Just to offer my $0.02:
I'm one of the newer guys on the reflector, coming up on my fifth anniversary
of my first HF contact. (It was a contest contact, BTW).
I'm not a youth, although I am younger than most American contesters. I was
aware of ham radio when growing up, but computers caught my attention and the
code requirement for licensing was a then seemingly impenetrable barrier of
entry. I got into amateur radio in middle age, when I developed enough free
time and disposable income to take on a new hobby, having remembered it from my
childhood awareness of ham radio.
I have had the pleasure of working with some youth. When doing so, I am
mindful of one simple fact: only an exceptional few will become and stay active
in the hobby in the short term. Instead, I would like to think that by giving
them some exposure to the various sub-hobbies within amateur radio, the seed
will be planted that may eventually yield a new ham, once they're older,
established in their own homes, and looking to occupy some free time (perhaps
after having become an empty-nester).
There was a four-month period between getting my ticket (I went into the VE
session needing a Tech ticket to play with an HT Santa was giving me for
Christmas to listen to the traffic at the airport in my backyard; I left the
session as an Extra) and the New England ice cap receding enough to permit
erection of an HF antenna. During that tortuous time, I listened to web SDRs,
trying to decide if I really wanted to invest in new, expensive toys and risk
spousal ire by hanging a wire over the house.
There was one particularly memorable Friday evening that February when I was
listening to 40m...and ARRL DX SSB started up. I listened in shock for a
couple of minutes, and then swore that I'd never get into contesting due to the
utter chaos and messiness I witnessed. That only changed when I did get an
antenna up, went tuning around the bands...and had a bout of mic fright. The
Missouri QSO party was on, and it dawned on me that I didn't have to worry
about what to say. The QSO party activity level was low enough to not be
intimidating....and I ended up being hooked.
A couple of months later, being frustrated with the challenges of being a
low-power, wire antenna station, looking at the 3830 scores being posted by
CW-capable stations, it dawned on me that I needed to "figure out" code...and
the combination of spotting networks, code readers, and the predictability of
contest exchanges made for a too-tempting crutch to make the switch. Several
thousand contacts later, I find that I've become a code-snob. :)
I'm writing this monologue in part to suggest that folks looking to add youth
to the contesting ranks not be afraid of technology. Yes, remote control,
Reverse Beacon, and code readers are all counter to the classic simplicity of
"a boy and his radio", and that is a sad thing...but anyone who has spent time
looking at how to market to young people today will tell you that that
particular demographic is driven by instant-gratification and fun. Those
allegedly evil developments that "spoil" amateur radio just happen to
facilitate instant-gratification fun, and that would seem to be a natural fit
to adding new blood to our ranks.
I'm also writing to remind folks of the intimidation factor. The big phone
(or phone-heavy mixed mode) contests are intimidating for many of the new guys
(especially if they are using entry-level rigs, have limited antennas, etc.),
so maybe CQ WW Phone isn't the best time to introduce a jute to contesting.
Smaller events, especially if the activity level is just high enough to give
some rate, might be a better time to make such introductions. And if you
remember that code mastery isn't necessarily required to make good use of a
code reader in a contest...well, CW contesting is less messy than phone
contesting and rate is addictive even if it is "click-and-pounce" rate rather
than run-rate.
Also, please do not discount the problem that HOAs and CCRs pose to the future
of contesting in the U.S. While I was aware of the problem from online
discussions, I didn't really "get" it until very recently. Some family
developments have my wife and I planning to move later this year, and the early
exploration into house-hunting reveal that I might have a problem: I'm having a
hell of a time finding spouse-approved candidate homes that aren't under HOAs.
(Thank goodness for remote controlled stations, and thank goodness I'm a
telecommuter!) I've got to believe that restrictive covenants on property are
now a very significant barrier to entry for potential hams in some parts of the
country.
Finally, I'd suggest that folks looking to involve younger folks in contesting
take a look at what's happening in Europe. While I'm on the left side of the
demographic bell-curve among American contesters, I ain't a youth. My
sensitivity to age does, however, make me aware when I encounter folks younger
than me on the air...and I don't seem like such a relative babe compared to
some contesters in DX locales. I wouldn't say that they've overcome the
challenge of attracting teenagers to radiosport, but perhaps something they're
doing might explain why the average age of new contesters seems lower in EU
than in NA.
--
Michael Adams | N1EN | mda@n1en.org
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