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

Sun Nov 12 16:29:44 EST 2017

Please change the title. I️ just delete Digest titled email without
reading.
Chuck W5PR

On Sun, Nov 12, 2017 at 3:07 PM Barry <w2up at comcast.net> wrote:

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