I really don't know. I was first licensed as a Novice in my Jr. year in high school, in 1963. CW only, Xtal control only, 75W max input power, non renewable. We built our own CW transmitters as class projects in our high school electronics class. You could BUILD stuff back then, and actually put it on the air! I lost track of how many Heath kits I've assembled in my lifetime. I let that license laps, and didn't upgrade. Since it was non-renewable, I was pretty much off the air. After I was married, I kept telling my wife about ham radio, and she said, "Well let's both get our ham licenses together." I taught her whatever electronic theory she needed to learn, and set up a couple of old receivers and OSCILATORS, so we could practice our CW, ON THE AIR, between rooms in our house. We both got our Novice licenses together in 1976, and to this day, we still have consecutive calls. She upgraded to General, and I got my Amateur Extra in 1977. We met some great people and had a lot of fun with Amateur Radio. Since everyone EARNED their licenses, people were PROUD of them, and cherished them. We were living in "central" New Jersey at the time, and we learned about emergency communications through some of the 2m repeaters in New York City. One group we belonged to held training drills once a week in net control and passing "traffic." Everyone who participated worked his way through the system, all the way up to net control. Not only was it fun, it taught valuable lessons. When we moved to a more southern area in New Jersey, we were halfway between NY and Philadelphia, and with what we learned, we were able to act as a liaison, and passed traffic between the two emergency nets.
When we moved to Florida, we lived in Palm Beach County, and every school was a designated "Hurricane Shelter." The Palm Beach Amateur Radio Council equipped every hurricane shelter with an antenna, and we hams staffed every shelter to provide emergency communications between all essential services, EOC, etc. We built our own repeaters, and phone patches, etc. When the U.S. invaded Granada, initial contact was made between the US and the Granada, through our home, HF station on 40m. As day broke, 40m got very noisy, so operations moved to 20m, and since I didn't have my linear amplifier set up, another more powerful station took over. Back then, in both New Jersey and Florida, we "hams" were all one big family. The most serious or technical of conversations could go right down the toilet in a heartbeat, with one smart-alec comment... It was great.
But times and technology change. People's attitudes change. I was sad to see the code go away. I hated CW and still am not fond of it. I rarely used it after I upgraded from Novice, but it was like a "right of passage" to get into the "family." It was an initiation. And like it or not, CW can go places where lots of the more "fancy" modes cannot. I used to play an imaginary game with myself, and imagined "What could I do if I were shipwrecked, or possibly survived a plane crash?" Could I use whatever I might have and build a primitive "spark gap" transmitter to get an emergency signal on the air just to get an SOS out there with our whereabouts? In today's "survivalist" mentality, it becomes even more important that we "hams" KNOW something. This is why I oppose the "dumbing down" of ham radio licenses. Ham radio is a "hobby," yes. But it is also a "standby" communications network that always seems to work when everything else fails. History has proven that. Sorta kinda like a "civilian militia" of communications if you will... I think it is far easier to obtain a ham license today than it was back when many of us were first licensed. With all the deregulation in license requirements, I haven't seen a whole flood of "young blood" flocking to the hobby. Today, most of us are "appliance" operators, who cannot even understand the complexity of our "appliances" let alone "home brew" any of them. They are very expensive to purchase, and today's youth would prefer to spend their money on more exotic electronics. As was said earlier in this thread, the internet has taken away the "thrill" of actually connecting and communicating with countries on the other side of the globe. There are more interesting "shiny toys" to play with than just a "radio."
When we moved to NC, 24 years ago, I packed up the ham station, and it hasn't seen the light of day since. I had the 2m rig in the car, and got involved in a local group every morning, on the way to work. They called it "The Morning Road Show." It was crazy and nonsensical, and fun. ...and it went downhill from there. One morning, the repeater owner was on. He RARELY checked in. I started a technical conversation about the repeater, and it was cut very short by the other members of the group, telling us that "The Morning Road Show" was no place for technical conversations. If we wanted to talk tech, we'd have to wait till the "Road Show" ended. Then we had one gal who started greeting (by name) all the "Scanner listeners" out there who were listening in. It reminded me of Arlene Francis on "Romper Room" when I was a little kid, wishing all the boys and girls a good morning. I decided that this had degenerated into CB, and I decided to pull the plug on the "Morning Road Show." Several years later, I "discovered" the ICOM 2AT's and decided to try while walking the dog. I quickly learned that if folks didn't KNOW your call, they flat out would not talk to you. So I put the 2AT's back in a box, and they're still there.
We now have 2 Baofeng uv-5re's that I like to use mainly as police scanners. My wife and I still use them on 446.000 simplex when we hike in the woods. We both felt like we WORKED for our ham tickets, and we'll keep them updated until we become silent keys. They will always be active in case we ever NEED to get on the air.
I believe that new blood is needed if ham radio is to survive, and I think it NEEDS to survive as a backup communications network, but I don't know if creating another class of license, or dumbing down of the requirements is going to attract it. How to you create the DESIRE to entice a kid to get into a hobby that uses a $10,000 radio?
Sorry, didn't mean to get so long winded...
When we moved to Florida, we lived in Palm Beach County, and every school was a designated "Hurricane Shelter." The Palm Beach Amateur Radio Council equipped every hurricane shelter with an antenna, and we hams staffed every shelter to provide emergency communications between all essential services, EOC, etc. We built our own repeaters, and phone patches, etc. When the U.S. invaded Granada, initial contact was made between the US and the Granada, through our home, HF station on 40m. As day broke, 40m got very noisy, so operations moved to 20m, and since I didn't have my linear amplifier set up, another more powerful station took over. Back then, in both New Jersey and Florida, we "hams" were all one big family. The most serious or technical of conversations could go right down the toilet in a heartbeat, with one smart-alec comment... It was great.
But times and technology change. People's attitudes change. I was sad to see the code go away. I hated CW and still am not fond of it. I rarely used it after I upgraded from Novice, but it was like a "right of passage" to get into the "family." It was an initiation. And like it or not, CW can go places where lots of the more "fancy" modes cannot. I used to play an imaginary game with myself, and imagined "What could I do if I were shipwrecked, or possibly survived a plane crash?" Could I use whatever I might have and build a primitive "spark gap" transmitter to get an emergency signal on the air just to get an SOS out there with our whereabouts? In today's "survivalist" mentality, it becomes even more important that we "hams" KNOW something. This is why I oppose the "dumbing down" of ham radio licenses. Ham radio is a "hobby," yes. But it is also a "standby" communications network that always seems to work when everything else fails. History has proven that. Sorta kinda like a "civilian militia" of communications if you will... I think it is far easier to obtain a ham license today than it was back when many of us were first licensed. With all the deregulation in license requirements, I haven't seen a whole flood of "young blood" flocking to the hobby. Today, most of us are "appliance" operators, who cannot even understand the complexity of our "appliances" let alone "home brew" any of them. They are very expensive to purchase, and today's youth would prefer to spend their money on more exotic electronics. As was said earlier in this thread, the internet has taken away the "thrill" of actually connecting and communicating with countries on the other side of the globe. There are more interesting "shiny toys" to play with than just a "radio."
When we moved to NC, 24 years ago, I packed up the ham station, and it hasn't seen the light of day since. I had the 2m rig in the car, and got involved in a local group every morning, on the way to work. They called it "The Morning Road Show." It was crazy and nonsensical, and fun. ...and it went downhill from there. One morning, the repeater owner was on. He RARELY checked in. I started a technical conversation about the repeater, and it was cut very short by the other members of the group, telling us that "The Morning Road Show" was no place for technical conversations. If we wanted to talk tech, we'd have to wait till the "Road Show" ended. Then we had one gal who started greeting (by name) all the "Scanner listeners" out there who were listening in. It reminded me of Arlene Francis on "Romper Room" when I was a little kid, wishing all the boys and girls a good morning. I decided that this had degenerated into CB, and I decided to pull the plug on the "Morning Road Show." Several years later, I "discovered" the ICOM 2AT's and decided to try while walking the dog. I quickly learned that if folks didn't KNOW your call, they flat out would not talk to you. So I put the 2AT's back in a box, and they're still there.
We now have 2 Baofeng uv-5re's that I like to use mainly as police scanners. My wife and I still use them on 446.000 simplex when we hike in the woods. We both felt like we WORKED for our ham tickets, and we'll keep them updated until we become silent keys. They will always be active in case we ever NEED to get on the air.
I believe that new blood is needed if ham radio is to survive, and I think it NEEDS to survive as a backup communications network, but I don't know if creating another class of license, or dumbing down of the requirements is going to attract it. How to you create the DESIRE to entice a kid to get into a hobby that uses a $10,000 radio?
Sorry, didn't mean to get so long winded...
