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

[MIKE ZANE]

I think youi might also tell this to all those school clubs, that at leasst get a few licensed. Listen to school clubs on the air ...alive and well.  Mike n6zw 87 years and very active, now in QRP.
> On 08/30/2025 10:45 AM PDT David Gilbert via Elecraft <elecraft at mailman.qth.net> wrote:
> 
>  
> 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.
> >>
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