[CQ-Contest] K5GO speaks out for youth in contesting

[Richard F DiDonna NN3W]

As someone who is much younger than the average ham and hangs out with a 
younger set of hams (the WWYC) crew, I see this from a variety of angles.

First, its frightening to say, but I was licensed 30 years ago this 
coming September and I am still well under 50 years old.

Like a lot of contesters and hams, I was active during my teenage years 
and then went QRT for about 12 years (college, early carrier, marriage, 
first kid).  I didn't get on the air until I bought my second home which 
sits on 1/3 of an acre of land and has a lot of trees from which to hang 
antennas.  Like the cicadas, I came out of dormancy quickly.

Being one who is younger, I see the problems that many other potential 
hams likely see.

First, kids today like instant gratification and knowing who wins 
quickly.  You simply don't have that with most any event except WRTC.

Second, the barriers to entry to doing well in contesting is very high.  
With computing, you need and XBox One ($299), a game (lets say the 
Division for $55), a headset mike ($59) and your time to play.  You're 
ready for PvP playing for about $425.  You can barely even get a radio 
of any quality for $425.  Then you need a license, an antenna, a tuner, 
a linear, a SWR meter, filters, and the computer to control the radio.

Third, and I hate to say this, but a lot of hams frankly -suck-. They 
are grossly overweight, unkempt, introverted, and old.  Do you honestly 
think that a 15 or 16 year old kid wants to hang out with a group of 65 
and 75 years olds who have little in common with them? I went with my 
older son to a hamfest to grab a couple of piece of equipment last 
week.  My son commented to me that he wondered if many of the attendees 
at the hamfest actually had lives.

If that was his opinion (and he's been to several hamfests), I wonder 
what the opinion of a kid who has never seen a hamfest before would be.

If you're going to attract kids, I recommend you do it in things like 
Scouts where you don't have a single kid in isolation.  While my 
grandfather was licensed and a major reason for my getting licensed, the 
fact that two of my close friends got licensed around the same time 
(including one who is still active), certainly help retain my interest.  
Its better to get them in pairs or groups than singletons.

73 Rich NN3W

On 3/27/2016 12:23 PM, Michael Adams wrote:
> I'd like to offer an alternate, possibly less negative view.
>
> My working theory has been that amateur radio has become a hobby that people come to in middle age / later middle age (at least in North America).
>
> That's a time in many of our lives where we are likely to be firmly established in other aspects of our lines.  Perhaps the passage of time is causing more sedentary activities to look attractive to us.  Many of us have achieved a comfortable level of disposable income and can afford some toys, and we are more likely to own property that might accommodate antennas.  Maybe we're finding ourselves with a bit more free time (with children having become self-entertaining or perhaps having moved out) and have an itch to try something new for the fun of it.
>
> If my theory is correct, folks depressed with the apparent aging of ham radio might find some comfort by looking at the demographics of North American population.
>
> The age distribution of North Americans is "lumpy".  Most of us are familiar with the bump in the population called the baby boom, where quite a few babies were born after some suppression of procreation due to the economic pressures of the Depression and the other challenges of World War II.  I suspect that if you look at the typical aging ham, they fall in this cohort.
>
> The folks now achieving what I hypothesize is prime "new ham" age are members of a cohort that is relatively small.  So you have a relatively large number of aging baby boomers who are seemingly not being replaced by the relatively small number of forty-somethings who are good candidates for a new hobby.  Oversimplifying: the average age of people above aged 40+ is increasing because there were fewer people born 40 years ago than were born 60 years ago.
>
> The good news is that the next cohort, the folks who are now 20- or early 30-somethings, is another relatively large cohort.  They fall in an echo of the baby boom.  The relatively large number of baby boomers had a relatively large number of kids.   I hypothesize that we don't see too many of these folks in amateur radio because of the other demands on their time and pocketbooks...but I suspect they might be candidates for VE sessions in a few years.
>
> If my hypotheses are correct, that cohort will potentially mitigate the apparent aging of ham radio IF we can attract their attention once they have the time, etc. to support a new hobby.  There might be a bigger challenge in attracting their attention because they grew up after computers were commonplace, and geeks tended to get sucked into gaming and internet-based activities rather than being mesmerized by vacuum tubes.
>
> I'd say that that's a reason for concern, and some collective thought ought to be turned towards how to market the hobby to that cohort (and to lay the foundation for the subsequent cohort, which while being smaller, is currently at a rather impressionable set of ages).  The good news is that there are folks like me, in that transitional cohort, who have some level of appreciation that radiosport has several things in common with gaming when it comes to the fun.
>
> If we can figure out how to attract enough of those folks at an appropriate time to replenish our ranks, I don't think there's much to worry about (aside, perhaps, from upsetting folks who may miss the classic days of radio due to the new quirks, interests, and practices fueled by the next generation).  If not....well, hopefully folks will still do DXpeditions so that I can appreciate the smaller pileups after the grim reaper reduces the QRM level.
>