[Towertalk] The Ham Radio Business

[Tom Anderson]

Henry, et. al.:

I'm a Boy Scout Merit Badge counselor and have actually had scouts come up to me
during a merit badge class and ask "Do I have to do the requirements to get the
merit badge?"  I teach (among others) three Eagle Scout required merit badges
1.citizenship in the community, 2. nation, and 3. world.  (I also teach radio, but
haven't had a scout ask about that since I was on the K2BSA staff at the 1997
National BSA Jamboree.)  It is amazing how many kids don't even know what's going
on in their own community, let alone the country, or the rest of the world.

What's even weirder is during our discussions and my lectures I'm actually giving
the kids the answers to the requirements, it just I'm not "telling" them directly
what to put down at each question and our discussion doesn't necessarily go in
order. Few of them actually even take notes.

Tom, WW5L



A9xw@cs.com wrote:

> 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
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