I agree with Wayne that we need to be empathetic to reach out to people to interest them in ham radio. Many of the posts here make points some very good points. In general, I think we are not doing as much as some of our old mentors did for us when we started in the hobby, and we are a little rigid about insisting newbies should follow the established and proper path.
I've been working with a group of nine new hams and three old timers at our local club since September, teaching them Morse code. (One is my XYL, a university professor who started a program in user experience design -- but not a stem person -- who got interested in the crossover between the maker world, robotics in schools and ham radio at Dayton a couple of years ago.) Granted, this CW group are already all hams, so they are "bought in" to the hobby, but as a group they weren't getting on HF in the way we think of ham radio. One newbie was a life-long SWL, so he was predisposed to HF. One old timer was a VHF guy, and the other two do HF digital. Two are women, including my wife. I had a plan to get them interested in HF and specifically contesting. They got their licenses in late April and I gave a talk about contesting and being radio active in general. I set up two stations for them at Field Day and sat beside each of them, helping them make their first Qs on phone. Five of them got pretty serious sitting at my K3s. One of the others brought his microBitX arduino-based rig and had a frustrating time, but stayed positive. Right after FD, two of the newbies bought Icom 7300s. At FD, I talked about a Morse course, with elements of getting started in ham radio thrown in, to start in the Fall. They all watched me make some Morse FD contacts, more easily than voice, and they all agreed to come to the course. To prepare, I became a Canadian examiner with Morse credentials, so I could administer Morse tests to endorse their licences at the end of the course if they wanted it. In the course, I've mostly followed the CWOps approach of introducing the letters and using 18 or 20 wpm Farnsworthed down to 3 wpm then 5 wpm and now about 10 wpm. I've made half-hour mp3s on my web site. I've sent in class. I told them they would teach themselves code, using some of the amazing tools now available on websites, such as RUFz, LCWO, Morse Runner, etc., and the class was there to help. One of the old timers, a software engineer, wrote a training program that introduces letters in our class order, and sends them to you and you type them. It keeps track of the ones you know, don't know, and know slowly, and it changes the probability of letters and spacing between them as a result. What I didn't expect is the sense of community among the students in the class. They are very much become friends, kind of a sub group of new people within the local club. They send emails about their progress to the group, for example when they work some DX on SSB. They're all putting up antennas, getting gear, etc. This friendliness has really paid off now that they're starting to send Morse to each other because they're so mutually positive about getting each other past shyness. Many of them are starting with paddles -- two of them made their own. I've given some of them old straight keys I've collected for this purpose, and they've put them on bases. The microBITx guy worked really hard on his CW practising, and I could tell he was getting frustrated with his rig, so I loaned him an old K2 I haven't been using "for a year or two, until he figures out what rig he wants". I steered him towards SKCC and he's made some SKCC QSOs and has an SKCC number. One of the women borrowed an old Henry Radio Tempo One from someone (and early Yaesu rig without keyer or sidetone), so I lent her one of those Bencher paddles with MFJ keyer attached so she can have a shot at CW with this rig. A few of us are probably going to build QRP Labs QCX 5 watt transceivers together. Two of the students now have KX3s they got used and are excited about portable operation. Two people have dropped out and will return for the next course, but they're staying on the email list and talking. Two others almost dropped out because they stopped practising for a couple of weeks, and the others cajoled them back!! I keep sending them encouraging emails and introducing new topics. They're all very interested in the history of ham radio, and a few of them see Morse as a connection to telegraph communications and early wireless telegraphy via radio. One has a grandfather who was a telegrapher. We've compared the sound of continental "railway" Morse to International CW Morse. Etc. etc. I'm so happy about all this. I expected to have about two students make it to where they made CW Qs on the air. It's going to be much higher than that, and I might even create a few new CW contesters. We'll see what happens with the Rookie Roundup. What have I learned? Let the group and individuals set the direction and have a bunch of control in reaction to an array of opportunities you show them. Expect them to change their minds a lot. Get ready to do a lot of work -- I couldn't have done this if I wasn't mostly retired. Show them the myriad activities in ham radio in a way where you give them enough orientation that they can read on their own. Help them over learning humps. Solve all the equipment problems you can by giving and loaning them stuff. (Remember how our elmers did that for us?) I'm in the midst of sending them emails every day for the 12 days of Christmas, which is really just a thinly veiled way of getting them excited about all the aspects of becoming active, from getting ham licence plates, QRZ pages, and LOTW set up to participating in on air activities. I think we'll soon create a little net that starts with SSB, then they all send CW, and go back to SSB, on a weeknight when we don't have class. it's been gratifying working with this group, and they are all so energetic and are having fun. it really seems like a case of getting back what you put in. So, go forth and make some amateur radio magic, one or a few people at a time! Best 73 Vic VE3YT -- Sent from: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/ ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
