At 04:17 PM 3/17/00 +0100, hrle@rkp.ice.hr wrote:
>
>Hi folks/contesters,
>Nice subject indeed.
>I would like just to give a note that there's not only contesting
>we need new blood in, whole ham-radio hobby is dieing.
>I worked few contests where there is age as exchanging.
>Avarage age in my log was around 52 years!!!
>Does this means in 20-30 years ham-radio and so contesting is history?
>Hope not.
>73 from kind a new blood (5 contest years behind me) operator.
>9A6NHH - age 16. Hrle
Nice thread indeed -- I entered my first contest when I was 15 or so, but
that was in 1956 -- quite a different era, and I'm reluctant to draw any
conclusions, but in those days DX was hard enough to come by and simply
finding people in new states countries to work was a challenge. Contests
met a simple need for new hams then.
Well, we're about to face a rush of new ops on the HF bands, if the survey
is to be believed, and something like 50 percent of current hams plan to
upgrade their licenses. Even if only a quarter of these actually do so, I
think an awful lot will depend on how we contesters treat them when they
arrive. If we welcome them, invite them to participate in casual multi-op
stations, encourage them to get involved in field day, even (gulp) elmer
them with antennas and station set-up questions, QRS in contest, explain
the rules on the air, and so on, then inevitably some will join our ranks.
If we ignore them, scorn them as "shack-on-the-belt lids with cut-rate
licenses," we'll get what we deserve, only the anti-contest ranks will have
a lot of new blood of their own.
I remember, as a kid, being welcomed by the famous and not so famous, but
welcomed... that's why I'm still contesting.
73, Pete Smith N4ZR
n4zr@contesting.com
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http://206.102.70.3/search.htm
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