65 years old for the U.S. is a low side estimate ... some estimates go
as high as 75. Check out this image from the latest Southern California
DX Club Christmas party, or any of the multiple pictures from the Dayton
Hamfest:
https://www.scdxc.org/
So yes, the hobby is declining and as you imply, a huge number of the
800,000 licensed hams the ARRL likes to tout are not active at all.
Clearly we'd all like to induce non-hams to join the hobby, but the
reason is always to preserve it because WE enjoy it ... mostly for
legacy reasons. It's a selfish reason and ignores why younger people
aren't interested. Even among our own hobby, the bands are mostly dead
except for contest weekends and FT8 in general ... and that's at the
peak of the sunspot cycle! The fact is that the hobby simply doesn't
offer much that young people can't get with less hassle elsewhere.
The most popular contests in the world are the CQWW SSB and CW contests
that drew 35,000 participants combined last fall. The Memphis BBQ
championship weekend draws more than that. The average mud bog event
draws 3,000 people and one is held almost every weekend somewhere in the
U.S. Even such relatively obscure activities as those are more popular
than ham radio. I'll even bet that most hams spend more time on
internet forums like this one than they do on the air.
The only two ham radio activities I can think of that have been actually
growing are Parks On The Air and FT8, but POTA is mostly just a
different activity for existing hams (yes, there are anecdotal
exceptions) and most hams turn their noses up at FT8. Hams are a stodgy
group and most resist any effort to significantly change the hobby.
It's dying because it won't change, and that's the way of the world.
Lots of hams (almost literally) whistle past the graveyard and claim
that the hobby is alive and well, but tell that to all the commercial
suppliers that are no longer in business.
Lot's of folks point to emergency communications as a reason to preserve
ham radio, but VERY few hams actually care about it and during Katrina I
spent many hours monitoring the emergency channels on 20m and 40m.
Guess what 95% of the activity I heard was? It was relaying cell phone
numbers from one official entity (Fire, Police, FEMA, etc) to another
because there was so little cooperation between those organizations
ahead of time. The actual traffic was via cell phone.
So I ask again ... why is it necessary that we talk non-hams into
joining us? We don't actually care enough to offer them anything different.
Dave AB7E
On 8/30/2025 8:12 AM, email via Elecraft wrote:
Why ?? (Why is it necessary that we talk other people into ham radio
in the first place??) WELL, In the USA, the average age (determined
by my browser) is 65 years old. That means in 20-30 years, that 800K
number will be 400K without adding new (younger hams) ???
My kids are in there 30's (and have let the license lapse - but plan
on renewing ??)
My wife is not active...
I know a number of hams in retirement communities that are not active.
How many of the 800K are active ??
I have a friend (Scout admin I work with/for) that had a novice in
grade school, she let it lapse a number of years ago. I have been
giving her Tech class info and she may have time to do the zoom
class... She did like CW (still knows it). I may give/lend her my
"old" NorCal 40. It would be nice to have a kit again ??? for new
hams. The NorCal 40 is simple to use and a single band dipole is
simple to "throw" into a tree...
73, Steve WB3LGC
On 7/26/25 18:57, David Gilbert via Elecraft wrote:
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
On 7/26/2025 2:27 PM, Fred Jensen via Elecraft wrote:
They almost all view ham radio from a utilitarian perspective, not
as a hobby ... they have hobbies and interests. Probably the largest
non-work interests were in the outdoors.
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