[RTTY] JARTS age histogram

[Ron Kolarik]

On 10/21/2015 10:24 PM, Don AA5AU wrote:
> In 2011, I did an analysis on the ages of those competing in JARTS that year from logs received by various operators. The most populous age group in 2011 was 60-64. So considering we are four years older now, it makes sense that the most populous age would be 65-69. Interestingly, Hisami 7L4IOU, conducted age analysis in 2009 from logs received in that year's contest and his analysis showed the same age group as being most populous (60-65). However, in 2009, the 55-59 age group was close behind in second place.
> This proves to me that we are getting older as a group and we are not getting an influx of younger operators to replace us when we eventually go QRT. It's sad, but true.
>
It's not just the contesters that are aging, it's amateur radio as a 
whole. The last ARRL contest advisory committee made note of the fact 
that even though raw numbers
of hams were increasing a large percentage are "CERT wannabes". By the 
way the report was 10 pages long before someone reduced it to 2, if you 
want the original just ask.

I don't know what the answer is to getting more young people active and 
I think Bill is right about their other distractions. I had the window 
open the other day and one of the
neighbor kids heard the strange noises coming from the radio. Well I 
couldn't pass up the chance at infecting another one so invited him and 
his dad in to see what was up.
I went through the whole works,SSB,CW, digi modes, the horrible sounds 
of email over HF, ALE, the kid pulled out his smart phone and asked what 
exactly it was he couldn't
do with it that I was doing with a room full of gear. Both him and his 
dad were more impressed with some things I had on the bench and a Model 
15 spitting out an ITTY feed.
Don't think I hooked him but he does want to learn how to put itty bitty 
parts on a board so maybe there's a chance, QRP TRX waiting in the que.

Ron K0IDT