I have read with interest the various postings on this thread. To pick
one out, Dave AB7E's analysis is, IMHO, spot on. As times roll on,
various aspects of cultural life change, also. "New technologies" of
whatever form will naturally catch the general interest, while old ones
will diminish to the status of niche interests for the few. Young people
generally are at the leading edge of taking up the new, while old folks
hold on to the trailing edge of the old for all the usual reasons. I had
an MG-TD with a broken starter in my youth; I crank started it for a
year. Many funny stories, lots of fun, and some skill acquisition [pull
up, don't push down]. But, I don't think that those "positives" which I
fondly remember would prompt many young people to adapt a crank-start car.
My father was interested in many things. He taught me to make black
powder, and I blew the front off the kitchen stove [long story]. He
would draw one-tube radio schematics on the back of paper napkins.
Interesting for me for the novelty and for my father's interest. He/we
bought an AM 3-tube radio from an electronics store in Washington DC
which we built together. That was fun, although I don't remember using
it much. When I started in ham radio at age 16, I followed the lead of a
ham friend who got me started with code, and a big time DX operator who
was an engineer at the weather bureau technical labs who owned a Collins
75A-4 and had built himself a 3-el 40m yagi [came down in the first big
winter storm]. I bought a Heathkit DX-20 and a used National NC-98, a
total investment of under $100. The antenna was a single wire that ran
under the window and out to a back yard fence [length 30ft, hgt 15ft]. I
actually worked some people! I learned CW for the simple reason that it
was the only mode that I could afford. I majored in EE in college and
spent 10 years in that line of work. And so on...
When I got back into ham radio in 1989 at the age of 49y/o, several
things were different. I had money to buy decent equipment. I owned my
own home which made antenna construction MUCH easier. I had an adult's
sensibility about technical stuff. I found CW interesting as a "second
language." "Communicating" was not the goal but rather the proof that I
had successfully mastered various technical challenges. Tinkering with
antennas [the quad went up and down regularly] and computer modeling of
same was interesting. The QSO/communicating was not primary but, again,
the proof that I had solved some antenna problem. Hunting DX and
contesting became my central focus, again as proofs that I had the
station set up as best as circumstances allowed and that my operating
skill set was up to the challenge.
My take away from all this is that unique factors in my life have
prompted and supported my interest in ham radio. I don't think that
"fun" has ever been the primary motivation - although I do enjoy a good
run in the CQWW-CW. The learning and acquisition curve in the hobby has
always matched my resources at any one time. Today, the cost and
complexity of the hobby is pretty steep. Given the difficulty in getting
young people involved in STEM interests and studies, the idiot-proof
nature of the consumer digital world, the low value placed on hardware
curiosity and tinkering [nothing is fixed, just replaced], and the
cultural focus on immediate gratification, is it so surprising that ham
radio is a difficult sell?
All IMHO.
...robert
On 12/14/2019 02:24, Wayne Burdick wrote:
Hams of a certain age, including yours truly (first licensed in 1971) recall
their excitement on joining the hobby: there was the promise of contact with
faraway places, collection of vivid QSL cards, mastery of esoteric equipment,
synchrony with the rhythms of Morse code, and the crafting of antennas to
harness action at a distance.
Most of us still feel that spark, occasionally--some on a daily
basis--experiencing the wonder all over again.
While the accoutrements and equipage of youth have evolved over the decades,
their DNA has not. Somewhere, nestled between the genetic codes for half-pipe
snowboarding, Instagram, Juul, and ambient house, there's a dormant sequence
for the Radio Art waiting to be stirred.
Is there a Battle Royale for ham radio? A tactical RPG?
What is our sorcerer's stone? Our rap?
Will Gen-Z or Gen-Alpha tickle the ionosphere, and if so...why?
To hand our batons across the chronological divide, we'll need empathetic,
open-ended inquiry.
73,
Wayne
N6KR
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Robert G Strickland, PhD ABPH - KE2WY
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Syracuse, New York, USA
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