I will agree with you about the slowness of digital modes used in Amateur Radio. Many hams today regard the hobby as strictly that, a hobby. Yet, the Service was conceived to be a communications adjunct during emergencies. Modern emergencies often necessitate transferring large amounts of information between disaster coordinators, and, while CW may be wonderfully reliable, it isn’t going to keep up with the information demand. I have a nagging feeling that Amateur Radio is allowing its penchant for nostalgia to render it irrelevant and unnecessary in the eyes of the politicians whose support is necessary for the continued existence of the service/hobby.
On the other hand, I will contend that new hams are not shunted away from HF. I believe your comment is based on the proposition that the Technician exam is easier than the General, and I didn't find that to be the case. Yes, the General test has twice the questions, and thereby covers more material. Yet, I did not find the individual questions any more difficult. True, I’m probably old enough to be your dad, but I took the General cold almost as soon as the CW requirement went away and passed first try. If anything, I think the greater number of questions just serves to challenge your commitment, not your intelligence. The few brain-strainer questions left are in the Extra exam. I was never a Technician. From: BVARC [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Bryce Lindsay via BVARC Sent: Wednesday, October 8, 2014 18:11 To: BRAZOS VALLEY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB Subject: Re: [BVARC] Youth in Amateur Radio I keep trying to reply, but things keep getting in the way. Ok, stagnant is a bit harsh of a word. But the wheels of progress can be a bit slow to adopt new technologies it seems. Slow in comparison to other hobbies that can benefit from this same new technology. Arduinos, Raspberry Pi's have been out for a few years now, yet it feels they only really started getting traction in the amature radio community recently. I feel that SDR will be playing a BIG part in the future of Amature radio, their are some SDR devices out there that some of the maker community are just now getting their hands on. But the gulf between the maker community and the "Traditional" amature radio community seems to be extremely vast. There are radio's like the KX3, a SDR radio, but you don't need a PC to use it. I expect more manufacturers for follow this model. As for the slow digital modes, and the 300baud artificial speed limit, yes it's things like that that seem to hold back progress. Also spend any length of time with the current FCC rules and regulations about type, class, and transmissions and you will want to gouge your eyes out. one example of a digital mode that was killed from experimenting with here in the states was ROS. a multi QSO digital chat mode. Because the creator used the term "spread spectrum" in describing his new mode, this mode was killed even before it got the chance to be used in the states. Even though from what my reading has revealed it uses no more bandwidth of a voice USB signal, and multiple QSO's all interacting with each other like an IRC chat room, using something like this, would be right up a younger persons alley. As a new operator, i have found a few places on the net that are more in touch with what i am wanting to get from this hobby. One place that i check on on a regular basis, http://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio If you're looking for your younger hams, thats the place to look. Also I truly feel that the current US license structure is doing more harm than good to new hams. New hams are almost exclusively regulated to UHF/VHF. A new ham these days has no morse skills, so saying that they have access to the HF stuff is a little bit of a misnomer. Instead of limiting new hams to CW on the HF stuff, limit their bandwidth, so they could at least use digital modes. And their computer skills that most of them know how to use already.
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