The State of our Hobby

[rob42]

I see some members of these Forums posting negative comments about our hobby, which they are entitled to do, I guess, so as a counter to that, here's a contact map of a 145 Alive event that my ARS hosted two weeks ago.

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This does not look like a dead hobby, to me.

What do you say?

That map does not include the international contacts that were made, and made using very modest equipment, such as a £25 HT, running 5 watts, and getting a contact in Germany, for example.

[NightProwler]

2M is certainly not dead around my way either, Plenty of stations on

[KILLERPARSNIP]

I'd agree not totally dead but dying , years ago admittedly but you would do that on any mid week night without a special event, Two meters you would hear a couple of SSTV nets , lot's of activity on SSB and CW, Packet radio occupying multiple frequencies , APRS, Multiple nets with a large number of Hams, Most repeaters would be active with 80% being mobile operators, a CW practise net for those wanting to up grade to an A licence and HF , and for the more exotic some Satellite working in fact it was that busy that 70cm was in major use as two meters was too busy ,with similar stuff going on + a bit of ATV, 4 meters had a lot of activity as did 6 meters. Don't get me wrong Radio is a great Hobby that I have had for 45 years but when you hear of people giving up, taking antennas down for certain favourite bands due to lack of activity then it really is a shame. For a lot of people now DX is being able to reach your Hotspot from another room. As Hams my opinion is if we don't start radiating signals at least a few miles from where we are then commercial interests will start creeping into the bands.On Suday I managed to get my phone working on Fusion ( I'm trying to work out if there is RF activity on the digital voice modes) and ended up speaking to local he was on a Hotspot and I was directly connected to him so effectively we were on an internet chat room. This was another guy who said there was hardly any RF activity. Locally to me ie: withing 20 miles there is far more CB activity.

I'm not slagging the Hobby off but if people don't start causing some noise on the bands we will all be relegated to the internet !

[rob42]

I have a keen interest in CW, as do a few of the members of the ARS that I've become a member of. In fact, one of the factors in my choosing to join, is that I picked up the CW net that is run Monday, Wednesday & Friday evenings, as well as a SSTV session on Sunday evenings. Clearly, there are regional differences and possibly I'm simply fortunate to be in an area where this kind of activity is alive and well.

What are the clubs in your area doing (anyone)?

I have no doubt that the general scene has undergone some significant changes over the decades, but we really should do all that we can to keep it alive. If we do lose it, future generations will likely never be able to get it back, as the conditions that sporned the entire Amateur Radio movement will never occur again.

I'm not slagging the Hobby off but if people don't start causing some noise on the bands we will all be relegated to the internet !

I get that, and yes, we all need to be making as many CQ calls as we can, as often as we can, and regain some of the lost passion for what is, a unique hobby.

Any suggestions? What can or should we be doing to keep this hobby from being consigned to the archives of history?

One factor that keeps me from believing that the ship is sinking, is that good quality used equipment still requires a significant investment, but maybe that's a false flag?

What do you all think? I don't believe that there's anyone else on here that has less experience with this hobby than I do, so my views carry little weight, in reality.

[KILLERPARSNIP]

The strange thing for me is I live right on the western edge of the Midlands so a very populated area but hear very little traffic ! Ringway Manchester has just put a video out on PMR446 and makes exactly the same comments that I do about 2/70cm ALSO IN A HIGHLEY POPULATED AREA ( Manchester) I live in a small rural village and listening on PMR446 is quite interesting lot's of shoots, game keepers ,fishermen and couple of people that I have spoken to who just use it to keep in touch locally as the mobile phone network is pretty naff. What I would say is we just need to use it more ! 145 and 433 alive are great events as are the 2 meter and 70cm FM contests , I have no competitive spirit but it does help others out and of course allows you some contacts all whilst causing some noise on the band, here is a link https://www.rsgbcc.org/ . Maybe arrange on air get together s for various modes and interests in a similar vain as 145alive or the CB nets ,SSTV, Fax , RTTY simplex DMR/Fusion .SSB maybe even machine CW from your keyboard.

Anyone else have some suggestions ?