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

[Bob Shohet, KQ2M]

Hi Steve,

I have a different view on this because from my experiences from the Northeast, I have seen a very large difference, starting in the early ‘80’s,
between contesters and future potential contesters from different continents.

Like you, I expected, that the PC Revolution would absolutely drain away the future interest of teens from ham radio.   
That has apparently happened in the US.  No surprise there.  HOWEVER, this has not happened to anywhere near the same
extent in Europe as it has in the US.

In fact, since the early ‘80’s, European contesting growth has absolutely exploded and continues to increase with each 
successive sunspot cycle.  I noticed this particularly in the late 80’s and the number of EU stations that were runnable on 10 and 15
SSB were much higher than in the previous cycle.  Then in the late ‘90’s there was another large leap in rate and total q’s by band
with many, many more EU calls in the log.  And this continued into the present cycle where on both cw and ssb, the EU numbers just
continue to explode.  Now it is “typical” for a single op single band EU op. on 40 or 20 to make 3,000+ q’s in CQWW and quite a few
are approaching 3,500 q’s!  And 60% or more of that is just from NON-US q’s!  These numbers are simply unimaginable compared to
20 and 30+ years ago and the volume, especially on CW is NOT coming from increased US activity.  It is coming from Europe and
clearly not what I expected; but I am very happy to see it!   :-)

We can probably come up with a list of reasons as to why this has happened but clearly the EU hams have had far more success 
in encouraging teens and adult participation in contesting than the US has had, especially on cw.   

You and I are about the same age (mid-late 50’s) so you probably remember that in the 1970’s, many US junior high and high schools had a
school amateur radio station.  That is where and when many of us had our first exposure to the magic of radio and we used our
teen years to operate, get into contesting and avidly pursue it.  Those school stations are long gone so those teens are NOT getting 
exposure to it anymore, except by random chance.  The you add in the HOA’s and other radio related property and home restrictions and that knocks
out most of the rest.  So these two developments alone have probably eliminated 90% or more of potential future ops and future contesters
from those teens that MIGHT have been interested despite the rise of pc’s.   Then there are the cultural differences – which are HUGE.

CW has always been prized throughout Europe – not so much in the US.  And the fact that contests and operating have often been more of a social
event in Europe than here.  I remember being in S5 for WRTC in 2000, and the evening before the contest, there was a gathering of the local
hams and their families and friends at the hilltop site where myself and Dan, W7WA were going to operate.  There were easily 
100+ people there and maybe only 20 of them had licenses!!!  They were curious and wanted to see what it was all about.  But they also regularly 
came out as a group to visit the hilltop and have a barbecue and meet and talk with each other.  I was told that this was “normal” – the S5 hams socialized together
very frequently with their families.   Many of the kids got into radio because of this and then got their licenses because mom or dad
had a license and got on the air and so they were exposed to the hobby and contesting at an early age.  The PC revolution had little
effect on their interest in radio.  It was in addition to radio rather than detracting from it.

By contrast, in the US, most teens had either little or no awareness of radio, much less contesting, or thought that radio was
antiquated and uncool.  How many of us have been successful at generating interest in contesting amongst our own kids?
VERY FEW!  Not the case in many countries of Europe.  Also, with all the contesters in the Northeast, how often do we get
together – even with those who live within 10 miles of us?  ALMOST NEVER!  That is completely the opposite of what
happens in many EU countries.

30+ years later we can see the results.  Contesting activity in Europe (both modes) has exponentially increased while in the US
it has increased slightly, if at all.   In the “everybody works everybody” contests, my % of EU q’s has increased enormously 
from 30+ years ago and the % of US has declined dramatically.  Sure my antennas are better and more directional than they used to be,
and my radio is higher quality and has better filtering so that I can dig out more stations and make far more q’s than in the past, 
but those aren’t the key reasons.

I welcome the continued growth in radio and contesting in Europe and am concerned about what continued to happen in the US.
Cultural differences are probably the biggest factor and the hardest to reverse – we can can and should learn from the European contesters
who have not been affected to nearly the same degree by home computers.

73
Bob KQ2M

The answer is easy...When did the Commodore 64 and other affordable home computers come out ? (1982, if you don't remember.) By the late 80's, every technokid was into PC's, not ham radio.

73,Steve, N2IC


03/24/2016 11:50 AM, RT Clay wrote:> > The problem with this as the cause, however, is that in the 1980's (when I was first licensed as a "young person"), none of those were around and the number of young people in ham radio and especially contesting was also very small :)> > TorN4OGW

Bob Shohet, KQ2M