I'm in the under 40 crowd which I guess is "young" in ham years. I've also
been licensed a pretty decent amount of time (20 years next year). I was
first licensed in secondary school (roughly equivalent to US high school).
Radio initially for me was an outlet to learn about and experiment with
electronics and electronic communication. I was mentored by a ham who was a
school teacher. But for many it was simply the ability to communicate
across distance that drew many to the hobby. Radio used to have a "wow"
factor due to that.. That is now mostly gone because the Internet makes
communication across distance very commonplace and pretty much taken for
granted. That's probably not a bad thing as a smaller world has many
benefits but it comes at the expense of the radio hobby.
So what's left? Admittedly, not much for the younger ham. What's hot these
days is the Internet. I am fortunate enough to work in that industry and
the cultural shift is very evident. It's not really video gaming but social
media - facebook, twitter, instagram, snapchat - that engages young people
these days. Things like taking selfies, chatting and checking in to places
has largely replaced the zeal for radio and by extension contesting for
many.
Also consider bars to entry beyond just cost. Antenna restrictions in
particular seem to be increasing. Millenials also prefer cities and shun
things like home and car ownership. Maintaining a house and car is
expensive. With this comes the elimination of space for antennas. They can
probably operate remote but there are airtime and startup fees charged by
some services and while there are free services those seem to be a hit or
miss. It also still doesn't solve the problem of antenna restrictions in
general.
With regard to the Internet, going social exposes many to the radio hobby.
Whenever I go live on FB or YouTube for a contest, people ask me, "what is
that?" and they immediately become interested. Some inquire about being
licensed. The conversion rate won't be very high but we can certainly
attract a few. We do need to show others the hobby and I think hams do a
great job at this but we can and should do more of it. Marty mentioned his
club. I'm a FRC member and my club has also done a fair bit of mentoring to
new contesters and even experienced contesters looking to try something
new.
There are other things we can leverage as well. A colleague and good friend
of mine at work and I were talking and eventually somehow we got to the
conversation about me being a ham. She then told me that her late father
was a ham and she would like to get her license someday. I view that as
restoring a broken link or reigniting the torch to pass on the hobby
between generations and is something that can be done for many.
I don't necessarily think "I can't win" is the demotivator for many. There
are many avenues to collect wallpaper, even the wooden kind in contesting.
For example, if you're single op you're not competing against K3LR or
W3LPL. But even without the opportunity to win something, even just the
thrill of the pileup can get people hooked.
BTW for someone in my stage of life, consider other things - I have three
young children and it is a full time job. I do find time for radio but not
an awful lot. I get a break for major contest weekends and late nights when
everyone's asleep. For someone in their 20s and 30s just starting out, time
is a precious commodity.
73
Ria, N2RJ
On Tue, Dec 20, 2016 at 2:21 PM, Gerry Hull <gerry@yccc.org> wrote:
> A very interesting topical discussion.
>
> Here's some of my discovery over the past year and a half, where we did the
> "Discover the HF Experience" event, once in Canada, one in MA,
> and another in Dayton, all with experienced contest ops doing the demos...
>
> Some facts:
> - There are lots of young amateur radio licensees
> - Most of them are on VHF only.
> - We have more licensees now than we have had in many years.
>
> So, hopefully, this should dispel the the idea that we are competing with
> Video Games. People are interested in the IDEA of ham radio.
> They just don't understand enough about it. And we don't show 'em.
> Hell, there are tens of thousands of things that compete for peoples time
> and energy.
>
> Amateur Radio -- HF Operation -- and contesting are very compelling
> activities -- however, as one young ham said to me "Amateur Radio is
> hidden in plain site."
> Yes, there are 1000s of web sites about Ham Radio in the internet. BUT,
> you have to know what to look for!!! We cater to ourselves, and we use an
> awful lot of jargon that will be totally foreign to new/non hams.
>
> All of this was especially evident in Dayton. Many licensed hams came to
> our event and told us they had never operated HF.
> One father and son team said "We have our extras. We got them together,
> just for the challenge." They had never been on HF.
> Another guy stopped by. We had six remote stations they could operate. He
> said "I have no interest in operating. I just want to talk to you about
> getting my antennas up. I came here to get info. However, every booth I
> go to, it is just old buddies talking together and I cannot get the info I
> need."
>
> I received and email from a ham in San Francisco -- SAN FRANCISO!! -- that
> said he could not find a ham to help him put up an antenna -- he was
> interested in learning about contesting. (We got him hooked up.)
>
> I think those who think HF, and especially HF contesting, are not
> compelling hobbies, better think again. Do they have a social component
> that anyone of any age craves? You bet. I have more contesting friends
> than friends IRL!!
>
> Do we have barriers to entry? You bet. Can they be overcome? That's for
> us, as a community, to overcome.
> ,
> If I'm a new ham and I don't have a compelling experience operating HF, why
> would I want to go on and push myself to upgrade?
>
> Take a new ham, or even an unlicensed op, into a decent station with a
> tribander, a KW and computers.
> Work DX. Break Pileups. Operate a contest. Explain Propagation and it's
> challenges. Talk about gear and antennas.
> Do a newbie team. Don't worry about score -- but let people know it's a
> competition.
>
> Part of the problem is you have to experience the excitement FIRST HAND. A
> WRTC video, a youtube video, though well produced, is not the same as
> experiencing
> first-person operating.
>
> As espoused by Mary, KC1CWF, treat young hams as PEERS. They are very
> smart. They WANT to learn. They WANT to be challenged.
> Do they have to win CQWW CW on the first try? Of course not. Do they
> want to be part of a team? YOU BET!
>
> We, contesters, are the cream of the crop of HF ops (IMHO). Looking at
> magazine pages, we are the most popular activity in the hobby.
> We drive the development of high performance gear. We have to be the
> ambassadors!
>
> Part of the problem is we are all getting old. We don't want to make the
> effort. Social Norms are different today.
> People question why a 15-year-old would go into the house of a 50-to-60
> year old person they did not know well and spend a weekend.
> All this can be overcome by education.
>
> So -- if you just want to pontificate on CQ-Contest about how it's all
> going to hell, and that we have lost our youth to video games, then I
> guess our fate is sealed.
>
> Instead, take some of that energy and focus it on bringing new people into
> the fold. They are there for the taking...
>
> 73,
>
> Gerry, W1VE
> Contesting since age 16....(42 years and counting)
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 20, 2016 at 1:06 PM, Stephen Bloom <sbloom@acsalaska.net>
> wrote:
>
> > Given the big go around on this subject, I think WL7F and KE3X bring it
> > down
> > to the essentials
> >
> > Re: KE3X (and related to something I had mentioned early about wondering
> > why EU continues to grow contesters), the ticket for young people is
> > social,
> > *especially* young people who may still be at that awkward stage (that
> some
> > of us never grow out of!) of finding their social niche. I run into a
> > *lot*
> > of contesters who I remember from my teen days in the late 70s/early 80s
> in
> > W2 land with pretty much identical paths. They got their licenses either
> > through family or a local elmer/club, played on the air some, and got
> > recruited or found by one of the major contest clubs or multiop stations.
> > As best as I can tell, a number of them are getting on 40 years of
> > contesting without significant breaks. Not only that, but many of their
> > closest friends, confidantes, people who have gone through their lives
> with
> > them, have been together since then. We can discuss technology changes,
> > gaming, "busy" user interfaces vs. spare etc. etc. but I've known enough
> > millennial and younger to know that the basic dynamics, "nerds and geeks
> > looking for a fun group to do geeky stuff" doesn't change.
> >
> > We have a very modern well designed station at the Anchorage Amateur
> Radio
> > Club (KL7AA). With travel and now with the KL7RA station, I haven't had
> > much time in the last few years to do much with them, but, at least for
> SSB
> > and RTTY, we can count on some newly licensed or newly reactive ham
> getting
> > on to "just play around" in some contest, and, "get it." Not all stick
> > with
> > it, but more than you would expect. I can tell you, that it is the #1
> > attractant to the younger folks, much moreso than the beer gutted guys
> > playing EmComm (not that there is anything wrong with beer or EmComm).
> The
> > best thing anyone on this list could do for the future, is convince their
> > local club to become a "hackerspace." A clubhouse, with equipment, where
> > it
> > is comfortable to hang out, bs, and learn, will pay yuuuuge dividends.
> > Also, concentrate on fun, the younger guys and gals really don't want to
> > hear about how everything has gone to hell since the code requirement was
> > dropped, or how anything involving ip is "not Amateur Radio." Our
> future,
> > as a hobby overall, is going to be first and foremost, radiosport, and
> > secondly, the permutations of RF and IP, with socializing being the glue
> > that holds it all together.
> >
> > Re: WL7F, Wes is on a similar path, plus he brings up the other point
> that
> > I think is center, regarding the two discussions going on right now, 1)
> > How
> > do we get new people 2) Why can't we change the rules for Contest <fill
> in
> > the blank>
> >
> > We talk about winning. What's winning? One answer, and I think the
> > important one is ...if you had fun, you won. If you had 5 people over,
> > made
> > 30Qs, and had more beer than points, but you had fun, I don't see the
> > problem. Now, let's assume you are truly competitive, somewhat Type A
> and
> > "just being in the game" either leaves you cold, or you are bored with
> it.
> > Odds are, you have some idea what you want to be competitive at. If
> having
> > a shot at winning in a SOAB category in CQWW is it, if you have the money
> > for it, you are keeping your passport up to date, and checking out the
> cost
> > of land in the Caribbean or EA8, if not, you are shamelessly kissing up
> to
> > someone who already HAS a place there and checking out fares on EasyJet.
> > If
> > you want a shot at winning a category in your section in SS, but have the
> > same big gun winning HP each year, you might decide to run low power, but
> > put up a gain antenna for 40. Everyone has a contest or two, or twenty,
> > where the rules either actually disadvantage ones QTH or particular
> > operating preferences, but overall, change creates more agita, then just
> > taking each contest for what it is. We also *can't* have rules existing
> > because of cheating. Remember, first and foremost, this is not just
> > technical, this is social, anything beyond trust and verify if and only
> if
> > something seems way out of kilter, is as good as it can get, in
> maintaining
> > that balance.
> >
> > 73
> > Steve KL7SB
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > WL7F wrote
> >
> > I have been reading these posts for a while now and wondering why I
> > continually see a trend of I can't win so ya need to change the rules so
> I
> > can. First off there is no such thing as Can't secondly what kind of a
> win
> > is it if you have to change the rules to do such. If you just want a
> plaque
> > go down and buy one the local shops will be more then willing to make you
> > one up saying what ever ya wish it to.
> >
> >
> > Sounds to me like it is not so much promoting the contesting but rather
> > showing the backsides and competitors that are sore they don't have the
> > wherewithal to actually compete. Now ya wana get youngsters in this well
> > quit trying to compete with video games and just get out and invite them
> in
> > to the shack for some of the contests and have them help from the get go.
> > It
> > is not anywhere close to a video game so comparing the two as said
> earlier
> > is like comparing a apple to a orange .. not gona happen.
> >
> >
> > Now I am in one of them places, competing in a class that I have less of
> a
> > chance of winning then most that are reading this. I Spend the hours in
> the
> > chair in front of a radio to make myself competitive. It is called
> strategy
> > and decision making. Am I good at it .. naa I just put the seat time in
> as
> > I
> > could always be better. Guess what I will get better I will do better
> and I
> > will at some point win a contest in North America at least. Do I wish for
> > there to be more overlays or what not NO and that is a resounding NO let
> > there be less of them so when I do it will mean that much more to me.
> This
> > is a mindset that is productive and not destructive!!!
> >
> > KE3X wrote replying to K2WR
> >
> > "There is something (or many somethings) that is failing to attract the
> > younger generation(s) that nobody has quite identified yet."
> >
> > I think it's easily identifiable: that 'something' is the social aspect.
> > Gaming is an excellent comparison. Example: My 18-year old was
> accepted
> > Early Decision to college last week and within 24-hours he was already
> > playing League of Legends with a group of his future Class of 2021's.
> Kids
> > bond around an activity. Can you imagine one of them saying "Hi - hope to
> > work you in CQWPX CW next Spring!"
> >
> > Yes - you will occasionally find a teenager with the patience to learn
> > about
> > propagation, or (God forbid) learn Morse Code, and Amateur Radio may be
> > additive to that kid's life.
> >
> > But what most kids really want is friends, fun, social acceptance and a
> > competitive outlet. Contesting may have satisfied some of those basic
> needs
> > in the 1970's but today there are more efficient outlets. The
> technology
> > has moved forward - but human nature has not changed.
> >
> > Disclaimer: I have 3 kids (ages 22, 21 and 18) with General class
> > licenses
> > and one who competed for Team USA in High Speed Telegraphy. They all
> > started with Radio Merit Badge in Scouts. If they do any contesting at
> > all, it's only because Dad invites them to help with a family Multi-Op.
> > They would never sit down at the radio themselves, mostly because none of
> > their friends are on the other end of the airwaves. My 11-year old
> will
> > do Radio Merit Badge next year to learn the basic principles, and maybe
> > he'll get his Technician license, but I anticipate a similar outcome to
> his
> > brothers' after that.
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
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