[CQ-Contest] Ham Radio in the Future

[Jeff Clarke]

I think the #1 way to recruit youngsters into amateur radio, at least in 
the USA, is the same way we did years ago - ARRL Field Day. I've seen 
many non-ham young people show up at the FD that K4BAI operate at with 
our local non-contesting club in Columbus, GA. Many of them seem to 
think it's pretty cool and some have gone on to get their licenses. The 
local club here, W4CVY, always makes it a priority to have the GOTA 
station staffed letting non-hams to experience amateur radio in real 
time. Maybe invite a Boy Scout group to your Field Day so they can get 
their radio badge.

I also think it's wonderful with what Tim,K3LR does letting young hams 
operate at his superstation. When I was in my late teens as a member of 
the Mad River Radio Club we had many Multi-Ops at nice stations I got 
invited to. KS8S, K8AZ/K8NZ, AC8E, W8FN, K8CC, W8AV and K3LR come to 
mind. Those experiences developed me into the decent contester I am 
today. We currently have 15 year old Jake, WV4AM (W9SN's grandson) 
operate regularly  with us at WW4LL.  He's turning into a very good 
operator. The nice thing about Fred's station is it's 100% remote over 
the internet. That would eliminate concerns parents might have about a 
young person traveling somewhere where most of the guys are older.  We 
also had Bryant, KG5HVO operate at WW4LL before he when off to college. 
I encourage anyone who has a nice contest station to seek out young hams 
to operate and mentor them.

There's also the David Kalter Memorial Youth DX Adventure. My good 
friend Geoff Howard, W0CG has hosted this several times at the PJ2T 
contest station. Greg, W6IZT is also very involved in recruiting young 
hams to participate in a DXpedition. I believe all the expenses are paid 
thru donations. They will be operating as PJ6Y in October this year. If 
a big pileup from a DX location doesn't inspire you I don't know what would!

Kudos to all these guys I mentioned and others I might've missed to have 
the vision on how important it is to get today's youth involved to keep 
amateur radio and contesting alive.

Many have mentioned technology (making contesting similar to gaming) in 
this email thread. Unfortunately today's generation of youth have a 
short attention span. It they had to choose between gaming and a 24 or 
48 radio contest I think gaming would win out every time.

Jeff KU8E