.... yeah, in other words, let's just kick back, have a drink and see if
this all pans out--hell, these oldsters just may pull off what they have
planned and live forever--then again, we should be prepared if not...

Warmest regards,
John
wrote in message
oups.com...
wrote:
wrote:
wrote:
wrote:
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3) The ARS has the image of an "old white guy's hobby" in some
circles.

In a *lot* of circles and they're basically right.
This phenomenon is a
result of evolutionary forces at work within
the hobby. There are two
choices he Go with the obvious flow and
accept where Mother Nature
is leading us and take advantage of it -OR- fight
Mother which is
always a losing battle and try to keep applying the
mores, values and
expectations of the yesteryears when we came into
the hobby50, 30 even
20 years ago.

Actually I we should go back to those "mores, values and
expectations of the yesteryears"

Liked that one dinya? Heh.

"Going back" ain't gonna happen but let's not dig this one up for the
umpteenth time.

- in a way.

Look at the old ham mags and other publications (ARRL
and non-ARRL, doesn't matter as long as it was a ham-
oriented publication) of the
so-called golden years of, say, the '50s. Back when we had
annual growth of about 8% year after year. They *weren't*
specifically aimed at "young'uns".

Kids in that timeframe lived in the remnants of the
old "children
should be seen and not heard" mindset. Unless some publication
was
somehow directly related to school classwork it was written
for adults.
Particulary if there was any technical content and the ARRL
followed suite.

Bingo - why can't that be the way things are again?

The license requirements
*weren't* reduced (as NCVEC and others want to do) to make
the tests easier for kids to pass.

Of course not, no more so than the state made it easier
for kids to get
drivers licenses. For the same underlying regulatory reasons.

Yet there were plenty of "young'uns". Which proves my point,
thanks.

The "Beginner And Novice"
columns weren't aimed at teenagers or any other age group.
And that may be a big part of what made them so attractive
to kids!

Nah, never entered our minds.

Not consciously.

Ham radio was an adult hobby and we
accepted it. Period.

'zactly. If ya wanted to be part of it you met the standards
for it. Watta concept, huh? Somebody tell NCVEC.

We were used to having to read at the adult level
when it came to technical publications, there were no
options, we
didn't know the difference. There were beginners
publications in some
hobby fields but I don't remember any in ham radio

"How To Become A Radio Amateur"
"Learning The Radiotelegraph Code"
"Understanding Amateur Radio"
"So You Want To Be A Ham"
"ABC's of Hma Radio"

and they were all
written for adults.

BINGO!

In another direction kid hams were a tiny and
poverty-struck book and magazine market, there's no
money in a market
like that so nobody wrote for specifically for us.
In yet another
direction all the kid hams I knew had adult-level
reading skills by the
time they were twelve or so and wouldn't have bothered
with being
spoon-fed kiddie sorts of writings even if they were available.

All those basic factors are the same today.

73 de Jim, N2EY