Rick, KV9U wrote: > As one who has probably had the most classes in my area to bring in new > hams over several decades, there is no question that the new entrants > tend to not be near as motivated as we once had. That is because it > brings in a larger number of those who have more of a superficial
Don't forget that two or three decades ago we did not have cell telephony so available and Internet communications, so we were motivated enough to do the things other 'ordinary' people couldn't - communicate for free or almost nothing after an initial investment. > (Yes, we are trying to incorporate digital modes too, but it is slow > going. Especially when for the last two events, the Winlink 2000 Telpac > stuff just would not work when we needed it:( > Yes, ham radio emergency communications may still help after natural disasters, but that also belongs to the pool of questions of how much younger generation is motivated to handle amateur gear. If you can prove that a ham station is capable to reach the medical center -when the cell phone or else is not able to do the same and, in particular, to send/receive a message without the Internet, then we are going the right way. > participate in community support. It is often the younger or at least > newer entrants who will participate in emergency communications, public > service, and local activities. The older hams tend to want to socialize > and not be all that active since they have done all these things long > ago and find it physically challenging at times to keep active. The older hams also tend to keep the status quo, I mean to 'socialize' themselves with having drinks at Friday evenings, while discussing the 'great ole days' when good boys were delighted with learning Morse. What is the result: Here we still have local FM repeaters with endless reg chewing blah-blah, but much less packet nodes (if any) and other digital activities in the area than it was ten years ago when my /then young/ generation wanted to use computers. I hope that the demise of mandatory morse code tests may help, but some more propaganda is needed. I do not know how many hams are ready to spend a part of their free time to go elsewhere and talk about the ham radio - in particular to do it for free and even to spend a lot of money to cover trips to popularize ham radio. Want to see more about: http://eurocon2007.isep.pw.edu.pl/index.php?id=tutorials.php -or- http://worldses.org/conferences/2006/greece/iccom/ Regards, Misko YT7MPB
