DANNY DOUGLAS wrote: > This all may sound like sour grapes to those who are pushing these > innovations, but I do really worry about the future of this hobby, and where > it is heading, but I have heard others saying the same things. As one who > has enticed young people into the hobby, taught classes and encouraged > operating: I am having more and more problems convincing them that this is > something that they want. They already have computers, cell phones, > blackberries, whatever berries, so why do they need radio? I could let them > read about cognitive radio systems, but I still wonder if that is enticement, > because they can already pick up the phone, or key the keyboard and talk > anywhere in the world, without worry about sun spots.
It seems, to me, that the predictions of the death of Amateur Radio have been around since well before I obtained my licence in the early 1980s, and I've seen articles in magazines going back to the 1930s predicting the imminent demise of the hobby for various reasons as well... In fact, maybe what we are saying is that "my" interpretation of what the hobby is to others is either going to have to change, or die? At various times new modes or ways of communicating have been deemed to be 'not Amateur Radio' or 'not in the spirit of Amateur Radio'. Often, about ten or twenty years latter it seems to me, those people new to the bands who were using the new fangled modes or systems are, themselves heard to bemoan new modes or systems in use as being "not what they joined the hobby for". Digital modes, such as AX:25 and even PSK31 were treated with a great deal of suspicion when they came out. I remember people who didn't like them questioned whether they were 'illegal' codes or cyphers. But, here we are decades later still with predictions of the death of Amateur Radio. Dave (G0DJA)
