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

[David Gilbert]

Like I said ... anecdotes.  The numbers tell a totally different story.  
And the "everything is all right ... we don't need to change anything" 
attitude is why.

Dave   AB7E


On 8/30/2025 1:37 PM, MIKE ZANE wrote:
> 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.
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> Elecraft mailing list
>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>> Post: mailto:Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
>>
>> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>> Message delivered to n6zw at comcast.net