[CQ-Contest] Digest titles, was Re: CQ-Contest Digest, Vol 179, Issue 36

[Barry]

For those of you replying to posts within a Daily Digest, when you 
respond, please change the title to something useful and related to the 
topic.

Tnx,
Barry W2UP

On 11/12/2017 5:54 AM, Ria Jairam wrote:
> I’ve never heard that complaint from my 3. They help me with projects and
> they like making contacts with me.
>
> Of course I keep away from the upper end of 75m and certain frequencies on
> 40 and 20.
>
> They love tuning around. They also love watching the waterfall and
> panadapters. They ask some relatively complex questions too, like why I
> talk to so many different countries. They love the DX and contest plaques I
> get.
>
> They love electronic kits like snap circuits which we bought for them. My
> daughters and my son equally.
>
> I guess I’m either lucky or expose them to the things that are fun and
> focus off the negatives. The past is the past and we aren’t returning to
> those glory days. However there is a lot to look forward to in the future,
> if we do it right.
>
> 73
> Ria, N2RJ
>
> On Sun, Nov 12, 2017 at 7:40 AM W0MU Mike Fatchett <w0mu at w0mu.com> wrote:
>
>> I can't get my offspring interested.
>>
>> My youngest still talks about all the bad behavior that he has heard on
>> the radio.  Sadly, the FCC has really let us down here.  Ham Radio is an
>> escape, why people should have to run across the stuff that are on our
>> bands is really sickening and sad.
>>
>> W0MU
>>
>> On 11/11/2017 2:09 PM, Jim Stahl via CQ-Contest wrote:
>>> The question of getting youth into contesting, and ham radio, is a
>> difficult nut to crack. Two observations:
>>> 1. One big difference between contesting and gaming is that there is no
>> such thing as defense in contesting. Yes, occasionally one may need to
>> “defend” a run frequency, but we look down very strongly at anything that
>> prevents a competitor from doing better than we do. We’re simply a game of
>> doing the best we can, something found in a very few games/sports, such as
>> golf or track.
>>> 2. Anything to get young people into contesting (not counting offspring
>> of hams) will involve remote stations. We can’t expect anybody to invest
>> several thousand dollars into an unfamiliar pastime, not to include the
>> issue of real estate limitations, which include the nature of one’s home -
>> often a very urban situation - without even considering zoning/HOA issues.
>>>
>>> 73  -  Jim  K8MR
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> On Nov 10, 2017, at 10:22 PM, Eric Gruff <egruff at cox.net> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Ward and Group,
>>>>
>>>> As a casual contester, I haven't really felt like I had much to offer
>>>> regarding spurring participation and recruiting new contesters. However,
>>>> lately, one of my 16 year-old daughters has become quite the online
>> gamer,
>>>> while her twin sister (who has often made noise, but not effort, about
>>>> getting licensed) is your typical teenage phone text/chat fiend. I have
>> been
>>>> informally asking them and their friends about why ham radio in general
>>>> isn't interesting to them.
>>>>
>>>> A few common themes/ideas I've come up with based on my casual survey
>> are:
>>>> - Young people can do everything with their phones/tablets/PCs that the
>>>> radio can do, and don't need expensive equipment (other than buying a
>> new
>>>> $800 phone every year as new models come out, but I didn't say that to
>> them)
>>>> or giant antennas that their parents and neighbors won't accept. I feel
>>>> there is a degree of laziness here - hams who design and build some or
>> all
>>>> of their own equipment probably view appliance operators like me in the
>> same
>>>> vein.
>>>> - The social media aspect of peer group interactions is appealing,
>> while 1:1
>>>> interactions with strangers doesn't seem all that appealing. This is a
>> bit
>>>> of a self-fulfilling prophecy/Catch-22, where until we get more
>> youngsters
>>>> involved, youngsters aren't going to be very interested... It's not
>> dislike
>>>> of 'old people', but lack of a common identification with the ham
>>>> demographic. I'm 54 and still into outdoor sports and heavy metal
>> music, and
>>>> often feel like I'm in a nursing home at ham events. I don't mean this
>> in a
>>>> pejorative sense since I'll be there soon enough, and am already ancient
>>>> compared to the 1977 me, who as a 13 year-old hung out with my 13
>> year-old
>>>> pal Steve (KL7SB, who was then WB2IDP) and looked at the 50 year-old
>> hams to
>>>> see if they were going to spontaneously die of a stroke or embolism.
>>>> - CW and SSB aren't going to compete with high resolution video and
>> surround
>>>> sound, so contesting may have to evolve to visual modes or we will have
>> to
>>>> find a way to combine modes like we do now for hybrid digital modes like
>>>> digital SSTV using Internet hyperlinks to the pictures. Video games have
>>>> cool visual and audio aspects, which is what kids are now used to.
>> Asking
>>>> them to switch from Call of Duty or Madden 2047 to CW is like going from
>>>> HDTV with a 4K OLED display to a 1985 analog television playing a VCR
>> movie.
>>>> Maybe a digital SSTV contest or some otherto-be-invented fast mode
>> would be
>>>> better. The technology is now getting where it's feasible, but FCC
>>>> regulations on BW on HF may be problematic.
>>>> - If we can start out with some type of technical or visual enticement
>> (and
>>>> I don't mean an unmarked white van with offers of free candy) to get
>>>> youngsters intrigued by the hobby, we can move them into contesting and
>>>> traffic handling and Em Comm and whatever once they're hooked. I see a
>> lot
>>>> of hams get licensed as "preppers", but then the Baofeng gets tossed
>> into
>>>> the glove box or closet, and that's that. One of the local efforts that
>> I'm
>>>> sure is duplicated all over the world is to help the newly-licensed move
>>>> further into the hobby, and not lose the enthusiasm that usually comes
>> just
>>>> before and after the license is obtained.
>>>> - From 1977 to 2017 (have I really been licensed 40 years?), I went
>> from a
>>>> general coverage Yaesu FRG-7 and 15 year-old Hallicrafters HT-44 with an
>>>> end-fed long wire that filled my shack (bedroom) with RF, to a Flex
>> 6700 SDR
>>>> with Maestro (actually two radios in one, with colorful hi-definition
>>>> panadapters), solid-state 1.5 kW amplifier and a SteppIR DB36 that can
>> tune
>>>> almost instantly from 80 to 6 Meters without my intervention. It's all
>>>> computer-controlled, as is my logbook, and I can operate modes from CW
>> to
>>>> SSB to FT8 to MSK144 to SSTV to ... I know many of you on the board have
>>>> similar stories - many of us worked each other as teenage hams back in
>> the
>>>> Dark Ages.
>>>>
>>>> OK, I'll stop now. I just wanted to share some thoughts for discussion.
>> I
>>>> know there are going to be a lot of folks here who say, "If youngsters
>> don't
>>>> like the hobby and contesting the way it is, then too bad for them. I'm
>> not
>>>> changing". There are others who are fatalistic and say, "Ham radio will
>> be
>>>> dead soon. We can't compete with the other distractions." I will offer
>> that,
>>>> even though soon after being licensed, I discovered music, cars, girls
>> and
>>>> beer (not necessarily in that order), I stayed licensed and somewhat
>>>> interested/active in the hobby. I was not very involved in radio while
>> away
>>>> at college (RPI, which had a great station that I never visited, not
>> even
>>>> once), in grad school (lived at home with my radios, but rarely touched
>>>> them), and after a cross-country move, all of which were extremely
>>>> time-consuming. The reason I stayed connected to the hobby is that
>> there was
>>>> always something new and different (I read each new QST religiously,
>>>> regardless of whether I was OTA), and the equipment was constantly
>> evolving
>>>> to allow new modes, etc. Well, that, and because I'm a hopeless nerd.
>>>>
>>>> Let's brainstorm new ways to evolve the hobby so that it's "cool" to the
>>>> next generations. And don't get me started about the recent NCIS "ham
>> radio"
>>>> episode, which was actually a CB episode that was mis-titled.
>>>>
>>>> 73,
>>>>
>>>> Eric NC6K
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Message: 1
>>>> Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2017 10:43:28 -0600
>>>> From: Ward Silver <hwardsil at gmail.com>
>>>> To: Reflector <cq-contest at contesting.com>
>>>> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] SS, SS and again SS...
>>>> Message-ID: <ddce7d41-0585-ccc9-2d41-55e9d809e220 at gmail.com>
>>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
>>>>
>>>> Hey Mats, don't go subterranean just yet!
>>>>
>>>>> ? Just lately have been a lot of postings that, at least for me and
>>>> possibly for some other non-NA, have been ?less interesting?. That is MY
>>>> (our) problem - not a problem to the list as such
>>>>
>>>> Actually, I think we have pretty much had our say about SS but I would
>> like
>>>> to broaden the discussion to your side of the pond.? A common perception
>>>> here in NA, reinforced by photos and stories, is that EU is doing better
>>>> with attracting new, younger contesters than we are.? One of the best
>> things
>>>> to come along in recent years is the EU-based YOTA (ham-yota.com).?
>> Getting
>>>> a similar group going "over here" seems to be a hard sell.? I'd like to
>> hear
>>>> more from you and others about EU attitudes and approaches that seem to
>> be
>>>> encouraging younger contesters to get involved, whether it is CW or SSB
>> or
>>>> digital, HF or VHF.
>>>>
>>>> 73, Ward N0AX
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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