I also mentioned a rookie-Vet or or elmer catagory as being a class we
might want to consider. One can learn a lot from listening to and
watching a vet run. I would encourage the vet to allow the rookie as
much operating time as possible but allow for the vet to step in and
show how you run a pileup etc.
I learned many of my contesting skills at K0RF on the 2nd radio. W0UA
was on the #1 radio but I spent a considerable amount of time listening
to him as he was running much too fast to break the run to work an easy
mult. I was very fortunate to contest with a Hall of fame cast of
K0RF, W0UA, W0YK, K0GU, N2IC, W0ZV (W4ZV) and W0UN (sk).
W0MU
On 12/20/2016 10:27 PM, Wes Jennings wrote:
Ok Gerry,
Now this is getting somewhere and having the ideas to do such. I have gone to
local ham Club here many a time and seems they want to talk about cell towers,
3D printing, Satellite TV, and when there is some discussion on Ham topics it
is VHF packet, short bursts every meeting about ARES mainly the same thing over
and over again.
When there is a discussion on HF, Antennas, Contesting, Propagation the people
don't even act like it is part of the hobby and they are short presentations.
Getting the ones to even go to a club station or Field day is like pulling
teeth.
each new ham has a automatic membership for a year to the local club but
getting them there is another thing.
I have thought of a few things contest wise but getting them off the ground is
a bit of a thing.
one of the thoughts is to create a new contest where it is a elmer and a rookie
Rookie operates and 3 modes are used in blocks of 4 hrs each .
SSB
CW
RTTY
the elmer is there to assist but not to operate the radio but help with
spotting and searching.
Another idea is take a contest like CQWW and have a small competition locally
with power/antennas etc all predetermined so all are running the same types of
stations now like wires or what not are all up to design of each station as
could make multi element wire beams ... phased verticals etc. If ya wana award
the top scores or top rookie etc etc etc all doable just have it all lined out
and would be a contest within a contest.
a few more I have thought of but it gives some of the ideas
These are what I feel should be tried.
possibly after a "HF" class where cw is also taught along with how to make
antennas and how to operate on the HF bands. where at the end of it is a major contest or
some such or possibly the one with all three modes operated.
Just thoughts and random as they are
Wes
WL7F
________________________________
From: Gerry Hull <gerry@yccc.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 20, 2016 2:21 PM
To: Stephen Bloom
Cc: Ken Low; CQ-Contest; Wes Jennings
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Observations of a young ham
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<mailto: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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