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 ?

[rob42]

Participation in events such as this one (https://www.transmission1.net/viewtopic.php?t=62157) are another way to support our hobby.

[Octane Red]

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 !

As long as people are trying to keep the 1940s alive, then there is going to be a dearth of new activity, and for sure, everyone gets older everyday and another step towards that big sleep....

By way of example. Some locally here have encouraged some teenagers to go through their foundation licences. But are now steering them towards solely HF and CW. These 'mentors' are completely discouraging the use of anything modern like DMR, phone apps or the Internet, instead, trying to mould these youngsters into clones of what they were 60 years ago. As a result, the youngsters have lost all interest in radio, and have moved onto something more comfortable to their generation. There is a distinct sector of the hobby that is solely interested in keeping the past alive. Akin to the local Model T Ford club, the medieval battle re-enactors and the likes. If you are into that kind of thing, all well and good, but expecting everyone else to be is completely unrealistic. As a result, the hobby will die as predicted. 99.9% of young people are not interested in keeping alive the same communication method that was used on the Titanic to try and summon assistance over 100 years ago. But if its on a smartphone..... Far more chance of getting them interested in things like meshing, but even then there will be the response - "Why? I can already secure message my mates using [insert name of latest popular messaging app here] with end to end encryption, photos, videos and emojis, and all on my existing data plan"

[Stronty]

Aside from the 1940's being 86 years ago and the older generation of "hams" are likely rose tinted about the late 1970's and most of the 1980's and 90's.

If absolutely all the "steered" teenagers have now lost ALL interest in radio after sitting the foundation and have moved onto something more comfortable to their generation (is that moved back to mobile and tablet devices or something else?), then the learned something and so did the mentors. Next time they will possibly adapt and experiment the approach.

To assume that "well it didn't work that time, so its all fooked" is a tad presumptuous at best.

Yes, there are people who will settle on an aspect of the hobby as their safe place, that could be traditional HF, big antennas, voice and pen and paper and will show how it was done in the past and be happy to continue to do it that way.
The very nature of what you described undermines your point exactly. The very fact there are Model T Ford clubs over 120 years later, the battle re-enactments that have been done for thousands of years over and over again by enthusiasts and gladiators etc. show that later generations want to experience and experiment with what has come before.

As I mentioned in similar thread to this, the whole hobby is on a down slope. That does not mean it dies, just that the numbers are never going to be what they were no matter what the technology brings to our fingertips.

The distinct possibility exists that tangible to the everyman proof of government/state sponsored or direct access to your devices at some point will create a back lash for those in their 20's and 30's currently, they might be in the 40's and 50 when it finally happens. They're absolutely not going to start flooding to radio but some might look backwards, some might innovate of something no one did with HF etc. the point is just because less people do it does not mean it disappears and consequently just because more people do something else doesn't mean that wont suffer the same fate along the same timescales.

[Octane Red]

The very nature of what you described undermines your point exactly. The very fact there are Model T Ford clubs over 120 years later, the battle re-enactments that have been done for thousands of years over and over again by enthusiasts and gladiators etc. show that later generations want to experience and experiment with what has come before.

Yes, but as per my post, its a tiny minority. How many 17 - 24 years olds might be Model T enthusiasts, versus how many of the same cohort are into stanced cars with BIG sound systems? The ratio is going to be in the order of 0.1/99.9% - How many 'Model T Ford meets" do you hear about in the local Tesco car park on a Saturday night?

Same with medieval re-enactments - What might be the ratio of under 25 year old re-enactors, versus those that play their battles at home on a games console? Again, very small number to very big number.

The hobby has to adapt or die. If there are only a very small handful of old codgers left doing it, then OFCOM will force their hand by withdrawing frequency allocations and redeploying them for services that will be used, and used by a much larger percentage of the population.

[Stronty]

Nothing and no one stays the same throughout their life cycle, no matter what they or people observing them might want, the present in any given individuals time or observer off is a moment in time.

Those present 17-24 yr olds are into their "stanced" cars and BIG sound Systems in the present, the same people in their 40's and 50's + may well have grown into older and more unique (in their eyes) antiques like Model T's when they are older... its subjective to age and interest. Indeed the amount of 50 yr olds buying old Renault GT5's, Golf's, XR2's (XXXX name of boy racer cars or the 80's and 90's) allows then to survive. They dont die.

Same for enactments, I know people who replicate lan parties for games we were playing on PC in the mid/ early 90's (30 yrs ago) they're in the 50's + now. Indeed the retro console /games scene is quite active going back to late 70 early 80's Vic 20, Sinclair etc. In other words, time moves on, people get older, they relive their youth as such and hobbies and devices come back to a degree. They don't die.

Again, the hobby will continue, it will survive, aligning it to death is short sighted imo. Also it wont matter a jot what OFCOM may or may not do as there is nobody doing anything about 11m ops for the last 50 + years in any significant way, maybe the early years but of the period to date almost nothing. Trying to run enforcement over other bands seems highly unlikely given your argument around using encrypted comms via phone or tablet devices. Indeed I'd hazard a guess that unless Military requirements demanded it you may actually end up with more bandwidth to work going forward. Actually look at all the new allocations (some old now but some newer) still being allocated for Amateur use over the last 50 yrs.

Use of Amateur Radio allocations by much larger % of population would need to be something that they could make use of above 700MHz where all the mobile allocations are, unlikely for mass population.