[UK-CONTEST] Increasing VHF contest participation by newbies

[Adrian Rees]

Hi David
Thanks for your comments.
 
I don't think we can ever sell the fascination of VHF / UHF / SHF bands to the newcomer, for the simple fact that we are engaged in old technology, nostalgia, as I call it. "Its something that my Dad does" is the answer my daughter gave one of her friends, when questioned about my amateur radio...."its boring as well" finished it off. We can't change the digital world we live in, nor can we change society to improve the number of radio amateurs. 
 
We can't sell the fascination, to encourage people, neither can we increase the power (which I think would turn 144 into 27, to a certain extent) but we can change the rules!
 
We can change the rules, scoring systems and other motivational factors (league tables, for example) in the contests we run and enter into. 
 
That is what we can do.
 
Or we can spend years navel gazing and beard stroking trying to understand "what happend to amateur radio".
 
 
 
Best Regards
 
Adrian 
MW1LCR
 

________________________________

From: David Barber [mailto:david.barber at dbelectronics.co.uk]
Sent: Thu 20/11/2008 12:26
To: uk-contest at contesting.com
Cc: Adrian Rees
Subject: RE: [UK-CONTEST] Increasing VHF contest participation by newbies



Sorry guys, I don't agree with any of you except for Adrian's comments
regarding the positioning of Amateur Radio with respect to current
technology and society.

Until one can sell the fascination of the VHF / UHF / SHF bands to the
newcomer, no amount of rule changing - licence or contest - is going to
force them to migrate there for anything more than a chat on the local
repeater.

The question of how this can be accomplished continues to bounce around
without solution.

David
G8OQW