A painful net

[GlobalNorth]

Amateur radio has a wide variety of people in it and participation is essential to enjoy the hobby, but why does a club allow someone who clearly has memory care issues / dementia to run a net? Today's controller had no idea who was calling in, was writing callsigns down on something that had unrelated callsigns and information from some other time, continuously forgot the topics, keyed up the repeater without saying anything for substantial lengths of time, admitted on the air that "I have no clue what I'm supposed to do", and kept calling for people who weren't there. Members tried to guide the controller along, but without much success.

It was painful to listen to and as someone who had a close relative who had dementia, I had to turn it off. I hope someone is providing living assistance to that amateur.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

Yikes. I have a neighbor who I talked to maybe once a month at the fence line. He got dementia and was moved to a home. He phones me several times a week, as well as some other people on the block, He isn't at word salad yet, but has some pretty wild ideas, and it is very disturbing.

 

[trentbob]

My club has about a hundred and twenty-five members and a great repeater system with inputs over a wide area. All of our Nets are always handled professionally and attentively by net control but...

I have heard some Nets on other club repeaters that were clearly a charlie foxtrot LOL. I make a point of not getting involved with that kind of deal, tedious and painful. Unfortunately as we get older, cognitive issues do pop up. It is often senior Elmer's who have made vast contributions over many many years but now the elevator doesn't go to the top floor lol.

 

[chrismol1]

As you can imagine, older hams geriatric, human contact part of something is ham radio. I have much compassion. These people don't have internet social media, they have ham radio. Its been sad listening for something of 2 decades and hearing the decline of once much active hams to silent keys. Hams whose world revolves around the radio much like youth on social media today, that is the social media of their day

 

[Duckford]

Amateur is full of old men. I say that in a good way, and I like the elderly. It helps keep the service mature and stable.

But, the problem is, as the demographic shift in Amateur keeps moving, we see a lot of what is described. Death, ill health, and those of diminished capacity are a common, constant thing.

If the person is crawling over more capable Amateurs to take the net, then it is time to step in and relieve him of his duties.

If the person in question is the net operator because nobody else is willing to be net control you've got a much bigger problem.

If an incompetent man is pushing his way through paramedics to interfere with a car crash victim, that's one thing. If a regular person on the streets is the one taking care of the car crash victim because he's the only one there, that's another matter.

We need to start making sure the next generation or younger folks are included in on taking the helm of clubs and nets, to make sure when the Grey Beards pass, get sick, or become diminished, there is someone to keep things moving.

 

[marlin39a]

I fear as the Fudds go silent, the amateur radio hobby will fade away. I hear too many idiots with CCR’s flooding local repeaters with obscenities, and foolishness. GMRS is also filled with jerks screaming “hello’s “. I recently put out my call sign, and was greeted with profanity. Sad times.

 

[danesgs]

My mom died of Dementia, Hopefully there will be someone who finds a cure down the road soon. Its not a given that as we get older we all lose out faculties. Staying healthy, eating right, exercise etc all help. An older HAM here has his wife of 50 years in a nursing home with multiple issues, yet when he gets on the air nobody wants to talk to him except me. Yes he talks mostly of visiting his wife or reminiscing about his time in Vietnam and such but mainly he needs to vent. Other than his cat at home, he really is very much alone other than the radio.

 

[bill4long]

I fear as the Fudds go silent, the amateur radio hobby will fade away. I hear too many idiots with CCR’s flooding local repeaters with obscenities, and foolishness. GMRS is also filled with jerks screaming “hello’s “. I recently put out my call sign, and was greeted with profanity. Sad times.

DMR is hopping with activity. And worldwide. Plus as solar cycle 25 ramps up, the bands are going to heat up like crazy. They already have when the bands have been sporadically open. Local repeater activity? Well, who knows? I rarely do that anymore. At any rate, to borrow a quip from Mark Twain, reports of ham radio's death have been greatly exaggerated.

 

[danesgs]

DMR, Echolink, FT8, other digital modes and yes cycle 25. HAM radio like anything else has bad actors, but they are not the norm. The numbers of new HAMs have remained pretty constant. HAM radio will always be around as long as there are people that want to use it.

 

[N1XDS]

As you can imagine, older hams geriatric, human contact part of something is ham radio. I have much compassion. These people don't have internet social media, they have ham radio. Its been sad listening for something of 2 decades and hearing the decline of once much active hams to silent keys. Hams whose world revolves around the radio much like youth on social media today, that is the social media of their day

I agree.

 

[N1XDS]

My mom died of Dementia, Hopefully there will be someone who finds a cure down the road soon. Its not a given that as we get older we all lose out faculties. Staying healthy, eating right, exercise etc all help. An older HAM here has his wife of 50 years in a nursing home with multiple issues, yet when he gets on the air nobody wants to talk to him except me. Yes he talks mostly of visiting his wife or reminiscing about his time in Vietnam and such but mainly he needs to vent. Other than his cat at home, he really is very much alone other than the radio.

Danesgs,

Am sorry for the loss of your mother...It's sad to hear about nobody wants to someone due to one reason or another I really hate that. It only takes a few seconds out of someone's schedule to stop to say Hello, How are you doing to that someone who is just wanting to someone to talk to in this world we live in it's not that hard to talk to someone. You did the right thing by talking to that gentleman.

I lost my father two months ago and would love to talk to him again to say how are you how you doing in person.

 

[AM909]

My club has about a hundred and twenty-five members and a great repeater system with inputs over a wide area. All of our Nets are always handled professionally and attentively by net control but...

I have heard some Nets on other club repeaters that were clearly a charlie foxtrot LOL. I make a point of not getting involved with that kind of deal, tedious and painful. Unfortunately as we get older, cognitive issues do pop up. It is often senior Elmer's who have made vast contributions over many many years but now the elevator doesn't go to the top floor lol.

I don't understand what's "LOL" about any of this.

 

[Duckford]

I don't understand what's "LOL" about any of this.

A little dark humor is OK. Better to laugh about the tragedy then cry about it.

 

[O-B-1]

Our President is a ham? At first, I thought the post was about him.
We had a gentleman with Parkinson's join the net the other night. He let everyone know of his condition, and explained just how much it meant to him that we all quietly listened to what he had to say. Many of these folks are shut in by the plague, and it means more to them than ever to have someone to talk to.
If it bothers someone that much, maybe wet down your mic and pick up your cell phone, the Internet awaits you.

 

[KC3ECJ]

Some people drink booze on the air.

 

[Duckford]

Our President is a ham? At first, I thought the post was about him.
We had a gentleman with Parkinson's join the net the other night. He let everyone know of his condition, and explained just how much it meant to him that we all quietly listened to what he had to say. Many of these folks are shut in by the plague, and it means more to them than ever to have someone to talk to.
If it bothers someone that much, maybe wet down your mic and pick up your cell phone, the Internet awaits you.

That's good. One of the most common ways the radio services help people is the way you describe, providing community and giving people who are alone and need to talk a place to talk. It is the most unspoken positive part of how it does really help society.

That being said, having a person with dementia participate in a net is a good thing. Having them run a net is a bad thing.

Give a drunk a ride home. Don't give him the keys and put him in charge.

There are some substandard net operators out there, and some real poor ways of running them. Putting people with diminished capacity in charge of a net is just asking for trouble. Considering some people can screw up nets without being drunk or senile....

 

[trentbob]

I don't understand what's "LOL" about any of this.

A little dark humor is OK. Better to laugh about the tragedy then cry about it.

What Duckford said... in this context with the way the conversation has developed it's not a funny situation but if you were listening on the air to the charlie foxtrot net that I was referring to in a different context, that's a different story. I made one of the first few replies. Read the rest of my post also. I make reference to the fact that some of the gentleman that might be having issues were also the people who contributed the most and accomplished the most in the hobby.

So I'm 68, my father, my uncle and my older brother were all ham operators and are all passed on... they all had cognitive decline at the end, unfortunately, I'm noticing it in myself... so lighten up Francis . That's a joke and in case you don't know where it comes from somebody will explain it.

 

[GlobalNorth]

Joining the net is much different than running the net. I have heard this person participating in the net and that is fine. When that person can't recall who just called in, when they can't recall what they are doing, and when they say on the air that they don't know how to run a net... that's a minor tragedy that is completely avoidable by either having another ham co-host with that person or asking for someone else to assume the duties. That person is lucid enough to know that they are confused, but can't control their short term memory enough to multi-task a
net.

 

[GlobalNorth]

That being said, having a person with dementia participate in a net is a good thing. Having them run a net is a bad thing.

This is the point of this thread, distilled down. Thank you.

 

[TomLine]

So volunteer to run it.
KE8MVY
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