[CQ-Contest] Observations of a young ham

[W0MU Mike Fatchett]

There are so many more bad apples in gaming..........It comes with 
having so many more participants.  They can be banned out of the games 
much faster than the way the FCC or other foreign gov'ts deal with our 
bad apples and there are ignore features and they take personal 
harassment very seriously in gaming.

Interest in ham radio is one thing, interest in contesting or radio 
sport is another.  Online gaming has managed to grab this age group and 
older and suck them in, thus the comparison. What are they doing right 
and can we feed off of that?  I hope our contest software visual 
programmers are thinking about this.  Is there a way to build two or 
three different user interfaces easily?  One for us old farts, and one 
or two for those wishing for a better visual presentation?

I have two sons and a daughter, one son got his license and the other 
two have no interest.  I had towers and a pretty decent set up.  It made 
no difference.  They already had PlayStation, XBox and hand held games.  
I think we appreciate the behind the scenes stuff much more as we get 
older and have the knowledge to grasp how extensive the other things are 
that go on to make it happen. I don't live on the East coast where I can 
work rare DX 24x7  on all bands 24 hours a day HI!

W0MU




On 12/19/2016 4:31 AM, Ed Sawyer wrote:
> Today's young generation gets it "spoon fed, with great graphics, and
> instantly".  There's an app for that you know..
>
>   
>
> In my opinion, the only way a young person is going to become interested in
> contesting is to get them VERY early and to have them outside on towers and
> with big antennas.  That's the one element that is not a handheld or VR
> gaming equivalent.  If their world is on a screen and we present our boring
> screens, its over.  Its what is behind the screens that is cool.  If that
> doesn't capture, its over.
>
>   
>
> The excuse that bad on the air behavior is somehow a problem is bogus.  Just
> check out the garbage on line that the kids are used to and ignore ad it
> doesn't dissuade them from being on line.
>
>   
>
> Contest DXpeditions, antenna farms, the science of propagation and space
> weather, then adding the competitive part is the uniqueness of our hobby.
> Trying to compare it to gaming is an effort in futility and doesn't respect
> what we actually do.
>
>   
>
> The next time you are out in the snow is sub zero weather fixing your 160
> antenna before a contest, you might want to remind yourself of that.
>
>   
>
> 73
>
>   
>
> Ed  N1UR
>
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