Here's why that, which has been done countless times already, has been
so minimally effective:
1. It only appeals to mostly technical people. When non-techies find
out they have to study for a license they smile and walk away.
2. It requires prospective hams to put up some kind of outdoor antenna
to communicate far enough to be intriguing. Yes, you can talk a
thousand km away with an indoor antenna, but that's hardly as enticing
as maybe being able to reach Europe or Asia or South America. Most
people view an outdoor antenna as obstructive ... and HOAs certainly do.
3. Of course it is possible to talk around with world with minimal
equipment, but it still requires an outlay of maybe a few hundred
dollars for something that is more of a curiosity for most people rather
than a passion.
4. Many of us find the uncertainty of propagation and the minimal
activity from many countries to be part of the appeal, but not every
prospective ham finds that to be a plus. It can take a lot of time away
from other things more interesting than turning a dial listening to
background noise.
5. Activities like POTA and SOTA have attracted some young people to
the hobby (I personally know several of them) but in general that
competes with a myriad of other outdoor activities that mostly have more
direct social interaction.
Ham radio needs to come up with something DIFFERENT if it wants to bring
lots of new people into its ranks. I think it's simply crazy to see all
these suggestions about how to persuade people to join the same old
thing ... pure evangelism simply doesn't work on a scale to make a
difference. It's like somebody trying to convince any of us to take up
target shooting, spend a few hundred dollars on a gun, and stick with it
beyond the curiosity value of it. How well does anyone think that would
work??
The problem is that almost everyone already in the hobby doesn't want to
see it be anything different, which is also crazy since being able to
offer something different wouldn't mean deleting anything that ham radio
already is. I see LOTS of statements about how FT8 "ruined ham radio"
when all it did was offer a more popular alternative to CW, SSB, and
RTTY. For being a hobby that embraces technology, hams have to be some
of the biggest Luddites on the planet.
There are ways that could potentially add more appeal to ham radio and
I've suggested some of them in the past, but nobody even wants to
discuss possibilities. Nobody ever asks young people what would make
the hobby more attractive ... everybody just tries to convince them they
should view the hobby like we do. Hell, anytime anybody even brings up
the need to bring more people into ham radio the majority of responses
talk about how much THEY are happy just the way it is.
So we get this:
https://www.scdxc.org/
Dave AB7E
On 9/3/2025 9:21 AM, Bob McGraw via Elecraft wrote:
Public visibility of amateur radio goes a long way. Set up HF
stations at local events, county fairs, city events, bicycle races,
city wide yard sales, etc. HF is important showing world wide
communications of people talking to people. Use minimal equipment
and basic wire or simple antennas. KISS is the principle to employ.
Don't extol the $3000+ station appearance. Stay away from Morse code
and digital operations.
I've never been a fan of demonstrating repeater operation. Cell
phone communications quickly blows the repeater idea away.
73
Bob, K4TAX
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Tue, 2 Sep 2025 16:44:24 +0000 (UTC)
From: John Magliacane <[email protected]>
To: Josh Fiden <[email protected]>
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Effective ways to introduce amateur radio to
newcomers?
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
On Tuesday, September 2, 2025 at 11:56:53 AM EDT, Josh Fiden
<[email protected]> wrote:
Would calling it an ?avocation? make you feel better?
73,
Josh W6XU
I prefer "Amateur Activity", as described by Robert A. Stebbins,
author of, "The Amateur: Two Sociological Definitions". Simply put,
Amateur Activities are activities performed for personal interest
rather than financial gain that have professional counterparts, and
occasionally interact and cooperate with professionals. HamSCI is an
excellent example of this.
So, just as we have Amateur Astronomers, Amateur Photographers,
Amateur Historians, and Amateur Radio Operators, we also have
Professional Photographers, Professional Historians, and
Professional/Commercial Radio Operators, etc.
73 de John, KD2BD
------------------------------
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End of Elecraft Digest, Vol 257, Issue 3
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