On Feb 27, 9:00 am, Michael Coslo wrote:

What attracted you, and can we get some ideas from that to attract or
identify and attract new blood?

From as far back as I can remember, I was interested in technology -
how things worked and what they could do. The kind of kid who's always
asking questions, taking things apart and putting them together, etc.
I found electricity particularly interesting.

This interest was aided and abetted by reading everything I could get
my hands on. Libraries and bookstores were special places to me.

I did the usual Erector-set and battery/flashlight bulb stuff at a
very young age. Then at about age 10 I found a book called "All About
Radio and Television" which explained the basics of radio and how to
build a simple radio using a razor-blade-and-pencil-graphite detector.
I built one, strung a wire out to the crabapple tree in the back yard,
and heard WPEN. I was hooked.

The book also mentioned various kinds of radio besides broadcast radio
and TV. Of greatest interest to me was something called "amateur
radio", where ordinary people of all ages and all walks of life had
their own radio stations that they used to communicate with each other
over great distances. Also of interest was "shortwave broadcasting"
which came from other countries.

Nobody in my family was a ham, nor were any of my neighbors. None of
them knew any hams, either. Not much detail on amateur radio was given
in "All About Radio and Television", but I knew where to look for more
info - other books. Soon I had a much clearer picture of what amateur
radio and shortwave radio were all about. First order of business was
to get a receiver in order to listen to "hams" and shortwave stations,
so I built one based on information in the various books. It was a
simple two-tube regenerative set, made mostly from salvaged parts. It
wasn't the best receiver in the world but it worked well enough for me
to hear BBC, Radio Moscow, the Voice of America - and "hams"! I wanted
to talk to those folks!

The books explained that being a ham required earning an FCC license,
so I set about doing that. I learned Morse Code by listening to hams
use it on the air, and theory from the books and by building and
improving the receiver. By the time I was 12 I figured I knew enough
to pass the Novice test, so I set out to find a local ham who would be
a volunteer examiner for me. I located one by the antenna in his yard,
and he referred me to another amateur who did the tests. I passed on
the first go and built a simple transmitter while waiting for the
license to arrive from FCC. Which it did on October 14, 1967.

I went on the air and began making contacts. It wasn't easy with the
equipment I had and my basic skills, so I learned to be a better
operator and how to build better equipment.

Now it's more than 40 years later and it's as much fun to me as ever.

What attracted me was the idea of building my own radio station and
using it to communicate with like-minded folks all over the world.
That the results were random and unpredictable only added to the
attraction. I didn't think radio was "magic" or "mysterious", just a
lot of fun.

A big factor in the attraction was the attitude expressed in the
books. None of them said learning radio, getting a license or building
equipment was difficult. None said a ham had to be older than a
certain age, have a certain income, education or IQ level, be of a
certain gender or ethnicity, etc. The required math, physics,
chemistry and electricity, and Morse code, weren't presented as
obstacles; just stuff that anybody could learn. The whole process was
and is a lot of fun. A challenge, not a "hoop" or a "barrier".

None touted amateur radio as a replacement for other communication
methods or as a social community, though they did mention the public-
service aspect. Sure, there was no internet back then in the 1960s, no
iPods, cell phones or video games, etc. But we had radio and TV, long
distance telephones, music, movies, etc. Amateur radio wasn't a
replacement for those things, it was fun in itself.

IMHO the way to "sell" amateur radio isn't to present it as a
replacement for something else, but as a unique activity with many
facets. Some will get it, others won't, no big deal.

73 de Jim, N2EY