On Wed, 20 Jan 2016, Fred Roberts wrote:

On 19/01/2016 18:44, gareth wrote:
With the apparent interest that youngsters have in Enigma Machines,
and the like, if we could excite them about Morse Code, then, if
attracted to amateur radio, they could realise a complete station for
an outlay of under £100, and build it themselves and get the _REAL_
radio amateur kick!

Have taken part in a number of highly successful high profile special event
stations the one thing that excited visitors both old and new was CW. Nothing
else came close, we had hordes of kids lining up to have their name
transmitted in morse and to play with oscillators. When running pileups with
qso's being displayed in real time on a computer display adults were amazed
at:

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

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

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.

If you think code is an impediment, you will perceive it as a negative
part of the hobby. Same with all that technical stuff.

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 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.

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. 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.

Michael


1. The distances involved
2. The speed of contacts
3. The bouncing around between countries/continents

Digimodes bore the public and someone talking on sideband/FM/DV/repeater is
just a **** talking sh!te into a microphone.

CW is the mode par excellence for attracting new comers.

Perhaps the larger clubs could consider paying the exam fees for
candidates if those candidates can show proper proficiency in Morse?

Great idea!

It is Morse QSOs that the traditional friendliness still survives.

It is in morse code, home construction and tinkering that friendliness and
real amateur radio survives.



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