Bringing In New People To The Hobby

[AF1UD]

Hello All!

I'm Josh, AF1UD - relatively new the hobby, I got my license in 2020 during COVID. I joined up due to wanting to communicate with people during uncertain times, of which these times have continued... but I digress. What sparked this post was we just had an event - Manchester Road Race where hams direct the communications about the runners and events that occur on the course (like the Boston Marathon). Out of the 54 hams that volunteered, I was the youngest, and in our after action report they mentioned for a minute finding new (young) people.

90% of all hams in my area are 50+, and I'm the only young person. That isn't bad, because they are all full of information and I always learn something new each time I talk to them. I've been a member of two local clubs, and they never talk about bringing in new people to the hobby. A lot of people I run into contact with who are new are joining because they are on a towns' CERT team. They get their license out of necessity rather than pure interest, but even then, they rarely use their licenses.

I haven't given this much thought yet, but I thought I would put some posts out to see if others have done outreach before and what they've done. I will bring this topic up to the club at our next meeting in January, but want to have some talking points and/or maybe a plan by then.

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[belvdr]

Good luck. I don’t see young people finding any value in amateur radio. They are more interested in social media.

 

[alcahuete]

This topic has been discussed ad nauseum. I'm not saying you shouldn't start this discussion here, but look around and there are discussions everywhere on this.

 

[pb_lonny]

Sadly young people just don't have the radio bug, like people did in the past.

 

[popnokick]

QST Magazine has had more than one feature article in the last year describing various clubs and their outreach programs to bring in new hams, particularly younger persons.

 

[Brales60]

Not a ham guy, but I just got into scanners in July and am hooked. I also see a bunch of newer guys based on the join dates asking questions

 

[mciupa]

Simply put, some young people don't have the finances to get into the hobby. The equipment should be lower priced.

 

[belvdr]

Simply put, some young people don't have the finances to get into the hobby. The equipment should be lower priced.

Even if it were, I don’t think people find talking to strangers around the world via some desktop equipment interesting any longer. You can do the same with an app on a phone. There’s just no novelty there any more.

 

[Brales60]

Simply put, some young people don't have the finances to get into the hobby. The equipment should be lower priced.

Along with everything else anymore, but we won't get into the current administration. I personably don't think anything is going to be reasonable anymore. I'm lucky I can afford the good stuff, but I get it. Everything goes up but our pay..

 

[ArkTex]

I guess I can speak to this since I recently turned 21 last week as of the date of this post. I think there has just been such a degradation in my generation's curiosity, since all my friends who are the same age just spend all day on social media. They get spoonfed all of their information on the same social media sites as well.

Me, on the other hand, spent my 21st birthday money on an SDS100. I don't really care to listen to anything in particular, I just like the technology. There's always something interesting in the field of radio.

 

[ladn]

Simply put, some young people don't have the finances to get into the hobby. The equipment should be lower priced.

$30 for a VHF/UHF CCR handheld is a pretty good price point for bottom of the barrel entry level equipment.

 

[freqhopping]

Have the clubs try to get something started at a highschool if the school can find a few students that would be interested.

 

[Lauri-CoyoteFrostbite]

.

I wouldn't despair Cowboy ....

You have to just figure that the mass of young people will flow with the current social trends. Nothing has changed really. The geeks are always there, its just there are so many flashy baubles vying for everyone's attention. And admit it, most hams are geeks.

If you are going to complete, you have to be clever and flashy too.

Not so many years ago (hmmm...or so it seems now).... in my laboratory we used to host open houses for area high schools. We'd get all the STEM students, teachers,, administrators....... and with a tonne of free pizza's and cokes it always went over fantastic. **
It was such a success that two local high schools formed radio clubs-- of sorts-- because (or so I was told) of these open houses--- these students became interested in all sorts of things electronic. Once they learned ham radio was far more than anything they were familiar with (ie; CB )...... their interests soar'd in it as a hobby. ( Practically all became hams too.)

For instances---
I would open up our 'junk box' to these students-- a warehouse of former projects too valuable (to us who slaved over them) to scrap but forever useless to the rest of the sane world--- and let them 'cannibalize" things for parts ***.

...........or like letting them explore the universe by using one of our 20 metre dishes with a high power 900 MHz transponder to 'ping' the moon****..... and so on,,,,..

You get the idea

Never did we try to be like carnival barkers selling admissions to see the freak show at a county fair. We just presented what we loved doing in an interesting way.
Set an example, and stand back--

I was always surprised at the results, especially when those students who asked for letters of recommendation got into the colleges of their choice and pursued science careers.
......And of course it was pleasing that they became hams too.

I am not sure if this helps other than to give you something positive.
Good Luck with your quest Tex.... you are to be commended .


Lauri






_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________-


**After a few successful years, unfortunately, the security black hats made us quit... ..............

*** ditto

**** same/above.... but by now you are getting the picture...........

.

 

[ka3aaa]

well the radio hobby is what you make it, that's the bottom line, and you dont always need the most expensive equipment to do it.

the most excitement Ive ever had with ham radio was doing moon bounce, yes bouncing signals off the moon ,to the rest of the family across the conus on Christmas day and getting verified and recorded by a third party operator.

 

[ladn]

I would open up our 'junk box' to these students-- a warehouse of former projects too valuable (to us who slaved over them) to scrap but forever useless to the rest of the sane world--- and let them 'cannibalize" things for parts

When I was in high school, one of the SoCal aerospace companies let our electronics class visit their "junk box" wheelhouse. We acquired a truckload of stuff. This was in the days of discrete components--when resistors and capacitors actually looked like resistors and capacitors, and many components were "wired" (as opposed to being mounted on circuit boards). We spent a lot of class time developing our soldering iron skills by removing and classifying components.

We also had a family friend and neighbor who managed the local Civil Defense warehouse. I had some fun times exploring the electronics (which were mostly WWII and Korean War vintage technology) and eating survival biscuits. I still have a few items that I was allowed to take home--including a set of ARRL code practice 78 RPM records.

I got my first CB radio shortly after that , but it took 20 years to get my first ham license.

 

[bharvey2]

In my neck of the woods (SF Bay Area) I've noticed that a lot of the new blood coming into the ham community comes from those becoming EMTs. Perhaps their exposure to using radios on the job spurred an interest in general. - Just an observation.

 

[KMG54]

Yep, back in the early 70's in high school we had CB clubs. Everybody was involved and taught a bunch about radio. Today computers and facebook.

 

[ladn]

I would put some posts out to see if others have done outreach before and what they've done. I will bring this topic up to the club at our next meeting in January, but want to have some talking points and/or maybe a plan by then.

Going back directly on-topic:
I've brought friends and acquittances into the ham radio hobby. Some were fellow photojournalists who came in with an understanding of radio through the use of scanners in our profession, others became interested seeing how (well) ham radio worked with 4 wheel driving/off roading (as opposed to CB). My prepper friends were interested in ham radio because of SHTF planning.

My relatively brief ham radio club experience was uninspiring--my local club was friendly and welcoming, but was mostly white-haired geezers who complained about co-channel interference to the club repeater and little else. Some of the members were also "kilocycle cops" on the repeater and others towed the ARRL banner of "When all else fails..." a little too high.

My work schedule changed, and I was unable to attend the monthly meetings or participate in club activities, so I let my membership lapse. Over the years, I've kept tabs on the club through the website, but haven't been motivated to reconnect because their website isn't remotely current.

 

[SmitHans]

Simply put, some young people don't have the finances to get into the hobby. The equipment should be lower priced.

Eh, I don't know. Today you can get a 2M/440 handheld radio for under $150. In the 1970's, a 5 channel 2M handheld was $300. In today's money that is almost $1900.

Going the other way, that $150 radio today would be under $30 in 1975 money.

 

[K5MPH]

$30 for a VHF/UHF CCR handheld is a pretty good price point for bottom of the barrel entry level equipment.

I have seen UV-5R on Ebay for 18.99,by the way I am not in anyway endorsing this radio just a suggestion........