Michael Coslo wrote on Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:00:40 EST:

I think it is pretty fair to say that the ARS will never be a
mainstream hobby or avocation. I really don't think that that is even a
good idea, after some thought.

You managed to get that sentence approved by the moderators?!? :-)

My path to the fold was in looking at ways to apply
amateur radio to my other hobby, Amateur astronomy. Funny though, the
Ham radio took over, and is now my main hobby, I never did apply it to
astronmomy.

Back in the 1960s, my lead man at Electro-Optical Systems was both
a technician class licensee and a very hands-on telescope maker.
He had ground his own 6" mirror for the telescope he was using and
was slowly grinding a 10" for a bigger scope. I came up with a
design and breadboarded a crystal-controlled time base for a
sideral drive for the ten-incher. Done with now-obsolete RTL
from Fairchild, it would be a snap to do it today with a single
Microchip IC plus a small stepper-motor or synchronous motor
driver circuit. Doug moved to Hawaii to work on the BIG
telescopes there so the ten-incher project (and its final
drive) were put on hold.

BTW, he had been into amateur radio first, then converted to doing
amateur astronomy. Folkses mileage differs. :-)

What attracted you, and can we get some ideas from that to attract or
identify and attract new blood?

Do we HAVE to 'attract new blood?' Serious question.

I've already told my personal story. It seems to rankle
some old-timers because it is non-standard to the 'common'
experience of USA radio amateurs...so I won't repeat it.
shrug After starting in the electronics industry 54
years back, doing high-power HF communications transmitting,
the elimination of the morse code test allowed me to get
a license (told that story, too, but it is also non-standard).
In talking to the applicants a year ago and several others
locally in the past year, their interest in getting a
license vary considerably. But, nearly all of them go the
Technician class route for local radio contacts, a sort of
social order thing possible in a large urban area. It was
like the CB radio craze and then the BBSs that preceded
the Internet era. Few of those got involved via the
supposed paradigm of 30 to 50 years back that lots of old-
timers repeat. In this newer world of the Internet and many,
many components available for lots of different electronics
things, plus ten kinds of consumer electronic products
(at relatively low cost) on the marketplace, the old
concept of 'having one's own personal radio station' is
diminishing rapidly.

As I see it, the old reasons-for-being of amateur radio
aren't applicable anymore. Technology in electronics has
long since leaped ahead of any state-of-the-art advances
done by amateurs long ago. What I see are two areas -

1. The just-plain-for-fun boosting, for whatever purpose in
communications, whether in a local urban area or a bit
farther out...and an emphasis on trying out things on a
personal-enjoyment level. We are NOT required to DO certain
things in the hobby just because some old-timers say we MUST
do those besides the regulations that all must obey.

2. De-emphasizing the 'necessity-to-be-a-part-of-the-
community-as-a-service.' Now, I know that amateur radio CAN
help in emergencies and all that 'service-to-community' PR
can persuade some lawmakers to this 'amateur cause' but it
seems to me to have gotten too big a share of the open
political statements in periodicals. Those who really care
about community service can just as easily go DIRECT to such
existing organizations. With a total licensee database
showing 720+ thousand licensees today, that should be large
enough to show lawmakers that amateur radio has a large
following.

I'm no expert on PR or marketing, don't have the explicit
solution to get more newcomers. As I observe the hobby, it
will last at least a couple of decades. That's good enough
for me. USA amateur radio stands or falls by what its
publicists say and try to convince new members...seldom by
what the old-timers claim. Times have changed (many times
over in my lifetime) and all must adapt to that, not to
hold onto ancient paradigms that no longer apply.

73, Len AF6AY