[CQ-Contest] Observations of a young ham

[Carol Richards]

Hello all,

First, I am a not so young ham; licensed when I was 12.  Like many of my 
generation I grew up in a row house in a very large city. TV's were black 
and white, and some color TV's in big furniture cabinets were just making 
their appearnce. There was no cable TV, but lots of rusted TV antennas and 
rabbit ears( for those who remember). There really wan't much to do then. My 
parents controlled the TV ( all 4 channels). I only had 1 hobby...coin 
collecting! I then met another boy about two years older and only five 
blocks away. Not only was he into coin collecting, but he was also a ham; 
very small world. Like me, He also lived in a row house. This boy named 
Larry, was into something called ham radio. Out of sheer luck, he introduced 
me to the hobby, and mentored me for my license, helped me build a 
transmitter, loaned me a receiver, and somehow got the blessings from my 
parents to put up a 40m dipole across 4 roof tops.


This story is not unique, but he did something more. He invited me to join a 
club that was all teenagers. This was my intro into contesting, A few years 
later, if I promised to have my extra class license, he would introduce me 
to the world of a big-time multi-op contest station; i.e.,W3BES later W3GM. 
I had never seen 100 foot layover towers, 3 element full sized, monobanders 
for 40m, monobanders for the other bands, each on their own separate tower. 
He nurtured me into contesting to the point where I kept returning for every 
major contest until he beame a SK.


My career took an unexpected twist and I beame a teacher. I set up free ham 
radio classes at the high school's night school and had almost 500 graduates 
befor I gave it up. Again all of this was before video games, computers, the 
internet etc. Many of my students were young and acompanied their parents.


Bottom line...


My enthusiasm, spilled over and infected my students. They all got on the 
air with few distractions.

Often the "children" surpassed their parents.

It was a hobby the entire family could enjoy.

Today, most of them are still active, and contesting became a family 
endeavor.

These students were nurtured into contesting. Many ended up at the big 
multi-op stations for contests, and many also began trying contesting on 
their own from modest  low-power stations.

Winning was never a goal. It was the excitement of just making lots and lots 
of qsos with people as close as their own town or very far away.

Patience, nurturing, and mentoring were the keys. Today things are 
different. Our young people have too many other ways to occupy their time. 
Instead of clubs, they get pushed into a VEC session, get their licenses on 
the spot, and more often than not, thats where everything ends. There are 
very few clubs that provide activities for them; beyond field day. The 
meetings are run by the elder states-people, and sometimes, picnics are held 
during the summer months at the home of these same old people. If I go to a 
summer picnic, my-grown up children and even my grandchildren, bring their 
i-phones and tablets just to keep themselves occupied. They could care less 
about the monster antennas and big stations. Their interests come from 
instant gratification and derived from "their kind of activities".


Fortunately, educators today are just beginning to understand what 21st 
century teaching is all about. Our hobby and its rewards are still 20th 
century. That is the disconnect that exists today. We need to do more. The 
same excitement that drew us into contesting is contageous if we let it 
become that. Camping or traveling to rare counties, or summits, or even the 
NPOA event can do more to regaining that enthusiasm. We as a community must 
begin, with baby steps, to translate and transfer the excitement that we 
had.



Carol


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jack Haverty" <k3fiv at arrl.net>
To: <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, December 19, 2016 3:08 PM
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Observations of a young ham


> The observations by and about young hams are right on target.  I think
> it's part of a bigger picture though.  There are plenty of not-so-young
> hams that fit the same description - they don't feel they have any
> chance of winning the game, and have found that "competing" in the role
> of a duck in the shooting gallery simply isn't much fun.
>
> I've known many hams who went through the process of getting the license
> and even set up a simple station, perhaps 100W and a G5RV, who tried
> contesting for a bit, got soundly trounced, and went on to do other
> things that were more fun.
>
> Before I moved, 2 years ago, I had done quite a bit of contesting.
> Never had much hope of winning anything with my 100W and a wire, but I
> did actually win a few certificates - mostly because no one else showed
> up in my assigned category/QTH.  Eventually, I'll probably set up my
> station again in the new QTH.  But I haven't had the urge to do it yet -
> just to hang up more losses in my log??.....
>
> People compete because they have a hope of winning, by showing their
> superior skills against their opponents.  Except for the few who have
> the right resources, e.g., location, and funds, and time, Ham Radio
> contests don't provide that hope.  Many, like me, participate a bit
> anyway, if only because we enjoy playing with the radio.  We provide the
> cannon fodder for the big guns.  Contests simply provide the venues when
> there are actually many other stations on the air.
>
> This topic comes up repeatedly, more often than the solar cycle.  About
> 3 years ago, I wrote up an idea for "Challenge Contesting", which I
> think still makes sense.  It requires no changes to any existing rules,
> and it lets everyone actually compete with plausible hope of winning.
>
> All it requires is probably a bit of organization and a probably larger
> bit of software.  Perhaps there's some interested kids out there who
> would find creating Challenge Contesting a challenge in itself...?
>
> Here's that idea from 2013 if anyone's curious:
>
> http://lists.contesting.com/_cq-contest/2013-12/msg00098.html
>
> Pass it on to the kids...
>
> 73,
> /Jack de K3FIV
>
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