I thought I'd run something up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes: With the currently extended low sunspot cycle reducing the occurrence of 10 meter openings to near zero, there is little to offer new hams for radio operating opportunities besides VHF FM. Many of the people who attend our Technician license classes are interested in doing much more than chatting with the local guys on a local repeater. Sure, VHF SSB is a possibility but for us rural folks, even that provides slim pickings for distant contacts.
We are seeing a very low percentage of newly licensed people ever buying a transceiver and getting on the air. We are estimating that number to be less than 10%. Other clubs in our area are experiencing the same problem: good turn out for classes and lots of licenses issued but few new hams getting on the air. It may be that VHF FM is not a viable stepping stone to getting very many new folks active in Amateur Radio. Being an old fart, I naturally began as a novice operating CW on the HF bands. Finding other stations to make contact with was never a problem as there was always activity on either 40 or 80 meters, depending upon the time of day. Making contact with other stations hundreds of miles away was common. While that same opportunity is available today, at least theoretically, CW operation is not part of a new ham's skill set. So... Here is the idea. Would you be amenable to allowing Technician Class licensees to operate digital modes in the Technician CW bands and do you think that would be of interest to new hams? I would imagine, the license limitations would have to state something like a maximum of 300 baud and 500 Hz bandwidth with a 200 watt power limit. There may be other limitations that might be nice to toss into the mix but this is a starting point for discussion. Your thoughts? Gary - N0GW
