On Fri, 01 Aug 2003 06:31:42 GMT, kc5cqa wrote:

All (90%) of the hams I know are pretty
old, you go to a ham fest , convention, and there are very few young
people.

Consider that the typical three-day-weekend hamfest/convention costs
about $300 excluding transportation if one is not lucky enough to
live in the immediate area. Add to that transportation (for me
usually about $150 when I go to Pacificon, quite a bit less when I
go to Seapac) and it gets to be "real money".

OK, so I'm 66 years old and have been a ham for 52 years. When I
started out as a hugh school student, all the hams I knew were my
age (high school and college friends) and none of us could afford
going to a ham convention. Some of us would go to the Institute of
Radio Engineers convention exhibit in New York (local to us) on the
last day to see if we could scarf up samples of components
(capacitors, resistors, tube sockets, etc) which the exhibitors
would give to young hams just as the exhibit was closing. Those
days are gone (sob).

Our local ham club - the largest in the state - has quite a number
of young hams as members and we encourage programs to interest young
people in becoming active in ham radio. Some of our regular 2-m net
weekly checkins are folks less than 16 years old.

--
73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane

From a Clearing in the Silicon Forest
Beaverton (Washington County) Oregon
Oregon Tualatin Valley Amateur Radio Club