[CQ-Contest] Interesting Youth In Ham Radio

[Ria Jairam]

I think it is very much relevant. It's a gateway drug scenario.

Some may get the license for these activities then discover a whole
other world of contesting and DX.

Also, the "small focused group" doesn't cut it, because contesting is
driven by casual users. If all that was left were the big guns with
stacks and multikilowatts, the game wouldn't be "fun" anymore, now
would it?

Why you build a mega station - you want to work the guys (and gals)
who might be running 100 watts into a wet string, or more
realistically an attic dipole or mobile whip on the front lawn. The
people who are thrilled to work across the Atlantic, and they get to
do it a few weekends a year.

Contesting was never on my radar when I got started. I was more into
repeaters and talking to local people. Then when I began to chase DX,
I discovered contesting. And the rest is history.

So attracting all kinds of hams is beneficial to **us**. And to the
hobby as a whole.

73
Ria, N2RJ

On Wed, Nov 15, 2017 at 5:31 AM, Ed Sawyer <sawyered at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Hey guys.  Since this is a Contest Reflector, can we stay on topic?  Getting
> youth interested in High Altitude Ballooning or using their 2M rig while
> offroading is not contributing to the contesting community.  And with a
> couple of million licensed ham operators around the globe and probably less
> than 25 - 30,000 showing up in HF Contest or DXpedition logs, there's really
> very little correlation between those macro numbers and HF Contesting.
>
>
>
> The issue for our contesting world is not macro, its niche.  The ham
> community could cut by 75% in the next 2 decades but the remaining crowd
> having more interest in the competitive aspect is WAY more meaningful to
> contesting than the opposite.
>
>
>
> 73
>
>
>
> Ed  N1UR
>
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