Alex Perez, KD7OFR, sent a message to the AMSAT mailing list, basically asking “where are all the hams, and why aren’t we doing more to attract new, particularly younger hams into amateur radio?”

Great questions. I wish I had a great answer. The grumpier hams would claim that kids today are just too lazy, with their cell phones and their video games and their rap music! But that’s too easy. I think something somewhat more subtle is going on.

If you were a ham licensed in the 1930s, you were literally on the cutting edge of technology, using something which really was viewed as completely magical just a few years before. If you were licensed in the 1940’s, you were probably doing your part in the war effort, and developing a skill which could be used in service of your country. In the 1950’s, there was a civil defense angle. In the 1960’s, the Cold War. But by the time the 1970’s rolled around, the need for a citizenry trained in radio operation simply began to evaporate. By the 1980’s, the microcomputer revolution was underway, and many of the talented young people (myself among them) spent their time learning about computers. By the late 90s, cell phones were ubuiquitous, the Internet provided 24/7 broadband data access and the need to use ham radio to communicate largely evaporated.

By my way of thinking, if we are to promote ham radio, it ultimately can’t just be about communicating with people. After all, most young people have access to technology (cheap technology at that) which allows them to do that, with much greater reliability and ease than we can ever hope to provide on the amateur frequencies. What then, can we offer?

I think a lot. First of all, a ham radio license is a license for radio experimentation and exploration. Some would say that it is quite an achievement to get an Extra class radio license (and it is), but what we learn after getting our licenses is vastly more important than what we learn before. As hams, we are allowed to design, build and use our own radios, on frequencies dedicated for our own use. By doing so, we can not only communicate with other hams but experiment to learn about radio, our earth, the atmosphere, and even outer space. And there’s a lot to learn.

Since last October, I’ve built an HF receiver, and used it to pick up RTTY from the Galapagos. I’ve learned how to track satellites by hand, and communicated with hams from Hawaii to North Carolina, from Manitoba to the Island of Socoro, using only 5 watts of power and AO-51. I’ve programmed my own weather satellite decoder. I’m having a blast, not just for what I’ve done (which frankly, tons of others have done before) but what I have learned along the way.

Anyway, enough of that.

Alex has set up a group on meetup.com for the Bay Area. this Friday is there first meeting. I’m gonna try to make it, if only for an hour (I have a conflict), and I urge any other hams who might be reading my blog and are in the Oakland area to stop in.

73s.