On Jun 16, 9:39*am, "Geoffrey S. Mendelson"
wrote:

(snip)

Eventually as enough "old people" die off, and "young people" go elsewhere,
even in the US Amateur Radio will go from a service to a hobby.

(snip)

Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel *N3OWJ/4X1GM
I do multitasking. If that bothers you, file a complaint and I will start
ignoring it immediately.

Good points all. I agree with you that ham radio in the US might
become a "hobby" rather than a "service", and one thing that could
bring this about is failure to recruit enough young people. Another
thing that could bring it about, though, is watering down the hobby to
the point where it can no longer provide the kind of service that it
once did. Some (not all, but some) young hams entering the hobby
simply purchase an ht, connect to echolink and never give the rest of
the hobby a second thought. Is that the future that young people will
bring to ham radio? If that's the "service" we will one day provide,
why bother? We already have the internet. And cell phones. I'd rather
see ham radio die an honorable death now than suffer through this
death of a thousand compromises.