Noon-Air wrote:
What kinds of rigs/stations did the rest of you *start* with??
What do you think that *most* young prospective HAMs would be able to handle
to get into the hobby??

The problem is the competition. You can buy a NEW computer for $200,
hook it up to broadband and be able to talk around the world, download
video in almost real time, get the news, sports and things that you will
never see or hear on the radio. No tests, NO MORSE CODE, no controls.

The days of electronics experiemnters going to the "radio shop" and buying
some wire, tubes and spare parts and hearing people from around the world
are long gone. The mystery is gone, the parts stores are gone and it seems
that the desire to work to get an education is all lost in the rush.

Cheap rigs are simply not going to do it. There are so many used rigs on
the market these days that go for $300-$400 that even mainland China with
their factories that pay so little can compete. As for new rigs, everyone
wants a simple voice rig with a digital VFO, a gazillion memories and
an AUTOMATIC antenna tuner. You might as well not even include CW, most
prospective hams can't be bothered to learn it.

Education and outreach is the only thing that will. Apple computer started
the concept of "product evangelism", preaching how good the Macintosh was
to the "great uncomputered". Their head evangelist, Guy Kawasaki wrote several
books on the subject.

If ham radio is to continue, you need to "product evangelize" ham radio.
Go out and give demos to schools, scout troups, youth groups. If there are
any kids in your family or neighbors that are interested in computers,
take them to hamfests, they'll go for the computers, but the radios may
catch their interest.

It's also about time to change the license tests. Drop morse code. Add more
good operating practice.

Here in Israel I hear mostly European hams. They are polite and careful
operators. When the "skip rolls in" to use a term from another service, it
seems like CB. Gone are the polite carefull guys, the U.S. phone bands
sound like "lid city". And the CW is not much better, most of it is sent
by computer and the same old garbage you hear on SSB, sent by people
who can type and have a computer program to copy Morse.

Another pet peeve of mine is sstv. It was "neat" seeing it live from
the Mercury space capsules. Fourty years later it has no technological
relevance. Why do we have to give up 20-30kHz of the 20 meter band 24/7
for it?

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM
IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 IL Fax: 972-2-648-1443 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838
Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/