[CQ-Contest] Interesting Youth In Ham Radio (was Digest)

[Jim Brown]

On 11/11/2017 11:29 PM, Eric Gruff wrote:
> I have to laugh (to myself only) because most kids are more adept with computers and electronics than most folks in our generation will ever be.

They may be more adept at USING computers and electronics, but I'd bet 
that few have a clue about how stuff works, or even care. There are 
exceptions, of course, just as many of us were exceptions as kids. My 
wife's grandson was the IT person at his grade school, was interning 
with software companies in jr high, had written "Aps" that had been 
accepted by Apple for distribution on iTunes, and in high school had 
paid gigs writing software. When he finishes his sophomore year in 
college (engineering) he's got a summer gig (paid) lined up at Apple! My 
grandson and my own two kids have never had even the slightest interest 
in anything technical.

We hams are a pretty diverse bunch -- some very technical, some not at 
all, many in between. Some of us work on various elements of station 
building, from antennas to radios to control systems to power amps to 
writing code to automate our stations.

Progress and miniaturization of every sort of electronics have made it 
far more difficult for us to build much of the gear we want to use, but 
power amps and antennas remain quite viable exercises. I know great 
operators who have by themselves built much of their own stations, and I 
know some who don't know (or care) which end of a soldering iron to pick 
up.

It helps to think back to what drew US into ham radio in our youth. In 
those days, the magic of using radio to communicate across an ocean was 
both a technical challenge and a thrill. For at least 30 years, we've 
been doing that via the internet with nothing more than a computer and a 
modem, and we can do it in whatever time frame is convenient to us, and 
in many platforms.

Before we were licensed, most of us were SWLs from the AM BC band to 
international broadcasting. Then, there was first class entertainment on 
the AM band and content from international broadcasters that wasn't 
available anywhere else. Now, AM BC is a sewer, and most international 
broadcasting has been replaced by streaming on the internet. My primary 
interests in broadcasting are news and jazz; a C Crane "internet radio" 
next to where I sleep lets me switch with an IR remote between ten jazz 
stations that I've pre-programmed from a choice of several hundred 
around the world!

Recently, I heard of a ham club a few hours away from me that developed 
out of the interest of a local community organization in emergency 
communications -- this is a low population density community in the 
Santa Cruz mountains north of me, where the potential hazards are 
wildland fires, winter storms, and earthquakes.

Here's a link to photos from this year's Field Day. Notice the number of 
young hams on the air in the photos of the stations.

http://www.sc4arc.org/groups/general/forum/topic/field-day-photos/

Some of the photos show a pretty serious effort with antennas, and 
communications on their blog show well organized planning. There's a 
photo of their score summary in one of the photos. All SSB and digital. 
Here's their home page.

http://www.sc4arc.org/

73, Jim K9YC