Steve Bonine wrote on Wed, 18 Apr 2007 00:16:53 EDT

wrote:

I don't think that we are ever going to see Amateur Radio appeal to
the public at large.

It never did. Never will.

I agree. However, I would like to see it publicized a bit
more before the public so that the public gets an all-
around image of amateur radio rather than the stereotypical
one that has been around for half a century.

Fifty years ago it was difficult to phone outside of your state,

Even ten years ago, the cost of long distance telephone calls made them
"exotic" or "rare". Today, they're not. OK, fine . . . ham radio has
never been limited to just the ability to "talk" to people far away.

I disagree a bit. Having seen advertisements and amateur
radio magazine article contents for a half century, one
of the most prominent features could be summed up in the
phrase "work DX on HF with CW." :-)

Antennas, transceivers seem to have always mentioned "DX,"
"ability to work the 'rare' ones," "a DX-ers dream" and
other assorted wish-fulfillment phrases designed to sell
goods.


... Kids today who regularly chat with
other kids from around the globe on myspace will not be impressed with
a hard to hear ham contact with North Dakota.

Yep. So what can we find that *will* impress them?

One way might be the amazed surprise that accompanies
actually BUILDING a radio "from scratch" and making it
work. Anyone can, and many do, just buy a radio or
consumer electronics and the vast majority of those work
right out of the box. Building, with one's own hands,
everything, even from a kit, can be a creative
satisfaction to the majority. The Michael's chain of
arts and crafts store became a success at selling
that kind of creativity.

A few activites such as fox-hunting might be appealing
from the fun of transferring a kid's game ("tag, you're
it", etc.) to more useful pursuits of adulthood (besides
chasing the opposite sex that is, a whole different
endeavor). There's an element of competitiveness in that,
albeit mild. Younger people tend towards competitive
events and "joining teams." It's essentially an outdoors
activity, not "nerdish" sitting still in front of computers.

The technical challenge of hooking up a computer to a radio?

Not quite that simplistic. Writing (developing, really)
a program FOR a radio-computer interface has direct
application which can be very personalized to user
requirements. That can be VERY creative...especially
if the program result can be used by many others.

Satellites?

No. To a twentysomething of today they have "always had"
communications satellites.

Helping develop new modes of radio communication?

Not quite. To do the "new" one needs to understand what
is here and available now. We have so much of the "now"
that a beginner would not know all of it.

The thrill of tossing a CQ out and not knowing who will respond?

Perhaps. A form of that happens on many personal websites
of today...except that users there do not have license call-
signs. With most users being anonymous, others don't really
know who they are. With amateur licensees one will know
after looking such up on a callsign CD or a website such as
QRZ. A following QSL card, even if a week or two late,
will provide confirmation of that contact.

I honestly do not know. We need to somehow communicate the fact that
"ham radio" is not synonymous with "talking to someone far away" because
this generation knows that the way to "talk to someone far away" is to
simply open their cell phone.

Steve, "your" generation (and even later) are already using
cell phones besides the teen-agers. :-) And they are talking
short-range, medium-range, and long-range on those phones,
even with those strange ear-growths based on Bluetooth.

I think that the analogy with collecting is flawed, but I can support
the "classic" concept. A better analogy for me is sailing. Obviously
the best way to get from point A to point B is *not* by using a
sailboat, but I think that interest in recreational sailing is doing
pretty well.

Allow me to draw a communications parallel in analogies.
The BBS (Bulletin Board System) began in earnest shortly
after the first "hefty" (memory larger than 48K bytes)
personal computers appeared, roughly in the decade from
1982 to 1992 (give or take). I was a part of that then
and really got "into" it. BBS-ing attracted tens of
thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, not just in the
USA but worldwide...doing what USENET wanted to be before
the Internet became public and carried it. It was a huge
success with many different BBS intersts...social, technical,
work-oriented (especially with writers), special-interest
groups, you name it. Yes, there were the sexual aspects
but those were actually a minority of all the different
BBS groups.

About the same time, also in larger urban centers, "repeater
clubs" started up, perhaps a bit more chummy than the older
ham clubs since the 'VHFers' were less interested in reaching
out to foreign lands as were the older "DXers." They were
primarily social get-together clubs, much the same as the
social BBSs.

The Internet going public in 1991 halted the BBS expansion
as subscribers shifted from BBSs to the 'web. There was
much more to offer on the Internet...BBSs couldn't keep up
much less try to match it. But, the repeater clubs still
exist, at least here in southern California. Some illustrate
their gatherings and picnics on their websites.

Ham radio will never appeal to a broad segment of the population.

Then I would say that the old, out-dated stereotypical
"we are the heroes of disasters and emergencies" bragging
ought to be put away. The public that has been IN such
events is aware of who helped them and who didn't.

But the more facets of the hobby we can get in front of the
general population, the better chance we have of attracting a few of
them into the hobby.

True enough to me. But, PR smarts are needed for promotion,
those who can "feel the pulse of the public, the market" and
have been successful in doing PR. Marketeers are always in
front of the public, in competition with existing activities
that don't "reach out" enough.

Oddly enough, leisure-time pursuits are cyclical. It's not beyond the
realm of possibility that ham radio might "catch on" at some point, at
least for a while, especially now that the code requirement is gone.

I really doubt that it will catch on now. So far, the trend
shown in stats is for upgrading, not newcomers. I see the
dropping of the code requirement as 12 to 20 years late.
The interest in ham radio is primarily among those who are
already involved in some form of radio or who are well
acquainted with those who are in radio.

If it doesn't . . . well, then it doesn't.

That's how it can be... :-)

I'd love to see an influx of
younger people into the hobby, but if that doesn't happen, I'll be long
dead before it dies completely.

Well, this whole PUSH to "get the younger people in" might
be more of wishful thinking by old-timers, themselves thinking
that "all young people" were like they of a long time ago.
I hear/see no real push to sustain youngsters once they got a
taste of the activity. SUSTAINING the interest is important
for that adult group to weather all their other responsibilities
(job, family, etc.) to reach old-timer stage and retirement,
along with some cash to spend on expensive radio toys (that
sustains the market for radio goods producers for everyone).

These "younger people" already have a wealth of competitive
ways to communicate at their disposal. Stuff that neither you
nor I nor any old-timer had when we were young. Old-timers
will decry and denigrate "youngsters" current interests (it
happens with every generation) but that is absolutely *NOT*
the way to approach these younger people. They have to be
touched on their level, not the nostalgia of old-timers
exaggerating their own personal experiences of a bygone era.

To get that influx of younger people, they have to be SOLD
on it. Selling is NOT helped by showing off their middle-
aged selves as "role models of excellence." Younger people
will simply reject that. They could care less if a ham has
personally contacted half the world's hams or been IN amateur
radio since the year dot...if they look "old" they've lost
points before they start.

SELLING requires controlled enthusiasm, "controlled" insofar
as touching younger people on their terms, not the salesman's.
Good salespeople are a bit like actors. They have to assume
a ROLE and do it as natural as possible in that role. Those
"actors" won't win awards to take home, but they can win
awards to carry with them inside for a long time.

73, Len AF6AY