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

[David Gilbert]

Here's why that, which has been done countless times already, has been 
so minimally effective:

1.  It only appeals to mostly technical people.  When non-techies find 
out they have to study for a license they smile and walk away.

2.  It requires prospective hams to put up some kind of outdoor antenna 
to communicate far enough to be intriguing.  Yes, you can talk a 
thousand km away with an indoor antenna, but that's hardly as enticing 
as maybe being able to reach Europe or Asia or South America.  Most 
people view an outdoor antenna as obstructive ... and HOAs certainly do.

3.  Of course it is possible to talk around with world with minimal 
equipment, but it still requires an outlay of maybe a few hundred 
dollars for something that is more of a curiosity for most people rather 
than a passion.

4.  Many of us find the uncertainty of propagation and the minimal 
activity from many countries to be part of the appeal, but not every 
prospective ham finds that to be a plus.  It can take a lot of time away 
from other things more interesting than turning a dial listening to 
background noise.

5.  Activities like POTA and SOTA have attracted some young people to 
the hobby (I personally know several of them) but in general that 
competes with a myriad of other outdoor activities that mostly have more 
direct social interaction.

Ham radio needs to come up with something DIFFERENT if it wants to bring 
lots of new people into its ranks.  I think it's simply crazy to see all 
these suggestions about how to persuade people to join the same old 
thing ... pure evangelism simply doesn't work on a scale to make a 
difference.  It's like somebody trying to convince any of us to take up 
target shooting, spend a few hundred dollars on a gun, and stick with it 
beyond the curiosity value of it.  How well does anyone think that would 
work??

The problem is that almost everyone already in the hobby doesn't want to 
see it be anything different, which is also crazy since being able to 
offer something different wouldn't mean deleting anything that ham radio 
already is.  I see LOTS of statements about how FT8 "ruined ham radio" 
when all it did was offer a more popular alternative to CW, SSB, and 
RTTY.  For being a hobby that embraces technology, hams have to be some 
of the biggest Luddites on the planet.

There are ways that could potentially add more appeal to ham radio and 
I've suggested some of them in the past, but nobody even wants to 
discuss possibilities.  Nobody ever asks young people what would make 
the hobby more attractive ... everybody just tries to convince them they 
should view the hobby like we do.  Hell, anytime anybody even brings up 
the need to bring more people into ham radio the majority of responses 
talk about how much THEY are happy just the way it is.

So we get this:

https://www.scdxc.org/

Dave   AB7E





On 9/3/2025 9:21 AM, Bob McGraw via Elecraft wrote:
> Public visibility of amateur radio goes a long way.  Set up HF 
> stations at local events, county fairs, city events, bicycle races,  
> city wide yard sales, etc.   HF is important showing world wide 
> communications of people talking to people.   Use minimal equipment 
> and basic wire or simple antennas.   KISS is the principle to employ.  
>  Don't extol the $3000+ station appearance. Stay away from Morse code 
> and digital operations.
>
>  I've never been a fan of demonstrating repeater operation.  Cell 
> phone communications quickly blows the repeater idea away.
>
> 73
>
> Bob, K4TAX
>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 1
>> Date: Tue, 2 Sep 2025 16:44:24 +0000 (UTC)
>> From: John Magliacane <kd2bd at yahoo.com>
>> To: Josh Fiden <josh at voodoolab.com>
>> Cc: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
>> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Effective ways to introduce amateur radio to
>>     newcomers?
>> Message-ID: <841724487.1106674.1756831464772 at mail.yahoo.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>>
>>   On Tuesday, September 2, 2025 at 11:56:53 AM EDT, Josh Fiden 
>> <josh at voodoolab.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Would calling it an ?avocation? make you feel better?
>>>
>>> 73,
>>> Josh W6XU
>>
>> I prefer "Amateur Activity", as described by Robert A. Stebbins, 
>> author of, "The Amateur: Two Sociological Definitions". Simply put, 
>> Amateur Activities are activities performed for personal interest 
>> rather than financial gain that have professional counterparts, and 
>> occasionally interact and cooperate with professionals. HamSCI is an 
>> excellent example of this.
>>
>> So, just as we have Amateur Astronomers, Amateur Photographers, 
>> Amateur Historians, and Amateur Radio Operators, we also have 
>> Professional Photographers, Professional Historians, and 
>> Professional/Commercial Radio Operators, etc.
>>
>>
>> 73 de John, KD2BD
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
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>> End of Elecraft Digest, Vol 257, Issue 3
>> ****************************************