A few years back, someone posted a suggestion to help spread the word about our hobby. Take old copies of your amateur radio periodicals and drop them off in the waiting rooms of your health care providers, car care centers, state license offices, etc. Six months ago I put retired copies of CQ and QST on the table in my company's customer waiting areas among the usual reading.
Today they are all gone. Disappeared. Stolen (and shared I hope). I will replenish the supply. I did not report the disappearance. ;o) I guess the added good news is that our customers didn't have to wait very long and therefore had to take the ham mags home with them to finish reading what had caught their interest. Terry, W0FM -----Original Message----- From: Howard Evans [mailto:hevans1...@woh.rr.com] Sent: Sunday, June 09, 2013 3:49 PM To: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Has the KX3 rescued Ham radio? My experience has been similar to yours, Dan. Off the air since 1967, I became licensed again April 1, 2013, bought a KX3 with all the trimmin's, and am now proud to be a part of the Elecraft community. Ham radio didn't die between 1967 and 2013. If anything, it has expanded. More bands, more modes, more everything except new young amateurs. The amateur radio community is all about having fun and communicating with each other via radio. The younger generation is all about having fun and communcating with each other too, except their medium of choice is the Internet and cell phones. We can introduce them to HTs and repeaters, but how do you compete with Facebook and Youtube? Maybe we can't. So instead of competing we offer alternative ways to have fun and communcate and use Facebook and Youtube to promote the alternatives. Ham radio doesn't need to be resecued. It just needs more participation from a younger group of people to really thrive and grow against the competition for more bandwidth. Use it or lose it, as they say. Coordinated efforts from all involved are necessary: ARRL, clubs, and local publicity in schools and colleges can all be helpful. Kit building seems to be driving a resurgance of interest in electronics and computers, and that can lead to an interest in amateur radio. Mentoring youngters who might want to become Hams works too. QRP CW is yet another avenue to attract new Hams with low-cost rigs and simple antennas. There are endless possibilites for recruitment to "rescue" amateur radio, much more than when I got my Novice ticket forty-seven years ago. But it will take more than just on-the-air ragchewing and posting to the choir in Ham radio forums such as this one. It will take a concerted effort. Join a club. Join the ARRL. Participate in high-profile community services that involve amateur radio. Become involved. Thank you for your revival in interest and your post. Hop - AC8NS
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