On my return from Liverpool, I see Southgate News has picked up on an address by the IARU president.
See http://southgatearc.org/news/2017/september/traditional-ham-radio-no-longer-so-attractive.htm#.Wc6odrpFzIU
30 Sept 2017
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As long as hams can point to ONE person under 20 that gets on HF once a year, we'll continue to engage in this self-delusion that a broad swath of youth are eager to get on the air and soak up the 'wisdom' of cranky old men. Even that fantasy is undermined by the reality that HF operation is moving away from any kind of conversation altogether, toward impersonal "contacts" with modes like FT8, WSPR, JT65, etc.
So now we have one person in the IARU floating the notion that what we have been telling ourselves for years is merely wishful thinking. It's a highly conditional, weasel-worded statement loaded with the required nods, and making sure to mention that there are scattered anomalous cases of youth that fit into the delusion. Hardly a bold wake up call.
HF operation is probably the least likely aspect of amateur radio to appeal to young people, yet all hams accept as an *article of faith* that everyone is desperate to engage in it, and will eagerly surmount any barriers (technical or social) to hang a dipole and start "making contacts" -- brief, meaningless, content-free exchanges to prove how far they can reach.
Amateur radio offers the possibility to meet interesting new people, but the "old school" sees this as "too much like CB". Nope, we need to minimise conversation, limit it to technical topics, and load it down with condescension and 'traditions'. This is *serious business*, after all. We re-define the word "fun" to mean "something other than enjoyable", and then we promise "fun" to those willing to tolerate being treated as third-class morons by their Glorious Elders. We "welcome" them -- but only to the extent that they are willing to validate the superiority of the Glorious Elders and *emulate* them. And it's all because forty years ago (or more), WE had to submit to this.
It's the *social* aspects of the hobby that make it toxic. But instead, we focus on the *technical* aspects, and pretend that young people are just too dim to enjoy ham radio. How many people are drawn to activities where they are treated as idiots?
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