On 20/01/2016 04:06, Michael Black wrote:

[snip]

It's a skill and kids (as opposed to adults) like doing things that
most can't.

It has an aura of mystique about it and that attracts people.

Like I said in a recent thread, when I got my ham
license at age 12 in 1972, the test wasn't a hurdle, it was an
adventure. I was soaking up as much theory as I could read anyway.

Pretty much the same story here, I was reading everything I could get my
hands on (back then there were a lot more magazines around), talking to
the locals at clubs, swl'ing and studting a copy of the RAE manual.

There was a time when many or most hams came into the hobby at a
relatively young age.

I came in at the age of 22 but I don't remember a time when I wasn't
fascinated by radio, I remember as a small child (pre-school) asking my
mother how radios worked.

IN more recent times, that's changed, probably
a ersult of the "dumbing down". They don't have to learn so much (at
a time when they might not be interested in learning) but their lure
into the hobby is quite different from in the old days, or when we
were kids.

The internet has changed everything.

As that happens, it changes the hobby. The retiring ARRL president
was only licensed in 1985 or so, 30 years ago but I gather she wasn't
a child. That has to skew things, the adults seeing the hobby
differently.

The trick about attacting newcomers is to spark an interest in them when
they are young and I don't mean dumb the crap out of it just to get kids
on the air! This policy has been a disaster in the UK. Spark an interest
via CW and home construction and the likelihood is a high percentage
will take up the service when adults.

If you think code is an impediment, you will perceive it as a
negative part of the hobby.

It's a very, very good idiot filter.

Same with all that technical stuff.

There's no way around that though, amateur radio is a technical pursuit.

One of those blogs that get jammed into the newsgroup, the other day
someone said something about amateur radio not being 'spiffy"
enough. But time was those pictures of people's shacks with all that
gear was good enough. Has that faded, or are the adults deciding it
can't be a lure for the young, so they feel they have to compete with
all the current stuff?

I believe the trick is to make it interesting and cool. Morse interests
kids and being able to make world wide contacts with a few watts of
homebrewed RF is cool.

I think the hobby is less attractive today, based on how it's
presented (and it gets a lot less presentation to the public than in
the past). But some of that is because people have tried to erase the
past, because they feel it doesnt' compete with the new.

It is presented in entirely the wrong way. Unwashed, uneducated ****s
who have been gifted access to amateur radio via the great dumb down
talking utter crap into a microphone at special event stations presents
amateur radio in the worst possible light. It is no coincidence that
since the dumb down amateur radio has all but died in the UK, the RSGB
is on its knees and rallies are deserted.

Building a crystal radio today doesn't offer much in the way of a
practical radio. But it's the essence of putting those parts
together and having it work that was appealing.

Absolutely right!

When I started
building electronic projects, the first few never worked, I had no
idea what went wrong (in retrospect, it might have been my lousy
soldering, or the parts that they substituted at the store, I didn't
know enough to fix things back then). But then I kept at it, and when
I took parts out of something and twisted the leads together and that
oscillator oscillated, that was so neat. I'd learned enough to be
able to evaluate the parts and make substitutes. That accomplishment
is probably a key part of the appeal of the hobby to the young, who
are in a very different place than adults.

I started building when I was a child. And I will never forget the
thrill when licensed of hearing my first DX on a home built rx or making
my first qrp qso's with home brewed RF. We shouldn't forget that home
brew and CW go together like hand in glove

--
Extend ****s law - make 'em wear a cheat sheet 24/7