Are you a “young” ham? Want to help remake Amateur Radio for the 21st century? Frustrated that there are so few of your friends and age group that are interested in ham radio? Frustrated that amateur radio is in a rut, not doing more or different things with technology? Concerned that an aging demographic means ham radio is dying? And that our frequencies will be sold out to the highest bidder because there aren’t enough hams to show that we use them?
Read MorePRESENTER OPINION : Attracting Youth to Ham Radio: Get Out of Their Way!→
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Amateur radio has a demographic problem. In the U.S., there is a clear belief that members of the hobby are old. And getting older. What that means in actual age distribution just isn’t known. Unfortunately, our “visions of gray” are based not upon accurate scientific measurement but on the assembled impressions we get through our personal “windshields” as we go about our daily travels. It’s standard convention to hear us hams urge everyone in hearing or reading range: we need to get more young people into amateur radio!
Read MorePRESENTER OPINION: Looking after new Hams
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As many of you know, I am a bit of an Amateur Radio podcast fan. Each week I listen to around a dozen as well as hosting & publishing three created by other people, myself. I'm also involved with creating or validating content for a few podcasts and in the meantime small, run by radio amateurs, (legal) short wave AM radio stations as well.
Through all of this, I hear some repeated concerns on several of the podcasts/radio shows. One of these concerns is that new amateurs who have just got their entry-level licence (whether that be Technician, Foundation or Novice depending upon which country they are in), have bought or been given a VHF/UHF Handy Talkie and then get left alone and after a while, as the level of activity on the local repeater is low, get fed up with the hobby and look for another pursuit.
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