[CQ-Contest] Young Contesters (was Aging Ranks)

[Bob]

congrats to u david and welcome to the world of radio
sporting.......i was 15 when i first started and 47 years
later still having a ball!!    if you everwant a seat at my stn
in central oregon just let me know......my stn mebbe not
quite as good as rush's but its pretty close......

73 de bob  w7gg, ai7b, ww7or

-----Original Message-----
From: David Jones <kk7gw at yahoo.com>
To: cq-contest at contesting.com <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Date: Wednesday, June 02, 1999 1:42 PM
Subject: [CQ-Contest] Young Contesters (was Aging Ranks)


>
>As a young contester myself (turned 16 in March) I guess I feel I should
speak
>out here.  I think the problem, like Bill said, is not the dates of
contests,
>but rather attracting youths to the contesting 'sport'.
>
>My parents have been very supportive (even though they're
overprotective...) of
>me wanting to contest.  In fact, they were supportive enough to drive me
down
>to the W7RM M/M for WW CW, and yes, that IS Thanksgiving weekend.  We had
>Thanksgiving dinner with my relatives, then got up the next day and drove
to
>W7RM, then while I contested, my family spent the weekend 20 miles away in
>Portland, then came and got me.
>
>I have been very fortunate to become hooked up with the W7RM gang (look for
4
>or 5 of us M/S in IARU from there!), and with the Western Washington DX
Club,
>and I am forever indebted to all those people.  One of my most favorite ham
>radio weekends to date was being invited to N6TR/K7RAT's for ARRL DX CW.
48
>hours of hard-core contesting with 2 fantastic operators, getting 40+ hours
of
>op time to boot, and talking and learning with great guys.
>
>So what to do about getting youths interested?  Again, I point to something
>Bill said:
>
>> My point?     ******* DO SOMETHING !!! *******
>
>Read that.  Read it again.  Read it a third time.  This is the key to
>interesting people.  There are quite a bit of 'young' (under 30)
contesters,
>and even quite a few teenage contesters.  Many of those, people like AD6DO,
>WL7KY, N5NU, K9YO, AD7U, myself, and lots more that I can't think of right
now,
>will be the 'big guns' of the future.
>
>However, as many of you know, it is not the big guns that make contesting.
It
>is the little guys, the guys that get on and make a handful of contacts.
>So interest people in ham radio in general...let kids come over and listen
to
>you work guys, listen to CW...I know for me, CW is very magical, and I
really
>don't want to see it die a slow painful death.  Bring people over for
>Multi-ops, bring people over just to see the station and talk, go to a
school
>and introduce ham radio, do whatever it takes, just get people involved.
>
>Just sort of an off-the-cuff post, maybe I'll think of more later, but I
think
>this expresses my feelings pretty well.  CU all from the WWDXC Field Day
(W7DX)
>and from W7RM in IARU.
>
>73
>
>===
>David Jones, KK7GW
>kk7gw at yahoo.com
>
>
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