[Fists] More on "Hello"

[Dan KB6NU]

I think there is a misconception that the Hello! campaign is aimed at  
kids. This may be due to the image on the home page of a teenager  
speaking into a microphone. This is a general-purpose PR campaign  
aimed at the general public, not just kids. Using the 100th  
anniversary of radiotelephony seems like a tenuous premise to me, but  
overall, I think the website does a pretty good job of introducing  
people to ham radio.

Having said that, I do agree that Newington doesn't get it when it  
comes to kids and ham radio. I sometimes think that they're really  
just not interested in drawing more kids into ham radio.

In my (admittedly limited, so far) experience with teaching kids  
about ham radio, they want to build things and they want to learn  
Morse Code. Doing hands-on stuff like this is more intriguing to them  
than the "magic" of talking to people far away. That's the tack I'm  
taking any with a group of middle school kids I'm working with right  
now. For more information on that, take a look at my blog: http:// 
kb6nu.com/?p=777.

What I'd really like to do is start a grass-roots movement to get  
more ham radio programs started in schools around the country. WATSA,  
OMs?

73!

Dan KB6NU
----------------------------------------------------------
CW Geek: Fists #9342, FP #1171
Affiliated Club Coordinator, MI Section
Read my ham radio blog at www.kb6nu.com



On Mar 20, 2006, at 3:46 PM, Jeff Davis wrote:

> For that reason, I wrote that the ARRL "Hello"
> campaign seems terribly naive to me. If you want to
> get kids interested in electronics and communication,
> get them to build something and help them make sure it
> works. Then when they push the key and make a contact
> it IS unique because none of their buddies are
> building their own cellphones! :-)
>
> There are so many COOL things to do in ham radio that
> go far and beyond just TALKING to someone else.
> Granted, you might enjoy a casual ragchew and I know
> that I certainly do too. But you won't attract many 17
> year-olds with the promise of having simple VOICE QSOs.
>
> There has to be more to this hobby and we all know
> that there is. But getting our national organization
> to understand and believe that is nearly impossible.
> The good folks in Newington sound like a broken record
> to me. They seem to think if they can eliminate all
> the technical hurdles to licensing, and eliminate that
> pesky code requirement then the masses of young
> newbies will pour in.
>
> They've been stuck in that mode for at least a decade
> and so far as I can tell, they still don't "get it".
>
> 73, pound brass es smile every now and then,
> de Jeff, KE9V
> FISTS #6641