From: Mike Coslo on Fri, Feb 2 2007 6:53 pm

" wrote in
On Feb 2, 7:10?am, Cecil Moore wrote:
wrote:

But what if it doesn't?

Ham radio still has a lot to offer but not
nearly as much as it once did. What can we
do to make it more attractive?

Sell diet plans and make-up kits at hamfests? :-)

Get Jenny Craig to sponsor a ham gathering?

Might help!

Hmmm...some shows on HGTV cable channel are shot just a
mile-plus from here over in Burbank. Maybe I'll make a
few local calls and see if anyone wants to make some
noise about that. Sorry, the FOOD channel is already
doing shows about ham for Easter. :-)

Thing one - there never will be a huge number of hams.

True. "The FEW, the Proud, the United States Hams!"

Well, the lack of sales-marketing efforts to buy ad
space in amateur radio periodicals caused at least
2 1/2 ham magazines to quit in the USA in the last
two decades. That was happening even as the numbers
of licensees were peaking about three years ago.

Thing two - I've seen firsthand the damage that the grouchy olde tymers
can do. They chase people away. Old timers with an attitude are now the
greatest danger to Ham radio.

I agree with you there. As an admitted "old timer"
I know what my chronological contemporaries are like
and do NOT like some of it.

Putting together a station is fun.

Talking around the world without a structure is fun.

Learning about all that Radio encompasses is fun.

Talking with friends old and new about radio is fun

Sure. It's an excellent hobby with great
learning-of-new-technology capability on top of it.

Fun, fun, fun, fun for everyone!

No, I disagree. There are lots of controlled-mind pedants
(some with black uniforms) in here who DEMAND Perfect
Professionalism in an amateur activity. One MUST do as
they say..."or else." They are the Masters and disrespect
of them is Forbidden!

Listening to someone bemoan CB'ers, nickle extras, and how their
prowess in CW makes them superior, how Hams really had it hard in the
old days, any idiot can become a ham nowadays, next thing yaknow, they
will be giving licenses away on boxes of cereal type hams, and onandon
is not fun.

It is Great FUN for Them. They LIKE putting on their
"superior" act.

That type would be helping the ARS best by turning in their
license. Or at least having the decency to keep their hate to
themselves.

Masters need not heed the "inferior" beings. They are immortal
and rule all, know all.

Tsk, FCC 06-178 is going to become LEGAL FACT in a few days.
The Masters still can't come to grips with that, not even
if they pile on the nice-nice hypocrisy now as compared to
their self-centered, subjective BS of the recent past.

Little people. Amateur professionals.

LA