Some thoughts I would like to share: Lots of activities that were popular years ago inevitably suffer a decline in interest and then the participants rack their brains for ways of getting the next generation interested, but to no avail. Have seen this over and over. Cassandra would say that you should manage the decline gracefully while you still can - before it is too late. But this rarely happens.
Jerry Garcia said that the Grateful Dead are like licorice, “Not everybody likes licorice, but the people who like licorice really like licorice.” Go try to interest someone who doesn’t like licorice into liking licorice. But there will always be people who do like licorice. Part of the “managing the decline gracefully” should be - I think - an emphasis on not scaring the relatively newcomers away. I got my ticket about five years ago, at age 65, when Covid left me with a lot of time on my hands. I studied using both online tools and books and passed. Didn’t occur to me to check out social media. One day I did, and then “joined” a number of Facebook groups. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that in the year 2020 (and later) there would be a facet of the hobby dedicated to bitching and moaning about: no more Morse code requirement; incentive licensing; “memorizing answers”; FT8; the ARRL; etc. Quite frankly, had I joined and read ham radio Facebook groups first, I may not have bothered to get my ticket. I wonder about others similarly situated. However, I do enjoy making contacts, especially DX contacts, and wish I had more time to be on the air. So I think it would behoove many hams to keep their petty grievances to themselves; I.e. consider the impact of airing grievances on others (perhaps have a one day a year Festivus holiday for airing petty grievances) 73s (plural is intentional) David, W2MZ > On Aug 31, 2025, at 5:28 PM, Jim Brown via Elecraft > <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi Jeff, > > Like the rest of life, ham radio is different things to different people. > I've been licensed since 9th grade, Extra since '59, and will turn 84 this > fall. I've been on and off the air for decades at a time having a life, > running my own small biz. > > For me, ham radio has been CW and RTTY contesting, a bit of DX chasing, and a > lot of station-building. Along the way, I've done a lot of study to learn > more, and a lot of writing to share it. Just as those who helped the 14-year > me. It's about studying propagation, using what I've learned to facilitate > contesting and DXing. It's about learning more about how antennas work. > Helping others figure out which will work best for them in their real estate > allows. Ragchewing has no attraction for me -- I find the internet far more > useful in meeting and interacting with people who I can't meet in person. > > About ten years ago, I found the WSJT software that K1JT and his team have > given us to combat the monstrous encroachment of all sorts of electronically > generated noise that makes most of us deaf. I've used it extensively for it's > intended purpose -- making QSOs over difficult paths -- like working through > the noise on both ends of the QSO. I've mostly used it on 6M, 160M, and 60M. > But I've yet to get the bug for WSJT contesting. FT8 effectively multiplies > our transmitter power by 100 as compared to SSB, by 10 compared to CW with > great CW ops on both ends of the QSO. > > 73, Jim K9YC > >> On 8/31/2025 1:05 PM, Jeff Cook via Elecraft wrote: >> I’m three years into my General, clicked over to 65 yrs this year. Main >> expectations were to communicate with people around the world. But my time >> so far has been local club repeater nets, and only accumulating HF & CW gear >> that I still haven’t really touched. >> My disappointments with the state of the hobby (as I’ve experience so far) >> are the emphasis on snatching contacts, and logging contacts (and >> re-re-logging contacts), chasing awards, and the de-emphasis on DX and >> ragchews. Smoke em if you got em, they’re just not my own reasons for >> getting into this. >> My surprise at the prevalence of FT8, and yes POTA, is not in what it takes >> to make a contact, but that they end at the contact itself, off to the next >> dozen. Again, just looking at what’s different from what I was looking for. >> I’ve got DX and CW in my future, but I keep hearing how dead SSB is and that >> doesn’t give me confidence for my long-term future with it. > > ______________________________________________________________ > 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] 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]
