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#21
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![]() "AF6AY" wrote in message ups.com... wrote on Mon, 7 May 2007 08:12:02 EDT: On May 6, 11:44?pm, RDWeaver wrote: For example, back in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, we experienced a steady stream of new hams who wanted to use the various repeater/ autopatch systems in this area for personal noncommercial communications, particularly while mobile. Whole families would show up at classes and VE sessions, and the repeaters were busy with their activities. The term 'honeydo hams' entered the jargon. I didn't know the term "honey-do ham" existed until seeing in these newsgroups. :-) In knowing many licensed radio amateurs in the southwestern USA, their spouses and/or offspring got licenses for the purpose of amateur radio participation, not for picking up dry cleaning or coordinating soccer practice carpools. While it has been common for some spouses to call the other spouse to pick up something on the way home, that has been routinely done by the POTS here from 1960 to the present time. shrug When I licensed back in 1992, the majority of the people in the class and at the various test sessions as I went up the ladder were these "honey-do" hams and the family group communications types. This type of use was heavily promoted to non-hams by hams of the day. I heard a lot of chit chat on the repeaters, including discussions on errands etc, between family members as they traveled around town. While there is no issue with this, the downside was that many became inactive as they got cell phones. Only a few seemed to carry forward into other areas of ham radio activity. Dee, N8UZE |
#22
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On May 8, 3:36�am, "Dee Flint" wrote:
"AF6AY" wrote in message When I licensed back in 1992, the majority of the people in the class and at the various test sessions as I went up the ladder were these "honey-do" h ams and the family group communications types. This type of use was heavily promoted to non-hams by hams of the day. I heard a lot of chit chat o n the repeaters, including discussions on errands etc, between family members as they traveled around town. While there is no issue with this, the down side was that many became inactive as they got cell phones. Only a few seem ed to carry forward into other areas of ham radio activity. Well, I was curious about that, wondering if it was some kind of local or regional thing. Here in the populous southwestern corner of the USA there didn't seem to be too much of that. In the Greater Los Angeles area (population roughly 8 million and spread out over a large area), the LOS repeaters were carrying lots of club activities with those clubs involved in amateur radio doings rather than the "honey-do" kind of thing. 73, Len AF6AY |
#23
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On Mon, 07 May 2007 22:38:07 -0400, AF6AY wrote:
I didn't know the term "honey-do ham" existed until seeing in these newsgroups. :-) In 44 years and a half dozen call signs I have to say I've never heard the term either. I'm wondering if it is something that was invented on the Internet, sort of like the current popular practice of capitalizing HAM as though it were some kind of an acronym. |
#24
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On May 7, 9:39�pm, RDWeaver wrote:
On May 7, 10:45 pm, "Dee Flint" wrote: An activity like ham radio is going to have its ups and downs. It will ebb and flow. These variations can last several years so are hard to evaluate. Dee, N8UZE According to the figures that the OP posted here and in other threads (no reason to doubt them) ham radio has had steady "ups" with no "downs" to a high in 2003. Not exactly. In the mid 1960s the growth stalled while the US population grew rapidly. The percentage of the population that were hams went *down* during the decade of the 1960s. Compare 1960 to 1970 in terms of hams-per-1000 and see. If you look at the annual numbers from 1965 to 1975 the total went down some years and up others. Then in just the past 4 years (2003-2007) the number of "hams/1000 population" has fallen to BELOW the ratio of 1990. Yup. Think about *why* that would happen, even though the license requirements were reduced in 2000 and again in 2007. In other words, after //many\\ UNBROKEN DECADES of rising popularity, in just //4 years since 2003\\ we have shed the gains of the previous 13 years and continue to head south. Not really. The 1960s were a down decade. That means 3 decades of rising popularity (1970s/1980s/1990s) Calling that "ebb and flow" is, in my opinion, a bad case of 'whistling past the grave yard'. Well, what do you think is really happening? The fellow in another thread talking about the 'last generation' may be onto something. One thing that has changed greatly in my 40 years as a ham is the age of a typical newcomer. I'm not saying that's good or bad, just that it happened. In the 1960s, when I became a ham, and well into the 1970s, most of the newcomers I encountered were teenagers or twentysomethings. But as the 70s went on, more and more new amateurs were in their 30s, 40s, and older. In particular, during those decades I saw more and more people taking up amateur radio as a retirement or empty-nest activity. There were still plenty of teenagers and even preteens becoming hams then - and still are. But the percentages shifted. When I was a new ham in 1967, it was a safe bet that if I met an amateur who was 10 or more years older, that amateur had been a ham longer than me. But by 1980 I often encountered hams who were older than me but hadn't been licensed nearly as long. One of the great things about amateur radio is that it's about as close to a life-long activity as you can get, and people of almost all ages can become hams. But as more and more people are first-licensed later in life, their time as amateurs grows shorter, and the turnover increases. That's just one factor of many. The change in license term, changes in the typical American family, changes in where people live and work, and many other factors all combine to change the numbers. In a previous post I wrote of the "honeydew hams" (which may be an East Coast term) who got licenses for personal-communications purposes in the days before cell phones were inexpensive and ubiquitous. Whatever you call them, there were lots of 'em entering ham radio 30, 20, even 15 years ago. Today there are almost none - cell phones do the job 99% of the time. Plenty of other examples. None of that means amateur radio is dying or that we are the last generation. Rather it means amateur radio is changing - as it always has. Most of the reason to become a ham today is because someone is interested in 'radio for its own sake' - an end in itself, not a means to another end. 73 de Jim, N2EY |
#25
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![]() "Rick (W-A-one-R-K-T)" wrote in message news ![]() On Mon, 07 May 2007 22:38:07 -0400, AF6AY wrote: I didn't know the term "honey-do ham" existed until seeing in these newsgroups. :-) In 44 years and a half dozen call signs I have to say I've never heard the term either. I'm wondering if it is something that was invented on the Internet, sort of like the current popular practice of capitalizing HAM as though it were some kind of an acronym. I heard it first in 1992. The internet was not a significant factor then. Dee, N8UZE |
#26
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On May 8, 2:38 am, AF6AY wrote:
I didn't know the term "honey-do ham" existed until seeing in these newsgroups. It was a term usually used in a pejorative manner to imply that the licensees (often married couples) didn't get their licenses for the 'right' reasons and weren't 'real' Amateurs. My spouse got her license in that era (early 90's) and even though she is a General and we collaborate in many 'real' amateur activies like contesting (see our two Divisional multi-op Championships in SS CW Iin 03 and 06 at K0RT), one of our local 'influential' hams recently commented that she got into Amateur Radio 'as one of those honey-do hams'. 73, de Hans, K0HB |
#27
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On May 9, 10:30�pm, K�HB wrote:
It was a term usually used in a pejorative manner to imply that the licensees (often married couples) didn't get their licenses for the 'right' reasons and weren't 'real' Amateurs. Then it's a regional thing, because here in EPA, and in other areas where I've heard the term used, I never heard it used in a pejorative manner. It was simply a descriptive, similar to "DX'er" or "contester" or "ragchewer". My spouse got her license in that era (early 90's) and even though she is a General and we collaborate in many 'real' amateur activies like contesting (see our two Divisional multi-op Championships in SS CW Iin 03 and 06 at K0RT), one of our local 'influential' hams recently commented that she got into Amateur Radio 'as one of those honey-do hams'. Well, people say all sorts of things, true or not..... Besides, it's common for amateurs to get their license for one reason or set of reasons but then branch out into other areas. Word meanings sometimes change over time. Like the word "handle".... 73 de Jim, N2EY |
#28
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Interesting. I've been wondering about the same things!
I was licensed around the same time as you ('63, I think it was) and I also had never heard of the "honey-do" term before seeing it here. Same thing with capitalizing HAM. My excuse is that I've been inactive for years so I haven't kept up. 73, George K6GW "Rick (W-A-one-R-K-T)" wrote in message news ![]() On Mon, 07 May 2007 22:38:07 -0400, AF6AY wrote: I didn't know the term "honey-do ham" existed until seeing in these newsgroups. :-) In 44 years and a half dozen call signs I have to say I've never heard the term either. I'm wondering if it is something that was invented on the Internet, sort of like the current popular practice of capitalizing HAM as though it were some kind of an acronym. |
#29
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wrote in message
ps.com [snip] Word meanings sometimes change over time. Like the word "handle".... Now that one really *does* irritate me. A handle is for opening a door. I have a *name*, ok..?! 73 Ivor G6URP |
#30
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On May 10, 12:26 pm, "Ivor Jones" wrote:
Now that one really *does* irritate me. A handle is for opening a door. I have a *name*, ok..?! Must be an individual preference thing. I've been licensed almost 50 years, and have been saying "The handle here is Hans" all that time. Learned it from my elders way-back-when and old habits are hard to break I guess. 73, de Hans, K0HB |
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