[Towertalk] The Ham Radio Business

[A9xw@cs.com]

QSL the social change from technology to stupidity.  I have a commercial 
kennel business and am CE of a TV station.  At both places we wonder how kids 
graduated high school. hey can't spell, can't read the employment forms, 
can't write a complete sentence.  blech for bleach,  blunkit,  etc.  had one 
applicant takethe form home because "I needed help to decide how to fill out 
the form."  (name address, phone, ss#  etc).  Pot heads show up and wonder 
why they get fired the same day because they can't follow even the most 
simple step by step instructions.  I was getting a hair cut the other day 
when some lady and her 5yr old comes in. The kid is crying, screaming at the 
top of his lungs because he doesn't want his hair cut.  The adults in the 
shop all had the same spoken thought: this kid will be the next to take a gun 
to class because he didn't get his way.  It was 20 minutes of torture 
listning to this kid scream at his mother about what he wanted and didn't 
want. Couldn't tie his own shoe laces either. I think his older sister must 
have been the Sams club check out person I had earlier that over charged me 
three times on one 8 item order and I had to spend 20 minutes with the 
supervisor and customer service to get it corrected. Couldn't add, couldn't 
subtract, couldn't count, but standing there scanning purchases. I like to 
blame it on the stupid video games. 

There has been a consistant effort locally to do in school OSCAR demos by a 
couple local hams.  Bless their effort, but the kids were not impressed. 
After all they all have cell phones and beepers, who needs a clumky old 
radio, big antennas and have to work to aim the antenna just to talk to a 
stranger is their attitude. Kids today don't seem to have any sense of 
wonder. They have no clue as to why things work and why they don't. I have a 
master control operator that can't tell if we are on the air or not because 
if the monitor in his room fails, but the TV in the kitchen is still showing 
us, he can't fathom that his moitor died not the transmitter.  thus 6 AM wake 
up call "we're off the air."  No we are not. he's held the job for 2 years. 
Good thing he doesn't report to me, because he would no longer be reporting 
to me. 

So how do we get these and others interested in ham radio.  the idea of just 
have fun and tell others what fun is one way. I think we need to kick the 
schools around the block for becoming social study cases in how many 
syndromes can you create to explain why Johnny can't read instead of 
requiring mastery of basic skills in reading writing and math and science.  I 
was shocked on a visit to NYC.  I am used to pizza places making their own 
from scratch pizza. they may get the dough premade but you expect them to 
stretch it, cover it in goodies and cook it.  I went into the NYC pizza 
place. The menu had three choices of Pizza. I asked for a different 
combination of ingredients and was told sorry, those are the only choices.  
OK, I'm cold, tired, thirsty, just bring me a coke and my food.  I had walked 
up stairs to the 2nd floor form the street, passing the pizza ovens at the 
top of the stairs.  Imagine my suprise to see the "cook" open a refridgerator 
door, take out a store bought frozen pizza and put it in the oven.  I asked 
where the mens's room was, was told they didn't have one, and walked out.  
Wendy's was only three more blocks away.  I drew that as a parallel to 
technology today.  People don''t care what goes it or why it works, just hand 
them the cell phone so they can push the buttons and talk.  

As for visiting ham stores.  I think hams should have to go to the stores. OK 
there are few today vs a few decades ago. The reasons to go to the stores are:
  take your non ham buddies along for the beer and pizza and get them exposed 
to the hands on stuff.  
  The guy behind the counter is a ham and likely can throw out a few juicy 
tidbits of information neither you or your buddies had when you walked in.  
  Aided recall will remind you that you also wanted some coax seal, BNC 
connectors, a mobile ship, mic clip, two fuses and some other stuff you 
forgot about from when you worked on something a few weeks ago and set it 
aside becuase you needed the parts and would get them later. 
    Its kinda like a hamfest, you get to touch, feel and smell the stuff 
before you buy it. You might just stumble across something new to pique your 
curiosity enuf to spend a few bucks on a new TNC or whatever. 
    it'll expose you to SOCIAL activity talking with other patrons, the staff 
and maybe a contact on the demo rigs. Now isn't that part of the FUN of ham 
radio?  Isn't that a little but why we also have bowling teams, and other 
social sports activities?  And while in theparking lot, eyeball the other 
guys mobile install. Gee,look how he mounted THAT!  I can use the same 
bracket to put the rotor control in the shack closer to my left hand so I can 
wiggle the antenna while I talk with the other hand. (or whatever).
    I enjoy going to the ham store. Even tough it is a 2.5 hour drive each 
way to Milwaukee, I always find just one more thing I just can't do without, 
one more piece of clever info, feast my eyes on the rigs I can't afford, but 
can browse the used gear for something I can, or come p with a combo of stuff 
that does what I want to do but costs less than the megarig. 
    So next time, take the class to the ham store and let them look around. 
Maybe the broader experience will trigger more than the cell phone dialer. 
  
Henry AA9XW