"Mike Coslo" wrote in message
6...
"KH6HZ" wrote in
:

"K4YZ" wrote:


[snip]

Essentially, at this point in time, anyone who wants an amateur radio
license can obtain one with relative ease.

If I may, I can't help but notice that the olde time hams must have
been born knowing all about HF or something. Look at the Extra test, and
tell me that you will take a random group from off the street, set them
down, and say 80 percent will pass the test? I think I'm pretty generous
giving you a 20 percent spot from "anyone" to 80 percent.


I agree with you, Mike, on this one. I've taught classes for the Extra
class license. Many of the students came in with no technical background
other than what they had learned in studying for their Tech & General
licenses. It took a lot of study on their part to get the material.
Teaching vectors to people who have had no math higher than basic algebra
was quite a challenge.

As far as those who may have just "memorized the question pools" instead of
learning the material, memorizing 800+ questions for the Extra is still
quite a challenge. Add the 400+ in the Tech pool and the 400+ in the
General pool and that is an awful lot of questions to memorize.


I do not believe there is
this huge untapped reserve of potential radio operators who would join
the amateur ranks if and only if HF access were available to them w/o
a code test.

I'm agreed with you there.

I too believe that there is no such reservoir. When they see my antennas on
my car, they ask out of curiosity but when I tell them what it is for, they
often say "what's ham radio?" I explain a bit about ham radio to try to
pique their interest but so far no luck. They do not express any interest in
pursuing this hobby.

[snip]



Amateur radio is a dead hobby.

No, it isn't, and won't be dying either. Perhaps your definition of
Ham Radio is fading away - a definition that I would guess where rank is
measured by how fast a person can send and recieve Morse code.


Definitely not dead or dying. We've simply peaked (and actually overshot
due to the honeydo hams, etc). It will decline for a while and then
stabilize. I saw some statistics somewhere on the web that supports this
idea. If we exclude Japan (which licenses a large number of school children
in science classes who then don't continue), we have the highest percentage
of hams in the population. Most countires have approximately 1 ham per
thousand people. We have just over 2 hams per thousand people.

It's nowhere near the time to start the funeral service. If each of us
active hams as individuals manage to recruit one ham in our lifetime who
stays active, we will hold steady as far as active hams go. Note that I
specify active since as many as half our current ham population may be
inactive for one reason or another. If we recruit more than one each,
amateur radio will resume growth after flushing out the inactives.

[snip]
Now if ya really want to know what I think is the pressing problem,
and the biggest threat to the future of Ham radio, I'll tell you.

Tune across 75/80 meters in the evening. Plenty of good, code
tested (I'm assuming) amateurs who seem to have enough anger stored in
their gullet to increase the blood pressure of ten normal people. They
are mad at people like myself who are nickle Extras, they are mad at the
new "crop of CB'ers" who are coming along since the FCC caved into the
the forces of evil and eliminated Element 1. Hate, Hate, Hate. Frankly
they sound a lot more like CB'ers than they know. Sorry, but a tune
across 80 meters, and a lot of 20 meters puts the lie to how Morse
testing keeps up the neighborhood. The question to ask is would you want
your kids hanging out with these folk?

I firmly believe that the biggest threat to Amateur Radio at this
time is the grouchy, grumpy Hams that turn every conversation into
bitching about the great unwashed are destroying the hobby. Making sure
that the new guys and gals feel perfectly unwelcome. Especially
endearing is that many of them lack the social graces to avoid telling
the newbies to their face about their hatred for them. First class folk,
eh? It didn't bother me too much, but I have a mostly tough hide. But it
does scare away a lot of folk.


This is one of several elements that could be a danger to amateur radio.
There were and are a few of the codeless advocates that expressed open
contempt for people who did not share their view. If that is carried into
operation on the ham bands, that too will damage amateur radio. I will
welcome all who are good people with good manners but I will not interact
with those who treat me with disrespect. The respectful people, I will
encourage them to keep active and help them learn that there are times when
the bands are bad and the bands will improve. I'll help them learn how to
use their equipment, etc. The disrepectful will have to fend for
themselves. If they become respectful, I will then help them.

I had hoped that the new system was going to be one in which an Op
had to have some time in the saddle before upgrading, so as to get
valuable experience, or at least have the chance to get it. FWIW, I had
hoped that they retained the code test. But it isn't that way, so that
means that there will be a lot of new folks with HF access who will need
a lot of Elmering.

It will actually be a very exciting time, I'm hoping to get some
new folk as excited about the hobby as I am.

What are you (collectivley speaking) going to do - help - or just
make it as unpleasant for the new folk as possible?

- 73 de Mike KB3EIA -

Personally I will give everyone whatever help they need unless they
repeatedly act in a disrespectful manner (afterall anyone can slip
occasionally). I will continue to invite new ops over to my shack and
mentor them. I'll continue to encourage new hams to join a club in their
area. If that club is not a good match, I'll encourage them to try other
clubs. I'll continue to encourage them to participate in club activities
(service activities, Field Day, etc). I'll continue to teach classes and
continue to be a VE.

Dee, N8UZE