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

[Gerry Hull]

Just to pipe in once again on this one,

We, as hobbyists, don't promote HF (Shortwave) Amateur radio.  How many
events do we see in the press about HF?  Very little.  And when we do, it's
usually about
an old guy sitting in his basement.

Yes, computers are very compelling.   However, so is radio.   On the tip of
my mind, I can think of at least 15 hams under age 19 that are all very
active.   Only a few are contesters.

Getting non-hams to jump right into contesting is a hard jump.   But those
people who have a competitive mind and strategy might love it.  Get em
interested in HF first.

Again, for any of you coming to Dayton this year, take some time to say
hello to Marty, KC1CWF... A 14-year-old self-taught ham, who is TOTALLY
into computers.
He had no family member in the hobby.   He made 600K in WPX this weekend,
SOHP, using low wires and a borrowed amplifier.   He "gets" ham radio,
especially HF.  He formed a club of young hams.   Marty will be staying at
the CP, with his mom, who fully supports his hobby.

Marty listens to CW contests, and knows he MUST learn CW to participate.
He is working hard at it!

Rather than lament about no young people in ham radio, get off your duffs
and do something about it!  Give back to the hobby that has given you so
much!

Don't discount how intelligent these young technologists are.   They learn
fast.  It's a different world.   Ham radio -- especially contesting -- has
a lot of ancillary technology we did not have as kids.    SDRs, Spotting
Networks, live internet logging/You Tube from DXpeditions, Remote, the
Reverse Beacon Network.  All very interesting and compelling tech.  One may
debate if this is ham radio -- certainly it's not your grandparents ham
radio. But without electromagnetic waves and the radios that harness them,
 non of these ancillary technologies (except for YouTube) would exist.

BTW, for those who worry about "old men and young boys", I understand.
However, those problems can be easily overcome, with an open, frank
exchange with parents and/or teachers.  Marty has been to two big contest
operations -- both events, his parents were called by more than one of the
operating team, and, his dad even came to one of the operations.

Also, when computers came out, how many of us thought of "us vs them".
Computers had no place in the hobby.  Look how that has changed!

73, Gerry W1VE

PS:  The Commodore 64 brought us Doctor DX -- the best ham radio contest
simulator ever!  It was fun during low sunspot cycles!



On Mon, Mar 28, 2016 at 3:12 PM, Bob Shohet, KQ2M <kq2m at kq2m.com> wrote:

> 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
> _______________________________________________
> CQ-Contest mailing list
> CQ-Contest at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
>