[CQ-Contest] Will there be anyone to work in 20 years?

[Maarten van Rossum]

When I tell people that my hobby is amateur radio, they usually ask me if I
play music on air. I then try to explain what amateur radio is all about
and tell them that one of the things we do is communicate with eachother on
air.
Often they reply that they can do the same thing with there cell phone.
Subsequently I ask them to call some in, lets say, South America. "I don't
know anybody in SA so who should I call?" is mostly the reply I get and
that is exactly the point I try to make.

Amateur radio to me is not only a way to communicate but also a way to meet
different people all over the world. The vast majority of the countries I
work on the bands I have never visited before and probably never will. In a
way Amateur radio offers me a way to "visit" these countries and learn
about different
cultures. To me that is a big part of the "magic" of amateur radio.

When I put it that way, people usually see why amateur radio is interesting
to so many people around the world. It doesn't necessarily mean that they
have become interested in amateur radio as well but at least they have a
little better understandig what it's all about.

73, Maarten PD2R

Op dinsdag 28 mei 2013 schreef Rick Kiessig (kiessig at gmail.com) het
volgende:

> I agree with Zack's point wholeheartedly. Pitching radio just as a way to
> talk to others, which puts it in competition with cell phones, Skype and
> the
> Internet, is a mistake.
>
> For me, a better pitch would look something like this:
>
> - With a cell phone, your radio signals travel over the air for a few miles
> at most, then go by wire to the destination. With ham radio, your signals
> can travel over the entire planet, with no wires required (imagine having
> radio waves generated from your voice touching billions of people)
> - Cell phones and the Internet are natural complements to ham radio. This
> is
> an area that's still undergoing rapid growth.
> - Ham radio is also a service. There are opportunities to help people in
> your community or all over the world in times of disaster, in ways that are
> impossible with cell phones or the Internet (particularly when the
> infrastructure they need fails).
> - With radio, you can communicate with people who don't have phones or the
> Internet. They may be in remote locations, on ships, on airplanes, or even
> on high-altitude balloons or the Space Station.
> - Ham radio is multi-dimensional. In addition to just talking to people,
> you
> can build or optimize your own equipment, which can be as simple or as
> complex as you like. You can use radio to understand more about the world
> around you, in a hands-on way: physics, atmospherics, the effects of the
> sun, propagation, and much more.
> - Radio Contesting is fun and exciting. It gives you a chance to talk to
> people all over the world, while also refining your operating skills and
> your radio setup. Imagine talking to 100 or more people all over the world,
> in under an hour.
> - Ham radio provides a wonderful foundation for many engineering careers.
> The combination of hands-on experience building or modifying your own gear
> and the extensive use of software is something you won't find in other
> hobbies.
> - Hams can build their own radios; you can't build your own cell phone.
> - Hams can build everything else they need, too, from simple antennas to
> huge radio towers; you can't build your own Internet infrastructure.
> - Voice communication is only one aspect of ham radio. You can also use
> Morse code or a variety of data modes, each with their own pros and cons.
> You can even create your own data mode, if you're so inclined.
> - There is no one between you and the person on the other end of a
> conversation by radio; what you say and hear can't be filtered or
> restricted
> by others like it can with cell phones, Skype or the Internet.
> - Ham radio doesn't have any monthly fees or fees for data. It can be on
> all
> the time, for no cost other than for the gear and your time.
>
>
> It occurs to me that one thing that could really help is a well-done 1 to 2
> hour-long documentary. There's so much about ham radio that is just not
> well-known by the public. Based on previous experience, a high-quality
> video
> could be done for maybe $2M. I wonder if that's within the range of what we
> could raise as a group?
>
> 73, Rick ZL2HAM
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: CQ-Contest [mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com <javascript:;>]
> On Behalf Of
> Zack Widup
> Sent: Monday, May 27, 2013 3:44 AM
> To: CQ Contest
> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Will there be anyone to work in 20 years?
>
> Somehow we have to convince them that radio is MAGIC. I have always thought
> this and still do. It's not the fact that I can talk to someone in Russia
> which I could also do on a phone or Skype, it's the media! It will always
> be
> magic to me.
>
> 73, Zack W9SZ
>
>
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>


-- 
73, Maarten PD2R