On 27 Jul 2003 13:30:21 GMT, (Vshah101) wrote:

Although there are many possible amateur-radio activities, Hams tend to focus
on a certain group of activities. Often, they are followed in the manner
accepted by tradition.

The typical Ham activity is making short QSOs for contests and awards. Contests
are events where Hams try to make as many contacts on specified bands as
possible.

We're hams, sir. We know what contests are.

Awards are often given by how many locations are contacted
("worked"). For example, there are Worked All States, Worked 100 countries,
etc. Notice that traditional Ham radio awards are given for the number of
contacts or for how many contacts in a given time period.

Naturally. What would *you* give them on the basis of? Number of
hamburgers eaten during operating time?

This is a competitive activity. Hams compete to obtain the best contest score,

....which should come as no surprise to anyone who has ever looked up
the word "contest" in the dictionary...

or to obtain award certificates. Hams seem to have this type of mode of
operation, and it seems to be the same at almost every club.

The rules for any given contest remain the same for all participants,
regardless of what club they belong to - and the qualifications for
awards remain the same regardless of what club one belongs to. Could
it be maybe that's why?

I have nothing against competition.

Coulda fooled me.

Also, I have nothing against Hams doing what they enjoy
doing.

Ditto.

But, I would like to point out that there are other types of competition
possible. And there are other types of activities and interests.

Because no such clubs exist right now that cater to these interests, there is
no avenue for one to pursue these interests.

Maybe not in your area. That doesn't mean it's the same everywhere
else.

Things like expense and the large
amount of time it takes for an individual (vs a group who share an interest),
tend to not allow these new interests to surface. Also, the current group of
Hams wants to do things their way and have little acceptance for different
types of activities. By not providing an avenue for others to pursue their
interests, these other Amateur-radio activities do not get done. Some people
would become frustrated when they go to clubs and no one shares their
interests. This has the effect of reducing the number of people that stay in
the hobby.

Sounds to me like you want someone else to do everything for you
instead of getting off your duff and doing it yourself.

Here are some other possibilities in amateur radio.

More radio direction finding challenges.
The gaming aspect of this activity is appealing to some. Also, it uses more
physical activity than sitting at a station making contacts.

The club I belong to has a hidden transmitter hunt every Wednesday
night all summer long.

Homebrewing challenges.
Lets have some homebrewing challenges. How about building small circuits, e.g.
using SMT? I don't see small batteries at Hamfests, so I know this isn't being
done. How about ATV using a homebrewed project?

You wanna play with SMT, fine, YOU mess with that tiny crap. I can't
even SEE the stuff let alone solder it. Lemme know how much you enjoy
the headache you get from squinting at stuff that was never meant for
humans to be playing with in the first place (it's designed for
assembly by machines).

Often Hams will not show interest in a project, just because it doesn't hook up
to their radio. Just because a particular rf project may not involve a radio
(for example, radio controlled planes), shouldn't make it off limits. If its
rf, its still radio. How about radio controlled planes, Doppler radar, or
VHF/UHF amplifiers?

Well, to take 'em in the order you gave 'em:

* Radio controlled models do pertain to ham radio. In fact, there's a
whole group of frequencies in the six meter band reserved for exactly
this purpose. We have one or two guys in our club who build and fly
radio controlled model aircraft.

* Radar is not a valid transmission mode in the ARS as far as I know.
Better check the regs before you start messing with radar. Throw too
much power into a radar beam and your neighbors start having what
cruel doctors call FLKs (funny looking kids) and FCC comes after you
with pitchforks and torches.

* Perhaps VHF/UHF amplifiers aren't that popular as a homebrew project
because they can be bought commercially dirt cheap, and because one
generaqlly doesn't need to throw that kind of power at the local
repeaters anyway, and because an amplifier kit for HF is more likely
to be of interest to hams with licenses that grant them HF privileges,
and those are the hams most likely to have the skills to build one.

APRS.
Lets get more people using the capabilities of APRS. All I see at Hamfests is a
map with active locations showing. New interesting applications should be
tested. Perhaps tracking a radio in a car. How about having both cars move, and
one follows the other using APRS. Most Hams do not do this. This would be an
interesting group activity.

Beyond its basic text messaging capability, that's what APRS is, a map
showing active locations. Even if the active locations are in motion,
looking at the map at any given instant isn't going to show the object
moving. It also requires additional equipment (like a GPS and, for the
messaging, some sort of computer or one of Kenwood's megabucks radios
with APRS built in) that takes up more space in today's
already-way-too-friggin'-small-and-cramped vehicles. Also, somebody's
got to pay for the extra gear. You volunteering?

Training.
Lets have dedicated training. Either in the clubs, or as training seminars for
better amateur radio operation, emergency preparedness, etc. Clubs often just
have one lecture and then some club business. Better to have some demo setups
and have people use some radios. More training should be offered. However, I
don't know how many Hams would like that or would be willing to pay for
training. Topics could include: generator power, connector assembly, antenna
tuning and setup, troubleshooting. Perhaps some rf measurements training. Maybe
some circuit design topics.

That's what's called "elmering" and yes, it does seem to be a dying
art, but then again, much of that "training" used to happen when a
prospective ham was studying to get his/her license, whereas nowadays
people get the license first and then try to learn what they're
supposed to be doing with it. All too often people buy a book, learn
to pass the test, pass the test, get the license, and don't know
squat, and don't want to hear it when somebody tries to explain it to
them either.

DXpeditions.
Enjoy a DXpedition. One thing I have noticed is that Hams often go to
DXpeditions and don't do anything other than operate radios.

That's what a DXpedition is for!

At one club
meeting I went to, one person gave a presentation about how he went to this
exotic location and all he did is setup antennas, and make contacts. He had
nothing to say about that location. At a Hamfest, I saw a film of another group
of Hams going to another country and all they did is setup antennas and make
contacts.

Imagine that...they went on a long trip for the purpose of setting up
stations and making contacts, and when they arrived that's exactly
what they did.

I went to a DXpedition - definitely a vacation spot- with a group of Hams. I
saw this tendency firsthand. They did exactly the same thing! I wanted to go to
the beach, take a drive, etc., but the Hams were only interested in making
radio contacts on various modes.

Dude, THEY went on a DXpedition - and they had one. YOU on the other
hand wanted a vacation. News flash...a DXpedition is not a vacation,
it's a lot of hard work. But we've already seen that work is not quite
up your alley, is it, or else you'd be doing this stuff yourself
instead of whining about nobody else wanting to do it for you.

I don't see the point of the DXpedition.

Oh, you saw it, alright, it just went in one eye and out the other.

Were they doing a duty to that
location, making sure the location is activated and gets QSOs? Working the
location for a few hours qualifies as getting the benefits of working that
location. There is no need to work the location for 8+ hours. They made
contacts for hours throughout the day and through Saturday night.

They were doing a duty to their fellow hams who wanted to work that
location for awards credit. And, apparently there *was* a need to work
that location for 8+ hours, because they were still making contacts,
meaning there were still stations that wanted to work them, and the
whole point of a DXpedition is to give that location to hams who need
a contact with that location.

It seems the only non-radio activity Hams participate is in eating. (I did
manage to get a few road trips because I volunteered to pick up food. Most of
the Hams stayed at the shack.)

Well, at least you made some contribution to the effort...

They missed out on the scenic beach, the small
town atmosphere.

You missed out on the chance to *be* the DX instead of trying to
*chase* the DX.

What's the point of going to a vacation location if the
experience is the same as working QSOs at home?

The experience is *not* the same. You'd have learned that firsthand if
you'd taken the opportunity to be a ham while you were there, instead
of being a tourist.

There needs to be some balance.

At Disneyland, maybe. On a DXpedition? I'll bet your companions were
thrilled with you the whole time. I caqn just see you whining about
missing the beach, missing the town, missing the native girls, while
not a single one of them came there for any of that. You're probably
lucky they didn't hogtie you and toss you off a cliff.

Yesterday, I went to that club's cookout. As usual, the club was mostly older
males. There were one woman. She asked what we did at the DXpedition. Perhaps
she might attend next year's event. One of the people that went there said all
they did is operate radios. The woman asked, "Is that all you did? You didn't
go to the beach or anything?"

She must not have been a ham. Either that or she did a good job
humoring a nutcase.

I imagine, going to a vacation spot and not doing
any vacation stuff is not appealing to women and young people.

Apparently you don't read the ham radio magazines very thoroughly.
Female hams do go on DXpeditions, and participate as operators, and
enjoy the experience. K1RED, a female ham (and a darn good looking one
in my opinion) wrote up a darn good article in QST last year on her
experience on a DXpedition. She wasn't along to cook and fetch beers.
As I recall, she stated that she was honored to have participated.

Also, the idea
of making repeated contacts at a radio is boring to some people.

Ham radio has
a social component as well as a technical component. If you make the social
aspect intolerable, few will want to stay in the hobby. Ham radio probably
loses a lot of people this way.

If that's how you feel, you picked the WRONG hobby.

Meetings at different places.
Hams have club meetings and other events. Often, these events are food related.
Barbecues, weekly Saturday breakfasts, etc.

My suggestion is that instead of meeting weekly to eat, why not meet at a new
"fun" place each week. How about the park, a boat ride, etc. Make it a new
place every week. Cost is not the problem. Often these events cost less than
the overpriced breakfast buffet. It may take some work (mostly scheduling and
informing people), but not much. And it's well worth it.

Have *you* ever taken a leadership role in planning and conducting one
of these activities, or do you just sit back and let the board of
directors and committee chairs do all the work themselves and show up
halfway through to stuff your face?

Meet a Ham.
And lets try to contact Hams, not just short QSOs to work bands or locations
for awards. This includes developing lasting contacts. And even the possibility
to meet your contact off the air.

This is called "ragchewing" and more of it goes on than you apparently
realize. It even goes on during contests - there are many hams who
absolutely detest contesting. I've seen articles in the ham magazines
about hams who've travelled thousands of miles to meet someone they've
worked on the air and befriended.

What it boils down to is this: You are quite correct, there is more to
ham radio than contesting and paper-chasing. You seem bitter because
there are a lot of hams who enjoy contesting and paper-chasing, but
those are activities lots of hams do enjoy, even if you do not. Get on
the air during a contest and head for the high end of the band. There
you'll find the ragchewers who want nothing to do with the contest
scene, just sitting up there having round-robin discussions about
anything but contesting (unless they happen to be commiserating about
contests and contesters). Join them. Voila! You'll have found someone
who you might have some interests in common with.

On the other hand, you yourself have to make the effort to find your
niche in the hobby. If you aren't willing to work at it a little,
you're in for a big disappointment, because it's not likely that
someone else is going to do it for you. This is no hobby for a lazy
person. If that's what you want, take up fishing. :-)

73 DE John, KC2HMZ