Hi all contesters and thank you all for the ideas and views!
My perspective with this thread was the following. Being a previous Ventura
cap guy here are my background thoughts.
Average ham age is I believe 55-60 years and number of hams are diminishing
all over the world except the US. Partly because of re-thinking (no CW code,
more women into the hobby, EMCOM etc.) among US hams and ARRL. Rest of the
ham world are still standing looking at the "down turn" and doing nothing.
Many national ham organizations do very little to look at new possibilities
and in respect to re-thinking.
In parallel the world is changing rapidly with digitalizing and artificial
intelligence. Ham radio has its two major trends as SDR, remote contesting
and now also FT8. I love CW and do CW to 98%. But as a matter of fact FT8
has allowed many "apartment living" hams to work DX. A lot of club stations
are having a hard time to survive for several reasons with remote contest
clubs a new possibility and trend. Facts we can relate to or not.
So looking at the WRTC selection criterias I see you have to do 16 contests
to be running for a seat as I understand. It equals about a minimum of 1152
hours spent in qualifying over two years (16 contests x 36 hour per contest
(average) x 2 for general preparation/maintenance time per contest ). Wov.
that is 32 % of your over all working hours (assuming 3600 work hours per
two years). I love ham radio and contesting but no way I will put these
hours into it (if I am not re-marrying :) ). At best half of that.
So how will the concept of WRTC evolve over the coming years? Where is the
"innovative re-thinking" that reflects above Ham trends? Could there not be
a new class like the "wild card" class that absorbs us who enjoy contesting
with only 500 hours to put in or that do remote contesting or "city lot
contesting"? Will it be solely alone WRTC 2022 in Italy that has to
accomplish this "Ham change management" endeavor?
I am just curios.
73s Kari SM0HRP
"The important thing is to not stop questioning. Curiosity has its own
reason for existing." A. Einstein
http://remotedxandcontestblog.sm0hrp.se/
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