RadioBanter - View Single Post

Steve Bonine · April 21st 07, 03:19 PM posted to rec.radio.amateur.moderated

wrote:

I think if the members of ITU collectively asked "Are the hams of the
world doing anything which justifies their generous chunks assigned
spectrum?" the honest answer would be "Probably not."

What are we going to do about that?

I'm frankly more concerned about the people aspect of this issue than
the spectrum issue.

As others in the thread have pointed out, HF spectrum is not
particularly valuable these days. I don't think we're in any huge
danger of losing those allocations. Even VHF and the lower end of UHF
aren't as sought-after as they once were.

The thing that bothers me is the decline in the number of active ham
radio operators. Ham radio as a hobby has many aspects, but most of
them involve collaboration with other people, either on the air or
otherwise. As the number of people declines, the potential for the
hobby as a whole declines.

I live in a rural area, so I see this trend more than those of you in
densely-populated areas. Our local club is teetering on the edge of
extinction, and the people who are involved tend not to be much
interested in radio -- they care more about the social aspects of
drinking coffee with their buddies. When it's time to mount some kind
of local effort, be it Skywarn, Field Day, or even the annual picnic,
it's harder and harder to attract a critical mass of people to participate.

I suspect that my view is atypical, but I don't know if it's atypical
because it forecasts what's in store for ham radio as a hobby, or
atypical because it's not seeing the positive aspects like young people
entering the hobby. But the future of the hobby depends on *people*.
We could have all the spectrum allocation in the world, but if there's
no one there to use it . . .

What are we going to do about it? I ask myself that question regularly
and still don't have a good answer. To me, the goal is to recruit young
folks into the hobby and to actually involve them so that they're active
hams instead of numbers in a listing. When I was a young ham, one of
the local high school teachers was an effective recruiter for new hams.
But then again, there was an electronics lab in that school, and I
doubt that many of those are left. Times have changed, and we need to
figure out ways to make ham radio interesting to the new generation. I
just don't know what those ways are.

73, Steve KB9X