When I was fit and healthy, I gave quite a few talks to radio clubs in East Anglia. One thing is very apparent: our hobby is mainly an interest of men and older men at that. Of course, there are the odd exceptions. In some clubs membership was good, whereas in others not so good.
What is very clear is that unless young blood is soon attracted and kept, our hobby/interest will die out within 20-30 years. I notice that this was a topic on the Southgate News Page today. I don't think this is just a UK thing, although in the USA I see licence numbers are at an all time high.
Certainly, the pure magic of radio we experienced when my generation was young is no longer a draw: it is possible to Skype video across the globe instantly via the phone in your hand nowadays. In my youth, the only way to communicate around the world really was by amateur radio and for that you needed to pass the RAE.
No, we need to find what fascinates the younger generation and use that as a lure. It is the whole future of our interest that is at stake here. To me, radio is still magic, especially QRP. However I can see this is not a source of fascination to today's youngsters, to whom texting and mobile internet are second nature.
What would draw in and keep young people fascinated by our hobby today? I think the word "fascinated" is important. As a youngster, radio communications fascinated me and has kept me interested for a lifetime. It is this fascination that is missing today I think.
9 Mar 2015
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13 comments:
Hello Roger, indeed the magic has gone when intenet and mobile phones arrived. But still young people can get interested in radio. I think especially the gaming element of contesting would attract them. 73, Bas
I am still very interested!
73 Steve
Steve, glad you still feel like a youngster at heart.
My body doesn't feel so young somedays? But my mind feels like I am still 16.I still think this hobby can offer me another 20+ years of active service:-)
At least I am not going domented yet!
73 Steve
I don't agree that the internet is taking potential radio hams - they
are two distinct hobbies. It's probably because we are not in the golden age of radio anymore, so it's not noticed the same.
There are a couple of 9/10 year old
op's who are active on the air up here..
Tony
I still think we need to be doing more to attract and keep younger people into this interest of ours. Tony, I think younger people don't get the "magic" of radio that we enjoyed as youngsters. We need to tap into whatever it is that gets young people excited today. I look at the age profile of UK radio amateurs today and think, "we'll mostly be dead in 20 years". Frightening.
Hello Roger,
I'm nearly 32 and I get my license at 21. But I love radio seens 6 years old :)
It's really complicated to attrack young people now. At the university of Bordeaux we had a ham radio club (F6KQH) but we were only 2 operators.
Now I'm a teacher at the university of Paris-East and I would like to open a ham radio club here. Will see if I can catch people interest.
But I should say something. Past years, the electronic hobby in general was really down. Now with arduino and other stuff as that, the interest increased again and there is new magasine here in France about radio-electronics-Arduino.
So maybe, interest will go up again...
I think that people is going to rediscover radio thanks to SDR.
Well I really believe in that. That could be "the magic" for now a days young people.
73 from Thierry.
F4EOB - CT2JTZ.
Roger, Well i used to be regularly
slagged off for 'rolling my own' by
half of the local's - so i guess there's some variation in what that
'magic' is?
Tony
g0ebp
A few comments:
- it won't take 20-30 years. Radio is a social phenomenon, meaning that it requires a second person on the other end. Fewer hams means fewer people even turn on their radios because there's no one to talk to. Vicious circle.
- licence numbers are high here in the U.S, but activity is declining. There are a lot of people getting licences and finding out that it's not that interesting, and they stay off the air.
- conversations and the chance to meet new people are the way to draw younger people in. 45-second QSOs and a "Can you hear me now?" mentality are not compelling "content".
The CB craze created a wave of young
ham's in the early 1980's.
There was very few op's before that up here.
They also tended to be OT's !
Tony
I think also because technology changes, product get more and more integrated to point it is useless to repair it, just throw it away. So less jobs. And technology reach a point not really new things happens at consumer level. We have our smartphones, tablets, and big hd tv,s. Things are normal now and life continues. Maybe SDR and arduino supply a new wave of interest. I guess most digitally, i think most new comers dont have interest talking in a mic. Maybe simple qrp projects keep the interest going for folks that are now playing with arduino. For example promoting a simple hellschreiber tranceiver based on a arduino. If people get the fun and magic of using radio beside the internet, they maybe go to learn cw ect. Maybe a cool project is the WBR receiver. A very cool simpel regen that eliminate the problems of the usual regens! Couple that one to a arduino with a LCD screen and let it decode hellschreiber :) Old WW2 tech meets current tech. With hellschreiber having a cool history.
Those are really good ideas, with
the old tech meeting the new tech..
Tony
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