KØHB wrote:
"Mike Coslo" wrote

|
| I doubt L'il Kim or Brittany Spears or Justin Timberlake will ever be
| hams, or (name your popular type person) will ever even think about
it.
|
| Well, that's just fine. Ham radio wasn't, isn't, and never will be
| Kewl. And that's kewl by me. If those type people were involved in it,
I
| probably wouldn't be.
|

Why wouldn't you be? I don't personally know the three young people you
mention and I'll concede that I haven't paid a great deal of attention
to them, but my impression is that they are bright, intelligent,
successful, "with it" sorts who have influence among a wide segment of
the population, particularly young people. Seems that the involvement
of "those type people" could be one way (obviously not the only way) to
attract people to the Amateur Radio Service.

Agreed that they are all a part of popular culture, and are widely
respected and emulated by a lot of youth.

L'il Kim was just indicted for lying to the FBI about her involvement
in a shootout outside a studio when a security cam showed her very much
involved in it. Ms Spears has a lot to do with many prepubescent girls
"sluttin it up" the past few years. They adore her and emulate her as
much as possible. And Justin was the other half of the Janet Jackson
"wardrobe malfunction during the Super bowl.



Personally I find myself in direct disagreement with "wasn't, isn't, and
never will be Kewl". (Thanks to WB8IMY for some of his thoughts) In
case you didn't know, belief in magic is a necessary requirement for all
Amateur Radio operators. Of course, you won't see a question concerning
magic or metaphysics on the test you take to obtain your license, but in
your heart you will come to believe in that powerful, intangible force.

Sorry, I don't believe in either.


All of us in the hobby have felt its influence at one time or another.
Some night when the band is dead as a doornail you'll be tuning
aimlessly, not expecting to hear a single signal because NOTHING could
be coming through at that hour. But then, rising out of the noise like a
ghost, there will be a faint call from another stalwart explorer
thousands of miles distant. You pounce, establish contact and both of
you marvel at the fact that the conversation is taking place at all. A
few minutes later, however, the signal vanishes as quickly as it came.
Your rational mind will shrug it off as a quirk of propagation, but that
little tingle in your gut will tell you otherwise.

Hey, that's Kewl!

Certainly a coincidence.



If you could travel back in time 1000 years to 1004 AD, you'd probably
be burned at the nearest stake for even suggesting that two human beings
could communicate with each other over great distances without a
physical connection. No doubt they would accuse you of dabbling in
magic -- and they'd be right!

As Amateur Radio operators, we work feats of magic every day. Many of
us have become jaded about our powers and we tend to dismiss them as
commonplace. We hardly think twice when we use our equipment to sommon
the elemental forces of the universe. But every so often we need to
pause and remind ourselves of what we are really doing. We need to
remember the essence of what drew us to our unusual avocation in the
first place: the wonderful magic of wireless communications.

Hey, that's Kewl!

Those of us who play at RadioSport contesting regularly employ our
station engineering and operating skills in weekend-long games of
world-wide electronic splatball with tens of thousands of other
participants aged from pre-teen to near 100.

Hey, that's Kewl!

I could go on and on.....


What you are talking about is what I find fascinating about Amateur
radio also. Electronics in general for that matter.

Just imagine, all this starts with rocks. Rocks contain things that do
things when they are hit with electricity. Might be conduct electricity,
conduct it in one direction only, or block it. Maybe the rock will make
electricity when you hit it or when the sun shines on it. Maybe it will
make electricity when you get it near a magnet. Maybe the rock is a
magnet. All kind of stuff that enables us to do great things. And it's
all in rocks.


But it isn't too likely that the Popsters are going to be too
interested in that. It isn't the way they think.

Popular culture is what it is, and if the purveyors of pop thought that
Amateur radio was something to be popular, they would say so. Then the
popsters will come running to the ARS in droves.

And you or me thinking it is cool doesn't make it kewl for them.


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hey, that's good!

- Mike KB3EIA -