On Sunday, July 20, 2014 12:13:18 PM UTC-4, Foxs Mercantile wrote:
Rather than carry on the fine old Usenet tradition of thread

hijacking, I'm going to start this one instead.
50% That's an incredible number.
So what happened to them? How did we lose 50% of our licensees?

Was it an equipment problem? Surely there should have been some

local ham offer to help them get set up.



Or was it a social problem?

Once they got their license, were they told they weren't "Real
Hams(tm)" because insert favorite reason here.

Let me give a little anecdote here.

Shortly after I got my license, but not on HF yet,
I was listening to two hams on AM chatting.

One gave his email address, and I copied it,
Then sent him an email QSL

My callsign in those days was KB3EIA,
And I typo'd it in my email, putting in
KB3IEA instead. Dyslexics Untie!

I got a scathing post in return, the
guy looked up my callsign, and
saw it didn't match my name.

Said he didn't know what my game was,
but he was going to turn me into the F.C.C. for
giving him a incorrect callsign in the email.

Not one to back down from that sort of silliness,
I told him of the typo, and to go ahead and
report me, not knowing that the F.C.C. had
jurisdiction over email.

But imagine the response of some other
folks. To be threatened for a typo.

Were they ignored at meetings when they showed up?

We're pretty good at talking to new folks,
I try to always say hello

Being beginners, were they helped? Or were they made to feel
inadequate when they asked a question because
"Everyone knows that."

This becomes a problem. Everyone wants to be thought of
as proficient. One of the funniest examples I've
ever been involved in was during a soldering class
I was teaching.

We had an expert there. As soon as I started,
he launched into a diatribe about the awful
soldering iron I was using - it was the 150 dollar kind
not the complete rework station - then
insinuated himself - gonna show them how it's really done.

Then he lectured me a bit on how my iron was too hot.
Turned it down to a "proper" setting.
Then he went on a 5 minute exposition of how the
sponge wasn't wet properly. Then spent another 5
minutes tinning the thing.

The entire group was becoming very uncomfortable,
and embarrassed for me. So he turned
my class back over to me.

I looked at the iron setting, it was exactly as I had it.
So I asked him if I had bumped it, because it
was where I left it. If I hadn't been there, they would
have all been too afraid to attempt to solder,
lest they be publicly shamed.
Ironically, I learned soldering under the "gentle" guidance
of a retired marine who insisted that everything we did in
electronics, including soldering be done to
mil spec standards. I know how to solder better than
just about anyone out there.

That's a long winded way of saying yes, Hams who are better than
other hams - for whatever reason - scare noobs
away.

Even for emergency ops, I see hams who are better than others.
In another group I'm in now, some Emergency op type in Canada
was lambasting Hams for putting in a form in a forms program that
he said wasn't an official form for any served agency he knew of.
The things are in XML format, which means anyone can make
whatever form they need to make.

And just like my solder buddy trying to take over my class,
it wasn't his program to dictate what forms are in it.
And of course, if he didn't like that form, he could just not use it.

In addition, there is perhaps some similarity to volunteer firemen,
which many places do not have enough people to fill the needed slots.
With all the certifications and classes, it becomes more difficult
to get enough people, then some of the volunteer firemen get
upset because they think no one cares any more.

Which can become a positive feedback loop, as anger can
manifest itself as seeming superiority. Which keeps people away.

Bill and Ted said it best - "Be excellent to each other".