There are about 800K active license grants in the US. Unfortunately,
it's impossible to determine how many of those are still alive, still
active, and if active how much and in what ways. I've been at this for
70 years. Hugely HF active as a 50's teenager, much less so in college,
QRT for 4 years while in the USAF in SE Asia, increasingly active after
I returned home but that declined again after several kids, during grad
school, and several jobs. Big spike after I retired. Now, as the
birthdays accumulate, I'm generally on the air daily, but only in the
on-air activities I still enjoy [mainly conversational CW and some low
key "contesting" such as QSO parties, NAQP's, events, etc].
Generalizing is virtually impossible nor is there a single magic
bullet. I did SOTA until I no longer could physically and found a few
curious people on summits, on the trails, and at the trailheads. POTA
likewise although it's common for visitors to my picnic table to wonder
if I'm a CIA spook. 😉 CWops with their CW Academy has worked well
fostering CW proficiency and thus sparking interest into contests,
on-air events, DX, etc.
The one observation I've been able to make that seems to have at least
some measure of fact in it is that of those who sit for the exam and
then remain "active" in the hobby are, for the most part, doing so on
VHF/UHF on club repeaters. ARRL [or its replacement organization] might
make some retention headway with these folk if they cleaned up their
website and made an active, focused place for them to learn about the
parts of ham radio that they are interested in ... and maybe
accidentally, a few they didn't know they were interested in.
73,
Fred ["Skip"] K6DGW
Sparks NV DM09dn
Washoe County
"K3 to an HOA-friendly antenna"
David Gilbert via Elecraft <mailto:[email protected]>
Saturday, July 26, 2025 3:57 PM
Exactly.
Trying to talk people into being interested in things we're interested
in for the reasons we're interested in them is a foolish endeavor.
Evangelism is boring and off-putting. The best we can do is describe
what ham radio can offer and let people decide if that has any
interest for them.
If we have to convince somebody that ham radio is interesting to them,
then it probably isn't and even if they go along it won't last.
Which brings me to this question:
Why is it necessary that we talk other people into ham radio in the
first place?? There are supposedly close to 800,000 licensed hams in
the U.S., which is a bigger market and a bigger pool of like minds
than LOTS of other activities. Is there some sort of collective
insecurity complex going on every time this comes up? And it comes up
with annoying frequency on almost every forum.
Dave AB7E
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Wayne Burdick via Elecraft <mailto:[email protected]>
Wednesday, July 23, 2025 7:52 PM
Hi all,
Please share any methods you've used for stirring interest in our shared
pastime. How have you communicated the science, the camaraderie, and the
intrigue of the radio art? Real-world examples would be inspiring to read
about.
73,
Wayne
N6KR
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