[Ham-Mac] FW: JARTS-WW-RTTY 2005 AA5VU

Chris Smolinski csmolinski at blackcatsystems.com
Mon Oct 17 12:09:03 EDT 2005


>I don't recall seeing any of the ham-mac callsigns in the JARTS-WW-RTTY
>contest.  The following is a copy of my note posted to the rtty-contesting
>reflector regarding the contest.  Note the commentary at the bottom
>regarding the contest exchange of signal report and age.

>
>One sad commentary is the average age of the JARTS-RTTY contesters,
>excluding the 99 reports from YL's.  I did not do the math but the Mark I
>eyeball says it may be greater than 62. This is a sad commentary for ham
>radio in general. This is truly becoming an OM hobby.

It seems the average age of hams increases by about 11 months every 
year. This is because, frankly, there's virtually zero incentive for 
youngsters to enter the hobby. Want to talk to people around the 
world? Well, the internet does that nicely. Want to play with 
electronics? Well, you can build a computer today, play with PIC 
microcontrollers, etc.  Ham radio is no longer, dare I say it, 
USEFUL. Yes, it's a hobby, but not nearly as important as it was 
decades ago.

Abolition of the morse code requirement is too little, too late at 
this point (should have been done 30 years ago but that's fodder for 
another flame war ;-).  The real question is what, if anything, can 
be done at this point to get folks into the hobby?  Me thinks ham 
radio needs to re-invent itself. Even the James Bond franchise is 
doing that.

-- 

---
Chris Smolinski
Black Cat Systems
http://www.blackcatsystems.com


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