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{
    "url": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/email/KRTUMBCOQ2NTPKQX5D7GL5US6YUP3N7B/",
    "mailinglist": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/",
    "message_id": "00F85885A14E45EF813A8D2C8C76F92C@SQUID",
    "message_id_hash": "KRTUMBCOQ2NTPKQX5D7GL5US6YUP3N7B",
    "thread": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/thread/KRTUMBCOQ2NTPKQX5D7GL5US6YUP3N7B/",
    "sender": {
        "address": "yet.another.squid (a) gmail.com",
        "mailman_id": "dc8989d0da2f4f548a3d493e624468f9",
        "emails": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/sender/dc8989d0da2f4f548a3d493e624468f9/emails/"
    },
    "sender_name": "Darin Cowan",
    "subject": "[amsat-bb] Re: AMSAT-BB Digest, Vol 3, Issue 349",
    "date": "2008-07-16T19:56:04Z",
    "parent": null,
    "children": [],
    "votes": {
        "likes": 0,
        "dislikes": 0,
        "status": "neutral"
    },
    "content": ">>A few years ago at the 2002 AMSAT meeting in Ft. Worth, Tony, \n>>AA2TX was giving a talk on his antennas made from cardboard \n>>boxes and aluminum  foil.  There was a grade school class in \n>>attendance with their  teacher.  When the talk was over, the \n>>kids swarmed over the boxes and  aluminum foil to make \n>>antennas with great enthusiasm.  Very inspiring  -- this is \n>>the kind of reaching out we need.\n>> \n>>Instead of our self serving pursuit of DXCC, WAS, VUCC, WAC \n>>and  others, maybe the ARRL needs to sponsor an award for \n>>bringing new Hams into the community. Otherwise, someday, \n>>no one will remember what those letters even  stood for.\n\nBelieve me, at 43 years old, I'm acutely aware of two facts:\n\n1. I'm relatively young for a radio amateur; and\n2. I'm not exactly young.\n\nAmateur radio has a few things going against it as far as \"young\"\npeople are concerned, and some of these things cannot be easily\nsolved by regulation changes, mentoring, etc.\n\nFirst and foremost is that amateur radio is a technical hobby and\nis consequently viewed by young people (hereafter taken to mean\n\"people under 25\") as nerdy, uncool, etc.  I say with some \nconfidence that very few people who currently hold amateur radio\nlicences were members of the popular crowd in high school or\nuniversity.  Is that silly?  Perhaps... but it's also true.\nYoung people have a lot of demands on their time, and being \"cool\"\nis as important now as it ever was, maybe more so.  The result\nis that amateur radio is going to appeal to a comparatively small\nnumber of young people from the get-go.  I am not sure how or\nif this perception can be overcome.\n\nSecond, advancing technology makes the hobby less useful than it\nonce was.  If you wanted to chat with people in far away lands\nback in 1979 (when I first started SWL), then amateur radio was\nprobably just about the only way to do it.  If you want to do that\ntoday, you need only download any of a multitude of simple computer\nprograms and have at it, with no technical skill, no licence and\nlittle or no cost.  People getting into amateur radio now will\nbe doing it, in my opinion, purely for a love of radio or tinkering\nrather than what I perceive to have been a large palette of reasons\nin decades gone by.  This issue can probably be overcome by raising\nthe profile of amateur radio as a hobby with a modern flavour.\nCertainly amateur radio satellite and keyboarding modes for amateur\nradio help out a lot.  No offence to morse code afficiondos, but \nthe vast majority of the kids I see (I volunteer at the Canada\nScience and Tech museum) think of morse code as a quaint reminder \nof days past... interesting only as far as \"yeah, my grampa used to \ndo that, neat\" but not interesting enough to be something they'd want\nto do.  Every time someone tries to raise the importance\nof morse code in amateur radio, I guarantee it scares away another\npotential young licencee who sees amateur radio as old-fashioned\nand backward.  On the other hand, get a kid talking on a satellite\nto someone across the continent (or ocean, from here) and they'll\nremember that for a LONG time.  Get a kid chatting with\nsomeone around the world by keyboard using Olivia or PSK31 and they\ncan relate instantly because they're used to instant messaging.\nSeriously, as radio amateurs we should really downplay morse code\noutside our licenced ranks.  People who want to keep code alive \nwill do so, but very few people are attracted to this hobby by\nmorse code and I believe a great many people are repelled by a\nperception that if you can't do code, you're not a \"real\" radio\namateur.\n\nThird, and this also can't be overcome by mentoring etc., is that \namateur radio has space and financial requirements that are beyond\nmost young people.  Everyone on this list go look at your stuff \nright now and add up what it cost in terms of currency as well as\nindoor and outdoor space.  Sure, you *CAN* get into amateur radio\nwith a used 2m HT picked up in Dayton for $100.  But let's face it\nthe really cool stuff requires more sophisticated (read: expensive)\nequipment, usually with antenna systems that require space and\nmore money.  When you're a teen or a young person just starting\na family, it's a discretionary expense that is probably just not\nhigh on your list.  Only when you've started to get a few grey hairs\n(if you have any hairs left) is it likely you'll be in a comfortable\nposition to invest in the \"good\" stuff.  This is the reason, in my\nopinion, that radio amateurs largely seem to be no younger than about \n35 or so.  It simply takes that long to get in a position to really\npursue parts of this hobby.\n\nThat's my spin on it.  And I'll be back in the museum on Saturday\nshowing off amateur radio satellites to the kids :)\n\n73 de VE3OIJ\nDarin\n\n",
    "attachments": []
}