, ie towers and
> outside antennas.  The entry cost can be high.  I am curious to see if Remote is
> going to bring in any new folks.  It is keeping older ones active that desire to
> move to assisted living or smaller more easily maintained homes.  Contesting
> could probably be bigger than it is now but there is nothing close to level playing
> field which you can find with online games or Esports. The guy with the most
> bucks and best location is going to have a huge advantage.  We in the west can't
> compete with the east coast that can run EU all day long in most DX
> contests.  Domestic contests are different but look who consistently wins.  These
> are big stations.
> 
> I am also involved with 3D printing as a hobby as I play table top games and I
> build terrain, walls, trees, miniatures.  This hobby is booming and is filled with
> young and old alike.  Entry is about 200 bucks and requires a bit of space on a
> desk.  Same mind set for many as there is a lot to learn about the printing
> process to setup and make good prints. It is not a plug in and go hobby.
> 
> Young people would rather binge watch shows on their phone or tv instead of
> actually meeting people.
> 
> I think there could be a draw but what I find is many hams don't want more
> hams.  They want exclusivity and for some don't really want competition as
> someone else might win their paper or wooden plaque. People want the stuff
> and want to win and want the accolades but would prefer to do it without
> competition.  I know a person that is part of horse club that my XYL and daughter
> are part of.  She used to always win a saddle because she was the only one that
> would enter that class, which required you compete in 3 classes.  She got mad
> when the club removed that class and started giving saddles away for the
> individual classes. Her comment, well I can't beat...so and so.............. so I just
> won't compete anymore.    Many competitors do it only for fun and themselves
> and know they have little chance to win.  This is very similar to ham radio
> contesting where most are really just participants and not serious competitors.
> 
> I am not sure how you sell Ham Radio to people today.  I have two sons and a
> daughter.  One son got licensed really young and did some contests and mobile
> activities with me but never got hooked like I did.   People have less free time
> than ever and there are more options for entertainment than ever.
> 
> W0MU
> 
> On 12/13/2019 9:36 PM, David Gilbert wrote:
> >
> > 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
> >>
> >
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