Hi Alex, My comments are interspersed, but you are right on target, with your opinions, and the fact that I've been into ham radio since I was 14 (72 years ago) does not qualify me as an expert, but I've been exposed.
I've seen interest in ham operation go up and down throughout the years. Accounting? I really have none.
With the exception of my own grandson who lived with us in his formative years...At five he learned the code (21 years ago), and was determined to become licensed. Just about that time we got our first computer, and his eyes shined with this new interest...The intrigue was so great that ham radio took a background, and I think that is what happened to a lot of his contemporaries...
He is now working at Qualcomm in computer engineering, going to school for it, but is still an unlicensed member of our ham club...He will get it when he is ready...
The computer no longer holds the fascination or the challenge it once did. Ham radio still does, and my prediction is that is once again its challenge will attract that group again....The computer, for most, will remain a tool, just as a wrench or a screwdriver....
AMSAT-NA has failed miserably in attracting this group through lack of information, and education, but it too will get back on track, once that dawns on the powers that be...
Are there really just that many more active hams on the east coast? It seems hard to believe.
No, not really, Project Oscar that launched the first satellite Oscar One was conceived and came to fruition on the WEST COAST!! But there are Easterners that have the opinion that when one crosses the Mississippi from E to W, one drops their brains in the river!!! Hundreds of hamsat operators on the left coast, but one does not hear much from them in comparison to some of the drivel that comes from the other side of the river!!!
I was born in Minnesota, DIRECTLY NORTH of its source, so am unbiased!!
Most of them never admit that Project Oscar ever existed...
Rob Turlington G8ATE did something about it this year, and got a special callsign for 5 days GB Zero Oscar One (gb0o1), and we all should be grateful to him for his efforts..
I'm going to do something this year about it for AMSAT_NA, and get a similar special event callsign W6XXX to commemorate it in 2008.
I myself would love to teach teenagers about amateur radio.
My door, and station is always open, and if there is the slightest interest I give a demo....I given hamsat presentations to all of the 18 clubs in San Diego at least twice throughout the years...I know, some of them were just "filling a slot", but even suspecting that, I enjoyed doing it...
I hope you will all forgive my meandering first message to the list, but I'd love to hear all your thoughts on the matter.
No, keep your thoughts coming, yours was as refreshing a message that I have heard among the dozens of others on the bb in a long time!!
73, Dave, WB6LLO dguimon1@san.rr.com
Disagree: I learn....
Pulling for P3E...