On 17/06/2010 12:19 AM, Steve wrote:
On Jun 16, 9:39 am, "Geoffrey S.
wrote:

(snip)

Eventually as enough "old people" die off, and "young people" go elsewhere,
even in the US Amateur Radio will go from a service to a hobby.

(snip)

Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM
I do multitasking. If that bothers you, file a complaint and I will start
ignoring it immediately.

Good points all. I agree with you that ham radio in the US might
become a "hobby" rather than a "service", and one thing that could
bring this about is failure to recruit enough young people. Another
thing that could bring it about, though, is watering down the hobby to
the point where it can no longer provide the kind of service that it
once did. Some (not all, but some) young hams entering the hobby
simply purchase an ht, connect to echolink and never give the rest of
the hobby a second thought. Is that the future that young people will
bring to ham radio? If that's the "service" we will one day provide,
why bother? We already have the internet. And cell phones. I'd rather
see ham radio die an honorable death now than suffer through this
death of a thousand compromises.

Well, cell phones can provide a service but, as recent bushfires in this
state proved, they cannot always be counted on in an emergency. A little
over a year ago, we had some quite devastating bushfires quite close to
the city of Melbourne. The cell phone network was unable to provide
emergency communications in this instance as many of the cell phone
transmitting towers burnt down. The ones that didn't burn down were left
without power as the electricity network suffered as well. Might add
that landlines were put out of action also. That left entire areas
without any form of coverage except for HF, VHF and UHF radio. A person
I know, a radio amateur in fact, was one of the persons involved with
re-establishing the cell phone network infrastructure. That involved
putting up emergency towers throughout the fire ravaged region. It took
quite a few days before even a rudimentary cell phone network was
re-established. Amateurs were able to assist in providing emergency
radio communications in this instance.

A "wired world" is not foolproof.

Krypsis