John Smith wrote:
Kelly:

Yep. I think you are unaware that some of us out here have our licenses,
got our radios fired up, tune the bands--and it is nothing but the same
old, same old...

We do see all the rag chews, boring rants, same operators, same gripes,
same rants, same little groups, same ideas, same conversations as
yesterday--day, after day, after day...

I am sure a lot of 'em are sitting there waiting for us poor ignorant
ops to "get with it" and "come to the realization" of just how vital and
interesting this all is and SHOULD BE to us...

Well I am one which does not and cannot appreciate it... if the fault
lies with me and my interests and views--so be it...

If I am wrong and all these young guys just can't wait to get a license
and startup a QSO so they hear these old guys fart and rant--well, that
is just a short coming of mine--and, those young dynamic guys who are
running the world right now and providing new ideas, designs and methods
are probably on the way here right now to find the old farts.... I'll
just sit here and wait for 'em, I need a change... maybe I can chat
with one or two of 'em--if they can quit their hero worship of you guys
long enough... grin

Dayum "John", YEAH, absolutely, boycott RRAP, refuse to post again
until the thirtysometings roll in!

All in favor say aye . . ?



John

wrote in message
oups.com...

Mike Coslo wrote:
wrote:
Michael Coslo wrote:


. . . The ham was Gene Reynolds W3EAN
who went out of his way to answer my unending stream of questions
that
night. I probably drove him nuts but I think he enjoyed it. There
was
no turning back after that night, I was gonna become a ham.

I enjoyed the story, Brian.

I've enjoyed the whole trip Michael.

But I gotta break in here. What you have
described is the real reason that people become hams. You were bitten
by
the bug, and it sounds like no one was going to stop you from
becoming one.

Yessir that's about right certainly in my case.

I too was hooked early in life, although it took a long time to
finally
get my ticket. I'm just P****d that I didn't get it years earlier.

Sorry about the previous rant but once in awhile somebody around here
bumps my babble button and there I go again . . You bumped the
bloomin'
button again Coslo. Rant Mode = ON

I didn't exactly leap toward the FCC office to take the test either,
far from it. One problem being that I had a number of other interests
too like photography, Boy Scouts, model railroading and GIRLS. They
all
absobred my time and what little money I could scrounge via paper
routes and such.

While my folks cheerfully funded Scouting they did not fund any of my
other hot buttons. Probably because they knew I'd drive them broke if
they did. They did encourage my pursuit of ham radio though, I guess
they thought it had educatinal value and it kept me off the streets
and
outta trouble. The latter didn't work very well though.

I never had an Elmer, I had no idea how to connect with a ham club
when
I was 10-12 so I scrounged books and magazines about ham radio and
tuned the bands with my junk radios. When I finally got to high school
I found a bunch of hams and and "the rest is history". Took me about
five years to go from my encounter with W3EAN to passing the Novice
test and getting on the air with it.

Which was in a much different regime than we have today. The Novice
license was a stick and carrot ticket with the emphasis on the stick.
We had 365 days from the date the license was issued to upgrade to a
13WPM General or get booted out of ham radio. Of the dozens of local
Novices I knew I don't recall of any who failed to upgrade or bitched
about the code tests.

I think I'm very typical of the kids who got into the hobby back then
and there were great heaps of us. The adults who took up ham radio
back
then were a different story, they had the money and they had control
of
their lives which us kids did not have. Net result today is that us
kids from back then are obviously the grouchy old farts of today and
almost universally have disdain to one degree or another for the
current state of affairs in the giveaway requirements for licensing.

It's not that we're mentally frozen in time at all, that's 100% BS.
It's because we've been there and done it all and we know what works
and what does not given the fact that except for the current licensing
nonsense ham radio hasn't changed nearly as much as many would try to
have us believe. Fuhgeddit, we see right thru it.

Im convinced that events in the future will prove us right. Today we
have a "bloat the numbers at any cost" game which is doomed to
backfire
eventually. The big question is how badly it will backfire and how
much
damage will have been be done before it happens. The history of this
country over last couple decades is chock full of eamples of backing
away from failed giveaways. It's only a matter of time until ham radio
gets it's turn.

Whew: Got that one out of my system too. Thanks Mike.

The idea of "recruiting" people into the ARS is likely never going to
work - at least as far as snagging people that are thinking about a
hobby, but don't know what to pick up.

I agree right down the line. You can't "recruit" anybody into a hobby
unless some kernel of interest already exists in the mind of the
"target" and even then it's a dicey proposition in most cases. It's
like trying to herd cats, doesn't work. The best we can do is toss out
PR to raise the awareness of ham radio and let the chips fall where
they might. The League is in the right direction in this respect.

If you wanna be a Ham - you *know* it.

Yupper but how one gets there varies hugely to the point where all
670,000 of us have probably taken 300,000 different routes. Compare
the
way Dee got into the hobby vs. my route. How different can they get?!


A local oldster was inquiring as to when his license expired, because
he couldn't find his F.C.C. Wallpaper. We help him figure it out. We
need to keep the geezers on the air. I love talking to them. I hope
someone is looking out for me when I'm 91!

They're all treasures we have a responsibilty to protect. Often from
themselves. Heh.

- Mike KB3EIA -

w3rv