I think youi might also tell this to all those school clubs, that at leasst get a few licensed. Listen to school clubs on the air ...alive and well. Mike n6zw 87 years and very active, now in QRP. > On 08/30/2025 10:45 AM PDT David Gilbert via Elecraft > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > 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. > >> > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:[email protected] > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > Message delivered to [email protected] ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected]
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