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!

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

It is Morse QSOs that the traditional friendliness still survives.

"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!

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

It is Morse QSOs that the traditional friendliness still survives.

- .-- .- -

--
STC // M0TEY // twitter.com/ukradioamateur

"Stephen Thomas Cole" wrote in message
...
"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!

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

It is Morse QSOs that the traditional friendliness still survives.

- .-- .- -


..-.. --- .-..
--
;-)
..
73 de Frank Turner-Smith G3VKI - mine's a pint.
..
http://turner-smith.uk

On Tue, 19 Jan 2016 18:44:02 -0000, "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!

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

It is Morse QSOs that the traditional friendliness still survives.



£100? surely not! http://tinyurl.com/zev54gt

"Rambo" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 19 Jan 2016 18:44:02 -0000, "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!

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

It is Morse QSOs that the traditional friendliness still survives.

£100? surely not! http://tinyurl.com/zev54gt

WOW! Even more reason to encourage an interest in Morse Code!

Of course, the other £90 comes from the fee that the aerial installer is
going
to charge you to put the pole with dipole attached onto your chimney! :-)

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:

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

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

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

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.

The 'national society' in the UK (I'm not a member) has been pursuing
the youngster approach for a decade or more. Resources were poured into
a touring 'Fun Bus' that was a mobile demo station - it's now rusting
away somewhere. The approach to schools failed too. Buildathons result
in kids recalling the Raspberry Pi instead of the PSK it was built to
decode. The house magazine is rammed with pictures of six-year-olds
waving certificates. But what has been the result of this blitz?

The membership of 'national society', as published in graphical form by
them in 2000 and again more than a decade later, shows the merest blip
in the under-20 group. The reports that carry this graph say the same
thing: the 'average amateur. in the UK is 60 years old, works CW, and
builds things. The greatest influx of new members is in the 40-year-old
bracket. Yet money and resources continue to be squandered in attracting
'the young'.

'The youth approach has failed - we need more youths' seems to be the
way forward. In the military, it's known as reinforcing failure, and it
never works.

--
Spike

"They thought that because they had power, they had wisdom"

- with apologies to Stephen Vincent Benet

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

"Fred Roberts" wrote in message
...
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.

STC?

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


When I cobbled together my blooper using one half on a 12AT7 I was
thrilled to receive Voice of America. It was only later that I learned that
they had a big TX in Europe!