[Elecraft] Effective ways to introduce amateur radio to newcomers?

[David Gilbert]

65 years old for the U.S. is a low side estimate ... some estimates go 
as high as 75.  Check out this image from the latest Southern California 
DX Club Christmas party, or any of the multiple pictures from the Dayton 
Hamfest:

https://www.scdxc.org/

So yes, the hobby is declining and as you imply, a huge number of the 
800,000 licensed hams the ARRL likes to tout are not active at all.

Clearly we'd all like to induce non-hams to join the hobby, but the 
reason is always to preserve it because WE enjoy it ... mostly for 
legacy reasons.   It's a selfish reason and ignores why younger people 
aren't interested.  Even among our own hobby, the bands are mostly dead 
except for contest weekends and FT8 in general ...  and that's at the 
peak of the sunspot cycle!  The fact is that the hobby simply doesn't 
offer much that young people can't get with less hassle elsewhere.

The most popular contests in the world are the CQWW SSB and CW contests 
that drew 35,000 participants combined last fall.  The Memphis BBQ 
championship weekend draws more than that.  The average mud bog event 
draws 3,000 people and one is held almost every weekend somewhere in the 
U.S.  Even such relatively obscure activities as those are more popular 
than ham radio.  I'll even bet that most hams spend more time on 
internet forums like this one than they do on the air.

The only two ham radio activities I can think of that have been actually 
growing are Parks On The Air and FT8, but POTA is mostly just a 
different activity for existing hams (yes, there are anecdotal 
exceptions) and most hams turn their noses up at FT8. Hams are a stodgy 
group and most resist any effort to significantly change the hobby.  
It's dying because it won't change, and that's the way of the world.

Lots of hams (almost literally) whistle past the graveyard and claim 
that the hobby is alive and well, but tell that to all the commercial 
suppliers that are no longer in business.

Lot's of folks point to emergency communications as a reason to preserve 
ham radio, but VERY few hams actually care about it and during Katrina I 
spent many hours monitoring the emergency channels on 20m and 40m.  
Guess what 95% of the activity I heard was?  It was relaying cell phone 
numbers from one official entity (Fire, Police, FEMA, etc) to another 
because there was so little cooperation between those organizations 
ahead of time.  The actual traffic was via cell phone.

So I ask again ... why is it necessary that we talk non-hams into 
joining us?  We don't actually care enough to offer them anything different.

Dave   AB7E


On 8/30/2025 8:12 AM, email via Elecraft wrote:
> Why ?? (Why is it necessary that we talk other people into ham radio 
> in the first place??)  WELL, In the USA, the average age (determined 
> by my browser) is 65 years old.  That means in 20-30 years, that 800K 
> number will be 400K without adding new (younger hams) ???
>
> My kids are in there 30's (and have let the license lapse - but plan 
> on renewing ??)
> My wife is not active...
> I know a number of hams in retirement communities that are not active.
> How many of the 800K are active ??
>
> I have a friend (Scout admin I work with/for) that had a novice in 
> grade school, she let it lapse a number of years ago.  I have been 
> giving her Tech class info and she may have time to do the zoom 
> class...  She did like CW (still knows it).  I may give/lend her my 
> "old" NorCal 40.  It would be nice to have a kit again ??? for new 
> hams.  The NorCal 40 is simple to use and a single band dipole is 
> simple to "throw" into a tree...
>
> 73, Steve WB3LGC
>
> On 7/26/25 18:57, David Gilbert via Elecraft wrote:
>>
>> Exactly.
>>
>> Trying to talk people into being interested in things we're 
>> interested in for the reasons we're interested in them is a foolish 
>> endeavor.  Evangelism is boring and off-putting.  The best we can do 
>> is describe what ham radio can offer and let people decide if that 
>> has any interest for them.
>>
>> If we have to convince somebody that ham radio is interesting to 
>> them, then it probably isn't and even if they go along it won't last.
>>
>> Which brings me to this question:
>> *
>> Why is it necessary that we talk other people into ham radio in the 
>> first place?? * There are supposedly close to 800,000 licensed hams 
>> in the U.S., which is a bigger market and a bigger pool of like minds 
>> than LOTS of other activities.  Is there some sort of collective 
>> insecurity complex going on every time this comes up? And it comes up 
>> with annoying frequency on almost every forum.
>>
>> Dave   AB7E
>>
>>
>>
>> On 7/26/2025 2:27 PM, Fred Jensen via Elecraft wrote:
>>> They almost all view ham radio from a utilitarian perspective, not 
>>> as a hobby ... they have hobbies and interests. Probably the largest 
>>> non-work interests were in the outdoors.
>>