What I am finding out is that continuous good example of amateur radio activities and operation has an effect. My 54-year-old daughter just got her technician license. And my 58-year-old son and 45-year-old son have asked me to mentor them. I also mentored my wife's brother-in-law who is now a ham. I was mentored and became a ham in 1980 and have been active the whole time. Finally, a local ham friend of mine is active with a boy scout troop and is continuously teaching them and getting them involved in amateur radio. The do food at ham fests, sell used equipment and many of the scouts are licensed.
These examples are not unique, but I thought is might trigger some ideas or actions. 73 to all, Dave K7DRT (A happy K1 & K3 owner) -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Ed Cole via Elecraft Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2025 3:10 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Introduction to ham radio Lots good observations. Alaska has about 2500 licensed hams of which maybe actually get on-the-air and operate. Just a few comments: Alaska with low population density spread over miles of nothing mostly operate the HF bands. Half the ham pop live within 100 mile radius of Anchorage, so VHF is seen as using repeaters and FM. Kind of frustrating for a long-time VHF DXer (one who operates over hundred's and even thousands of miles without using a repeater via CW/SSB and now new digital modes). (I worked Chile over 8,000 mi on 6m-FT8 last Nov with 80w and five-element yagi at 20-feet). The best method I found for encouraging folks to become ham was to encourage a local ham to join our local club and within a year become VP and then President. He has recruited about 30 or more folks to become a ham in the last year or two. Our ham club rose from about 9 members (4 active) to over 30 due largely to his enthusiasm and energy. Recently he has become our VEC. So maybe that is another way to get new folks interested! (his call is KL7ZK). 73, Ed - KL7UW ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [email protected] ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [email protected]
