902
Member
I have the pleasure of getting together with a childhood friend every year. We go back over 30 years together and used to talk to each other on the local 2 meter repeater as we rode the bus to high school, except we were separated by a river and were in two different states. Fast forward to last Saturday. He has a condo not far from me and spends his vacation down here. So, when we get together, we go through the usual list of what happened to who, who's a silent key, etc. This year, he said something like, "this isn't the ham radio you and I grew up with." My son (a general class licensee) is a high school senior and wants to start a ham radio club in his high school. He has fought for ham radio's relevance there, and loses to other, more popular interests. So, my friend wasn't very confident that it would happen.
I wanted to argue the point, but when I went back to a college I attended, the ham radio tower that had the HF and 2 meter beam that I helped put up during the summer of 1981 were gone. Sawed down. A bicycle rack is there now. The club callsign on a yellowing framed membership certificate I have has long gone silent. Another university club near my hometown still has its callsign, but the station lies fallow. The station was a tradition that is now silent during contests and special events. He's right. It's not the ham radio we grew up with.
So, we seem to be a solution looking for a problem. A lot of people talk about "public service" and emergency operations, but that may be a struggle for relevance, too. "Security" and labor issues usually push away volunteers. Heavy training requirements, too. Many C-level individuals who came up through computer systems don't even know about RF, let alone amateur radio, except that it's often the last mile or the module that interfaces with an accesspoint. All we need to do to see this in action is to look at the other boards here and see how infrastructure-dependent broadband systems will satisfy all needs for everyone. And, here I am, on the computer instead of upstairs calling CQ.
My son tells me that only one teacher he knows in the high school has ever heard of amateur radio, and that's because his grandfather was one - complete with a lot of boat anchor stuff. The teacher has never turned it on, and it never crossed his mind to mess with the "junk in the basement."
So, here's the question: if you weren't already a ham, and you didn't know anything about this, is ham radio something that would attract you today? Would you naturally be interested?
Try not to look at the question through the lens of an experienced ham. My interest, for the most part, is how we can maintain relevance and promote science, technology, and math to our children (and their teachers... but that's an entirely different story). I'm also looking at this from a selfish perspective. This hobby defines a good deal of "me," to the point that if I didn't have it, I'm not sure what I'd be doing. We've had some wonderful discussions about how we all got into the hobby. Maybe this can expand that conversation a bit.
I wanted to argue the point, but when I went back to a college I attended, the ham radio tower that had the HF and 2 meter beam that I helped put up during the summer of 1981 were gone. Sawed down. A bicycle rack is there now. The club callsign on a yellowing framed membership certificate I have has long gone silent. Another university club near my hometown still has its callsign, but the station lies fallow. The station was a tradition that is now silent during contests and special events. He's right. It's not the ham radio we grew up with.
So, we seem to be a solution looking for a problem. A lot of people talk about "public service" and emergency operations, but that may be a struggle for relevance, too. "Security" and labor issues usually push away volunteers. Heavy training requirements, too. Many C-level individuals who came up through computer systems don't even know about RF, let alone amateur radio, except that it's often the last mile or the module that interfaces with an accesspoint. All we need to do to see this in action is to look at the other boards here and see how infrastructure-dependent broadband systems will satisfy all needs for everyone. And, here I am, on the computer instead of upstairs calling CQ.
My son tells me that only one teacher he knows in the high school has ever heard of amateur radio, and that's because his grandfather was one - complete with a lot of boat anchor stuff. The teacher has never turned it on, and it never crossed his mind to mess with the "junk in the basement."
So, here's the question: if you weren't already a ham, and you didn't know anything about this, is ham radio something that would attract you today? Would you naturally be interested?
Try not to look at the question through the lens of an experienced ham. My interest, for the most part, is how we can maintain relevance and promote science, technology, and math to our children (and their teachers... but that's an entirely different story). I'm also looking at this from a selfish perspective. This hobby defines a good deal of "me," to the point that if I didn't have it, I'm not sure what I'd be doing. We've had some wonderful discussions about how we all got into the hobby. Maybe this can expand that conversation a bit.