Hi,
I'm a little confused. I've heard that the average age in
contesting is getting kind of high, so that seems to indicate
that contesting may be dying out. I've heard that the average
age of amateur radio operators is getting kind of high, so that
seems to indicate that amateur radio may be dying out. I've
heard that the average age of human beings resident in the United
States is pretty much a mirror image of the previously mentioned
ages. Does that mean that humanity in the United States is
going to die out too?
I've heard that we need more people in the hobby to protect it
from extinction. I heard we could get more people in by having
a no-code license. With this license, people interested in
electronics would swarm into our hobby. Once a member of the
amateur radio fraternity, they would fall in love with the code,
upgrade, and become HF operators. Did it work? Hobby membership
went up, but now that the 10 year license terms are ending, we
are getting a much better idea of how many of these people stayed
with the hobby.
Now I hear that the hobby, and even contesting within it, will be
saved by the license restructuring. Large numbers of people will
upgrade. This is probably true. Where will they operate? Most
will not operate cw - if they wanted to do that they would have
already upgraded. Instead, they will operate on SSB. In a few
years we will be experiencing the bottom of the sunspot cycle. I
know how much fun SSB is when everyone is on 20 meters, and all an
operator has is 100 watts and a dipole/G5RV/Inverted V. How many
of these people will stick with HF? I think it will be only the
determined few.
Lest one think I have done nothing positive to address these issues,
I will say the following. Over the years, I have helped numerous
hams put up antennas and towers. Many of these were beginners.
Over the years I have seen many of them lose interest, even though
they had a general (or higher) class license and a reasonably good
antenna. I have introduced many people to the hobby. For various
reasons most never became interested enough to get a license. I
have introduced many hams to contesting. Many tried it, but only
a few caught the fever.
Why this seeming lack of success in spreading the good news about
a hobby that I love? In order to become an amateur radio operator,
a person needs some internal motivation. In order to stay interested
in the hobby, it takes a continuation of that motivation. It takes
a person with a particular personality as well as motivation to
become a serious contester, and without that personality the person
will not be interested in spending his/her time in this aspect of
the hobby.
Opening the flood gates to increase the quantity of amateurs will
not solve the problem, if one really does exist. The only thing
that will work will be the slow one-to-one introduction of people
to our hobby. Be prepared for a long slow job. Most will not have
the interest or motivation to stay with it. The few that do will
be your reward. Oh, and also, everyone should stop worrying about
the sky falling in.
73, Dave Clemons K1VUT
Dave Clemons
dave@egh.com
Evans Griffiths & Hart, Inc.
55 Waltham Street, Lexington, MA 02421
(781)861-0670, (781)860-9321 (Fax)
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