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Re: [CQ-Contest] Observations of a young ham

To: cq-contest@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Observations of a young ham
From: W0MU Mike Fatchett <w0mu@w0mu.com>
Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2016 08:54:49 -0700
List-post: <cq-contest@contesting.com">mailto:cq-contest@contesting.com>
There are so many more bad apples in gaming..........It comes with having so many more participants. They can be banned out of the games much faster than the way the FCC or other foreign gov'ts deal with our bad apples and there are ignore features and they take personal harassment very seriously in gaming.

Interest in ham radio is one thing, interest in contesting or radio sport is another. Online gaming has managed to grab this age group and older and suck them in, thus the comparison. What are they doing right and can we feed off of that? I hope our contest software visual programmers are thinking about this. Is there a way to build two or three different user interfaces easily? One for us old farts, and one or two for those wishing for a better visual presentation?

I have two sons and a daughter, one son got his license and the other two have no interest. I had towers and a pretty decent set up. It made no difference. They already had PlayStation, XBox and hand held games. I think we appreciate the behind the scenes stuff much more as we get older and have the knowledge to grasp how extensive the other things are that go on to make it happen. I don't live on the East coast where I can work rare DX 24x7 on all bands 24 hours a day HI!

W0MU




On 12/19/2016 4:31 AM, Ed Sawyer wrote:
Today's young generation gets it "spoon fed, with great graphics, and
instantly".  There's an app for that you know..

In my opinion, the only way a young person is going to become interested in
contesting is to get them VERY early and to have them outside on towers and
with big antennas.  That's the one element that is not a handheld or VR
gaming equivalent.  If their world is on a screen and we present our boring
screens, its over.  Its what is behind the screens that is cool.  If that
doesn't capture, its over.

The excuse that bad on the air behavior is somehow a problem is bogus.  Just
check out the garbage on line that the kids are used to and ignore ad it
doesn't dissuade them from being on line.

Contest DXpeditions, antenna farms, the science of propagation and space
weather, then adding the competitive part is the uniqueness of our hobby.
Trying to compare it to gaming is an effort in futility and doesn't respect
what we actually do.

The next time you are out in the snow is sub zero weather fixing your 160
antenna before a contest, you might want to remind yourself of that.

73

Ed  N1UR

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