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[email protected] · May 25th 08, 06:17 PM posted to rec.radio.amateur.moderated

On May 24, 10:58�pm, Mike Coslo wrote:
Steve Bonine wrote innews:WcydnXiZuvZVl6XVnZ2dnUVZ_ofinZ2
:

K�HB wrote:
"Michael Coslo" wrote in message
...

Some of those younger hams contribute a lot to our hobby, and I wish
we could figure out ways to attract more of
them. �Maybe a good start
would be to recognize their potential and quit using
derogatory terms to describe them.

Hear Hear, Steve!

I second that!

I know a few "young people", and IMHO "teenie-bopper" is a derogatory
term for them.

I would respectfully suggest that we as hams give
a little thought as to
whether or not we actually want young folk in the hobby.

This is beyond the simple statements such as "we need
more young people in the hobby".

Agreed. And we should be honest in recognizing that there is a small
but vocal minority who do *not* want young people to be
hams. Some years back, I saw a proposal to FCC to create a minimum-age
requirement of 14 years for any class of US amateur radio license.

Probelem as I see it is that while we might sayt that,
alll too many of
us have an implied addidition to that of "As long as
they are exactly as we are.

And the problem is, "we" is an interesting one word.

I know many hams who are surrounded with like minded
people, other Hams
who share similar interests. They have an outlook in
which they think
everyone is like them, or at least everyone should be.
Those who do not
share their outlook are inferior, or at best misinformed.

Of course. That's one facet of human nature.

OTOH, Amateur Radio does have standards, traditions,
rules, etc. I don't think it's a good thing to simply accept/promote
any and all "new" things, regardless of what effects they have, simply
because they're new, and to reject the "old" simply because it's old.

That said, we have so much latitude in Part 97 that I think there's
lots of room for 99% of what folks want to do.

Strangely enough, many of these hams were licensed at a very
young age.

What happened? I don't really know, but I suspect that there
were some
old timers who just couldn't stand those young hams of
yesteryear, too.
I'll bet they had names to call them.

That's nothing new. "No kids, no lids, no space cadets" dates back at
least a half-century.

Kids are a little different, but are still kids. They do some different
things than we do. One of those things is they way they interact
with each other.

If we declare them jerks, then we've lost them. If we even don't
say it,
yet have that attitude, they'll sense it and find something else to do.
Then we've lost them.

I became a ham at age 13, mostly through what I learned from ARRL
books. The big attraction was that Radio in general and Amateur Radio
in particular looked like a lot of fun to me. And for more than 40
years, it has been.

I think there is a sense that, back in the Old Days, there were young
hams (high school and younger) all over the place. In my experience as
a young ham (1960s-70s), however, that was not the case at all. Ham
radio was a niche thing back then, same as now, even without
computers, cell phones, etc.

There were a few curmudgeons back then who had no time for young hams.
But they were only a few. And a considerable number of young hams
dropped out because equipment was expensive, antennas were huge
compared to their houses, and/or they got interested in other things.

One big "hook", for me was that except for those few curmudgeons I was
not treated as an inferior - particularly on the air. A big part of
this was due to the mode I used - Morse Code. With Morse Code (and
text modes), no one knows your age or gender unless you tell them.
Operating skill, QSO content and signal quality established one's on-
air reputation, not how deep or gravelly your voice was.

To speculate wildly, it might be that one cause for curmudgeon-ness is
the fear of what advancements/accomplishments the young folks might
actually make.

I've been kind of surprised by the negative reaction to
my texting HT.
This device is not aimed at "us", it is aimed at a new
generation for
whom texting is as natural as talking to another.

I think you may have missed the point, Mike.

I don't think the way to attract young people is to come up with some
new gadget in an effort to attract them. Particularly if it does
something that's already available, such as texting by cellphone.

That said, I think a texting HT is a great idea. But for its own sake;
not as a way to "sell" ham radio to young people.

The core value of Amateur Radio is "radio for its own sake". Some
folks get that, most do not. The task is to spread that word to all,
publicize the wide variety of things hams do, welcome those who are
interested, and help them with what *they* find interesting.

Oddly enough, a lot of the young hams I have met are fascinated by
Morse Code, simply because it is unique and outside their experience.
That doesn't mean it's the only thing to show them, or that all new
hams must start out one and only one way. But it does mean we cannot
assume young hams are only interested in "new" things.

Maybe today's hams don't want young people to get
licenses. That's okay, that is a valid opinion.

I'd say that in a few cases there is no "maybe" about it. But only a
few.

I say that such an opinion runs counter to everything Amateur Radio
stands for.

But I would respectfully suggest that getting the young folk involved
will take a different tactic than the way many of us became
inolved.

Some ideas:

1) Presentations at the middle-school and even elementary-school level
- including the parents.

2) Identify local hams who are available to be Elmers. (I suspect that
some of the curmudgeon-ness is due to the fear of being expected to be
an Elmer).

3) Subtle helps to prospective young hams, such as a ride to a club
meeting, Field Day or hamfest, the loan of a rig, the gift of a box of
"old wire" that happens to contain all the parts needed to build an
antenna, etc.

4) Inclusion and acceptance. This means being considered an equal, or
at least a potential equal. For example, put new hams or prospective
hams to work with FD setup, logging, etc. (That means knowing how to
do things the right way, though!)

73 de Jim, N2EY