Greetings all! Chris, what a timely and excellent article! I appreciate you're starting this discussion, because it speaks to exactly where Ham Radio is right now; and it's not just Ham Radio, but the nature of our society in general. Dick and Brian in their responses were both correct. Our society has placed an emphasis on better living through litigation, and the lifestyles we have adopted are too geared on making things easier. We're so much into "fun" that we don't have any, and curiosity is now punished rather than celebrated. Some of the stuff I did as a kid would result in legal problems today (and I guess a couple of them probably should have - but we won't go there!!!). I've been reading Thomas Friedman's excellent book "The World is Flat" lately, and he makes the point that our entire society is set up for us to lose in the developing global economy, so the problems we face with our own hobby just mirrors those problems we face as a society. Our [Ham Radio's] dilemma is twofold: How do we preserve, and promote, the experimental and innovative nature of our hobby until our society corrects itself, and is that "correction" actually coming? What can we do as an organization to help foster that curiosity and willingness to get our hands dirty when we've spent the last 30 years in our society getting away from just that mindset? I remember when the term "appliance operator" was coined, and the discussion in the pages of QST predicting exactly what we have become. While I agree that exponential advances in micro-miniaturization have surpassed our ability to duplicate some commercial offerings, there is still room for much innovation, particularly in the areas of digital (SDR and HSMM come immediately to mind). Still, there's no reason not to "build our own" to keep our skills sharp and our tools rust-free (I just ordered a kit from NORCAL just to have something to build this month). I monitor (and sometimes contribute to) several other email lists, and one of the threads on another list the other day, where the discussion was on new technologies, contained the statement: "...the ARRL is not a technical organization...so you must go to AMSAT, TAPR, ARBA, etc....to meet a need", and other respondents agreed. Are we "the place" for technical innovation? If not, should we be? If so, is there a perception problem we need to spend time changing? If we don't reverse the still-ongoing trend, what will Amateur Radio look like 20 years from now? What can we do to set that agenda? Here we face both a new year and a different Amateur Radio than we had 30 days ago. I don't like completely where things are, but there is much opportunity for us as a technical avocation to help not only in the change our society must embrace, but to add to the richness of our hobby at the same time. Is the League ready for this challenge, or am I just completely off my nut? 73 and Happy New Year, Karl, WA5TMC w3kd@aol.com wrote:
Some reflections on a New Years' Day (and I realize that I am outside my job description here):
Before I was a ham, I was a "car guy" and still am, to some extent. My two favorite monthly publications are QST and Road and Track, in that order. In Road and Track, I like Peter Egan's column. He writes a folksy column every month, from his home in Wisconsin. He restored an E-type Jaguar, my favorite car ever, so I think very highly of him.
I got back from Christmas vacation and found the attached article in my new Road & Track. I haven't any copyright authority to reprint this, so PLEASE don't send it anywhere, but I thought you would be interested in reading it; it has some strong parallels to Amateur Radio today. It is about soap box derby cars, and how there isn't enough of the three T's in kids today to build them the way they used to. The three Ts are "Time, Tools and Talent".
This article really hit me. Two months ago, when I drove my son Ashton and his two friends home from a soccer game, one of the boys had an old BMW in the school parking lot. It was a real wreck, and when we got back, he realized that he had left the lights on in his car. I had jumper cables in my Tahoe, as I always do, so I knew this would be no problem at all, but I didn't say anything, because I wanted to see how the three boys, all smart prep school kids, would solve the problem, working together. They failed _miserably_. And I realized at that moment that I had failed as a parent, also, because all three boys, including my own, _had no idea how to jump a battery, much less jump start a car!_ I had to explain the entire process to them, because their best plan was to call a tow truck. Since then, I have given Ashton a crash course (no pun intended) in auto mechanics.
A few weeks ago, I was in Delaware at the Punkin Chunkin' competition, with the Sandy Spring Friends' School team. They had a trebouchet which launched a 5 pound pumpkin about 480 feet. The year before, the team (mostly different students) had built a very competitive one that launched the pumpkin about 690 feet. The students designed and built it. I talked to the Physics teacher most of the day, and he lamented that none of the kids knew how to use tools. They were OK at designing the device and calculating thrust, etc. using computers and formulas, but they couldn't build the darn thing because they didn't know how to use tools anymore. He had to coach them in the use of the tools. This was an extracurricular activity, but the "time" limitations were dealt with for this team by incorporating the design of the trebouchet in the applied physics class curriculum.
Anyway, I am beginning to think that the problem that Amateur Radio has with growth, at least among young people, is due to the missing three Ts. Note that, in the attached article, the solution that the Soap Box Derby arrived at was to offer a car kit that can be assembled in 4 1/2 hours or less, because kids now don't have time for hobbies anymore, or a "slow, evolving craft project", and because suburban garages no longer have tools in them, or people who know how to use them. This seems their equivalent to our concern about "dumbing down" Amateur Radio. But it works for them, because it is a matter of survival, and they don't seem to have any other solutions.
Perhaps there are other solutions for us, less drastic.
73, Chris W3KD ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Check out the new AOL* <http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/1615326657x4311227241x4298082137/aol?redir=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eaol%2Ecom%2Fnewaol>. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more.