Shane,
You bring up a good point that really needs to be addressed. I've often
wondered
why more of us don't reach out to neighborhood kids down the street, the
children
of friends and relatives, kids from their churches, local scout troops, etc.
I can tell
you from experience (Kid's Day) that it's not that easy to get kids to give up
their other
activities to come sit in front of a radio. That said, I think we can all
do better.
Besides reaching out to young folks in your local community, how about
some of the
contest community hosting a "Youth Team Contest. Sort of a Farm Team feeder
approach.
Like a Kids Day but competitive in nature with real-time scoring so they could
follow along.
Kids love to play team sports. Once you find a couple of kids who are
interested, ask
them to help find their teammates.
I'd like to see the major contest sponsors pick up the ball and try
something. Trying
anything is better than what we're doing now. A "Youth Team Contest" would
have to be
short in duration and would hopefully provide a training ground for future
mainstream ops.
Yes, they would be SSB to start but after an introduction to the sport, there
would hopefully
be some crossover to CW and other modes.
We've got to try something folks...and soon!!!
73 & Aloha,
Lloyd KH6LC
*********************************
Fellow contesters,
We have a much bigger problem than the top 5 topics discussed on this
reflector ad nauseam.
Open the CQWW presentation Randy presented during Dayton this year:
http://cqww.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/CQ-WW-for-Dayton-Contest-Forum-2013.pdf
Go to slide 15. Look at the data in the first 3 columns. The future does
not look good for this sport unless we find a way to attract more youth to
ham radio and contesting, especially in the US.
Shane K1ZR
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