[Hallicrafters] Ruination of ham radio?

[W5HTW at att.net]

(I wasn't going to put this here, but on my web site instead.  But seeing as
others are making longer comments I thought I'd try, too.  It is on my web
site, though.)  

Greg, it's more complex than that, of course, and it's more complex than can
be posted on a reflector for specific radios.  

First, the downfall of ham radio didn't start with 1999 Restructuring.  That
may have been one of the major nails in the coffin, I agree, and there are a
few more to go before we bury it.  

Due to travels I had been away from ham radio for a few years.  One day in
1993 I was out in the woods and stumbled across a Field Day site.  I decided
to drop in and chat with the hams.  When I did I was met with "You're a ham?"
 which is a normal question to ask.  Then, "What's your call sign?"   My call
was W0RKX and had been for many years.  I gave it.  One of the two men then
looked at the other and in classic derisive tone said "Sounds like a Tech to
me."  I was not made welcome, by any means.  I was also caught off guard by
this slur against my license class, and pointed out that I was an Extra class.
 I doubt they believed me and I left with a very disappointing view of "The
New Ham Radio." I had seen "class hatred, class resentment" for the first time
in what was then my 36th year in the hobby. 

The problems began when they started to undo Incentive Licensing.  Make the
Novice ticket a 'forever' ticket.  Remove the two year experience requirement
for the Extra, thereby removing that "journeyman" level of quality.  And
create the code-free Technician, which was, in the eyes of most hams of old,
just another Class D CB ticket.  And I had just experienced the feeling hams
had about a code free Tech, when it was believed I was one.  

Shortly after that, goaded into getting away from that stigma, I modified my
call sign to my permanent address and received the call AB5HK.  I got call
plates on my car.  One day at the post office some guy approached with the
"You're a ham?" conversation starter.  I said that I was.  He said, "Oh,
you're one of the Advanced tickets, huh?"   I had learned that the plan
clearly showed that call sign was Extra class.  I said, "No, I'm an Extra."  
He immediately looked dubious.  "But that's an Advanced call sign."   I
shrugged and changed the subject and he soon left.  I had once again
experienced the new class segregation of The New Ham radio.  

Greg, when I became a ham, I was a Novice, one year, non-rewnewable.  And I
was accepted at club meetings, at Field Day, in public service events.  I was
a young kid and maybe dumb or naive or both, but I never recall one ham, not
one, looking down at me because of my license class.  I was encouraged at
every step from hams I knew and hams I did not know.  Years later, when I
became an Extra I just could not imagine not accepting a Novice, Tech (the old
kind) or General as being a ham.  My "job" as an Extra, was to help them
advance, too.  And I did it, in classes I taught in clubs and at the Y.  And a
few I took to my home and taught individually.  

We hear today people saying that the "old hams" are the ones making the mess
on 75 meters. First, it really isn't all a mess if people listen a bit and
don't dial around looking for the bad guys.  But mainly the hams today on 75
meters are the ones who came along ten years ago, most migrating from CB, long
before 1999 Restructuring entered our world.  What we are hearing is the
result of efforts made in the late 80s and early 90s to "get more hams, not
better hams."  And the trend continues. 

It is unfortunate that today those who have been around a while do appear
reluctant to mentor the newcomer.  If that newbie shows an interest in CW, we
see a spark of 'real ham' in him.  But if he is simply anxious to get on 20
meters and chase DX, we wonder what rites of passage he may be willing to go
through.  What level of dedication, and of achievement, drives him?  Is it the
same level that drove him initially to get on 11 meters?  If so, it just isn't
enough for us, for we worked hard to make this an elite hobby, and by 'work' I
mean we taught others, we recruited others, we dedicated hours to helping
others.  But if this newbie is just interested in more 11 meters on a
different frequency, you're right, we aren't interested in him.  And for a
huge percentage, that is the case.  But not all of them.  The ones with a real
interest, though, are swept out along with the ones seeking a shortcut to
'buddydom.'  And to the top.  

It's like building a home in the forest.  You love the trees, the birds, the
silence, the little stream.  But more and more people discover your paradise
and they move in, building cheaper homes, parking junk cars in their drives,
cutting down the trees, polluting the stream, and eventually you are living in
a slum.  This is what we are seeing.  And each person is right, it isn't his
fault, but he contributes to the problem by not wanting to live up to the
standards that were the originals, the covenants, if you will.  

What many of us saw as the real ham radio, when good operating and courtesy
were the rule, has already gone.  As you point out, 2 meters is just VHF CB.
And as many point out, 75 and 20 are turning into the same thing, and 40 is
well on its way.  Just different HF CB bands.  It has slipped through our
fingers.  I think a lot of us no longer want to help the newbie for we see it
as a useless task, with neither reward nor goal.  It can't solve anything.  It
won't fix anything.  And that newbie can never experience the real ham radio,
for it's gone.  

So it is probably true that a lot of us just want to enjoy what is left, in
our own way, and then, if we live long enough, switch to some other hobby when
this one loses any enjoyment.  Once a hobby is no longer enjoyable, it is not
a hobby but a chore.  I think a lot of us are sitting on that fence right now,
trying to decide if it is fun to turn on the radio, or if it is boring, or
worse yet, unpleasant.  We are clinging to a dying vine and wondering whether
to let go, so we keep clinging until the decision is made.  

What's the point of helping the newcomers?  They can't save ham radio.  In
fact, largely, they aren't even interested in radios, but in computers.  They
use the radio simply as another modem, a way for the computers to talk.  And
though some of us old timers did get into computers (I became the network
administrator for a company before I retired) many did not, and we can't teach
the newcomer about computers anyway, and we don't understand why he has to
replace radio with a computer and still call it ham radio.  

Is all this your fault?  Nope.  And I do not sneer at you, or at any ham,
unless he comes to me with that "give me more, free, right now" attitude.  I
contribute often to the Elmers boards on the various web sites, for, if it is
about radio, or radio operation, and not about computers, I may have something
I can offer.  I'm willing to help those who want help in radio.  In person or
on the web, or on the air.  But they don't want help, Greg.  They want to
just get that Extra ticket, the quick and easy way, and get on 20 meters and
work DX.  They don't want to learn operating procedures, or practice courtesy,
or work their way up.  They start school and they want to be in the 12th grade
immediately, and to be teaching the teachers.  

You are a victim of the New Ham Radio.  So I am.  We all are.  Sorry.

73
Ed


--
Ed Brooks, W5HTW
http://w5htw.home.att.net/index.html
Active since June 1956 Extra since
Jan 1970