On Mon, 23 May 2005 18:55:16 -0700, bb wrote:


Yaesu was not in the same arena with Icom and Kenwood, either. Don't
recall if it's always been that way.

They were located in the same areas as they have been for the last 5 years
or so that I've been going to the Hamvention. This was the only year I saw
where Yaesu didn't have one single item donated for a prize.


I was there on Friday. I thought it would plus-up on Saturday.

That was nothing compared to a few years back where EVERY space in the
flea market area was filled! It used to take me at least one full day to
walk the outside area, this last time I did it in half a day because there
were so many empty spaces.

The ARRL was there in force.

They didn't look too particularly busy either. Several of the booths they
had set up for specific areas the people behind the tables looked like
they had a had time trying to stay awake since nobody was there asking
questions etc.


What did anybody else notice? I hope the above isn't a long term trend.

Old men. Yes, it's a long-term trend.

That's really too bad since there is a lot the ARRL can do to change that.
One of the big problems is the ARRL, and the old time Hams, who want to
treat HF as the "Crown Jewel" of Ham Radio and the heavy emphasis on it
when trying to recruit new Hams and current Hams to upgrade. The fact is
young kids can DX all they want on the computer, no license required. So
if they want to get young Hams in to the hobby they need to wake up and
show them what Ham Radio has to offer that they CAN'T get using the
Internet and a cell phone.

Regards,
Leland C. Scott
KC8LDO