"Bob Brock" wrote in message
"Dee Flint" wrote in message
"Bob Brock" wrote in message
On 28 Jan 2007 13:11:46 -0800, " wrote:

So, to bring this back on topic. I wonder if the intent of the average ham
is to make ham radio grow or to maintain a stale status quo? The way I
see it, a steady increase in qualified hams is a good thing. Ham radio
needs a good infusion of new blood and the no-code tech license as a good
start. However, it was only the beginning.

It will be very tough to grow ham radio. We've "saturated the market" so to
speak. If you check around the internet (for example, Speroni's site is
one), you can find the statistics on a few of the other countries. We have
2 hams per thousand people while Europe is running more like 1 ham per
thousand people. While we need to actively recruit, there just aren't a lot
of people out there that are inclined to amateur radio as a part of their
leisure pursuits. We will have to recruit hard just to stay at the current
level. It would not surprise me if our numbers dropped in half over the
next decade or so before leveling out.

Dee, I give you a standing ovation for admitting that!

At last, an amateur extra licensee besides Hans Brakob
who admits what has been visible for years.

The old paradigms are no longer worth a pair of pennies.
"Ham radio" needs to look at itself and its standards
very, very carefully.

The ARRL just doesn't have it to REALLY promote the hobby.
It hasn't had it for years. The ONLY promotion comes from
relatively-isolated (from League hierarchy) groups who have
actively pursued promotion themselves. ARRL's main
"interest" is promoting its (de facto) business of selling
publications. It IS a multi-million-annual-income
corporation despite what Believers say is "non-profit."

The League must CHANGE its political position. Radically.
Singing to the chorus of other amateurs about how good they
are is what the League leaders may want...but it is off-
putting to the majority. Either they show REAL leader-
ship as a membership organization and get with the
mainstream or just be a publisher of niche activities.

There really isn't much choice for them. They've resisted
and resisted and resisted BASIC changes to amateur radio
activity for years. As a result they've NOT increased
their membership by any worthwhile amount for years. The
largest amateur radio licensee class is Technician. It's
been that way for years...yet the League just shines off
that easily-observable fact.

Those who really and truly LIKE amateur radio MUST resist
the very-strong temptation to act as all-around extra
"superiors" and demand "respect" for credentials earned
in amateurism at the same time they are looking down their
noses at others. Despite how much they think of themselves
and other olde-tymers, their personal standards are NOT
shared by others, the mainstream. They MUST learn that
not all "newbies" MUST get into amateur radio as teen-
agers. They MUST learn that teen-agers have many MORE
diversions of very interesting activities AVAILABLE.
Not the latest fad interest or popular entertainment but
very real electronic activities that don't touch on
radio...or, if it does touch on radio, that radio is very
much more and farther from the traditional HF "short-
wave" in the real world. It is what IS, not what
individual olde-tymers want to preserve, that intangible
wonder of something shown to them long, long ago.

I don't have the answers, don't pretend to. But, I can
SEE what has happened, SEE cause-and-effect, and do not
PRETEND that "radio" has remained static since the first
olde-tymers "discovered" it.

I'm not an amateur. I'm a professinal in electronics.
Yet, I've been a hobbyist in electronics since before
most of you readers existed. I've seen the whole of
electronics ("radio" is a subset of that) CHANGE radically
in my lifetime. I've also seen that younger olde-tymers
bitterly resist change, change that they cannot control.
Those who resist change can alter the course of future
amateur radio by simply causing its stagnation and
eventual demise.

Too bad I'm on your "kill list." We might have had a
real conversation here on this. But, no, I have been
categorized as "inferior" or "unworthy" or, as one
put it in the past, "just horrid!" :-)

Regards,