Hello all,
First, I am a not so young ham; licensed when I was 12. Like many of my
generation I grew up in a row house in a very large city. TV's were black
and white, and some color TV's in big furniture cabinets were just making
their appearnce. There was no cable TV, but lots of rusted TV antennas and
rabbit ears( for those who remember). There really wan't much to do then. My
parents controlled the TV ( all 4 channels). I only had 1 hobby...coin
collecting! I then met another boy about two years older and only five
blocks away. Not only was he into coin collecting, but he was also a ham;
very small world. Like me, He also lived in a row house. This boy named
Larry, was into something called ham radio. Out of sheer luck, he introduced
me to the hobby, and mentored me for my license, helped me build a
transmitter, loaned me a receiver, and somehow got the blessings from my
parents to put up a 40m dipole across 4 roof tops.
This story is not unique, but he did something more. He invited me to join a
club that was all teenagers. This was my intro into contesting, A few years
later, if I promised to have my extra class license, he would introduce me
to the world of a big-time multi-op contest station; i.e.,W3BES later W3GM.
I had never seen 100 foot layover towers, 3 element full sized, monobanders
for 40m, monobanders for the other bands, each on their own separate tower.
He nurtured me into contesting to the point where I kept returning for every
major contest until he beame a SK.
My career took an unexpected twist and I beame a teacher. I set up free ham
radio classes at the high school's night school and had almost 500 graduates
befor I gave it up. Again all of this was before video games, computers, the
internet etc. Many of my students were young and acompanied their parents.
Bottom line...
My enthusiasm, spilled over and infected my students. They all got on the
air with few distractions.
Often the "children" surpassed their parents.
It was a hobby the entire family could enjoy.
Today, most of them are still active, and contesting became a family
endeavor.
These students were nurtured into contesting. Many ended up at the big
multi-op stations for contests, and many also began trying contesting on
their own from modest low-power stations.
Winning was never a goal. It was the excitement of just making lots and lots
of qsos with people as close as their own town or very far away.
Patience, nurturing, and mentoring were the keys. Today things are
different. Our young people have too many other ways to occupy their time.
Instead of clubs, they get pushed into a VEC session, get their licenses on
the spot, and more often than not, thats where everything ends. There are
very few clubs that provide activities for them; beyond field day. The
meetings are run by the elder states-people, and sometimes, picnics are held
during the summer months at the home of these same old people. If I go to a
summer picnic, my-grown up children and even my grandchildren, bring their
i-phones and tablets just to keep themselves occupied. They could care less
about the monster antennas and big stations. Their interests come from
instant gratification and derived from "their kind of activities".
Fortunately, educators today are just beginning to understand what 21st
century teaching is all about. Our hobby and its rewards are still 20th
century. That is the disconnect that exists today. We need to do more. The
same excitement that drew us into contesting is contageous if we let it
become that. Camping or traveling to rare counties, or summits, or even the
NPOA event can do more to regaining that enthusiasm. We as a community must
begin, with baby steps, to translate and transfer the excitement that we
had.
Carol
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jack Haverty" <k3fiv@arrl.net>
To: <cq-contest@contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, December 19, 2016 3:08 PM
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Observations of a young ham
The observations by and about young hams are right on target. I think
it's part of a bigger picture though. There are plenty of not-so-young
hams that fit the same description - they don't feel they have any
chance of winning the game, and have found that "competing" in the role
of a duck in the shooting gallery simply isn't much fun.
I've known many hams who went through the process of getting the license
and even set up a simple station, perhaps 100W and a G5RV, who tried
contesting for a bit, got soundly trounced, and went on to do other
things that were more fun.
Before I moved, 2 years ago, I had done quite a bit of contesting.
Never had much hope of winning anything with my 100W and a wire, but I
did actually win a few certificates - mostly because no one else showed
up in my assigned category/QTH. Eventually, I'll probably set up my
station again in the new QTH. But I haven't had the urge to do it yet -
just to hang up more losses in my log??.....
People compete because they have a hope of winning, by showing their
superior skills against their opponents. Except for the few who have
the right resources, e.g., location, and funds, and time, Ham Radio
contests don't provide that hope. Many, like me, participate a bit
anyway, if only because we enjoy playing with the radio. We provide the
cannon fodder for the big guns. Contests simply provide the venues when
there are actually many other stations on the air.
This topic comes up repeatedly, more often than the solar cycle. About
3 years ago, I wrote up an idea for "Challenge Contesting", which I
think still makes sense. It requires no changes to any existing rules,
and it lets everyone actually compete with plausible hope of winning.
All it requires is probably a bit of organization and a probably larger
bit of software. Perhaps there's some interested kids out there who
would find creating Challenge Contesting a challenge in itself...?
Here's that idea from 2013 if anyone's curious:
http://lists.contesting.com/_cq-contest/2013-12/msg00098.html
Pass it on to the kids...
73,
/Jack de K3FIV
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