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  • I listen to the hams on my scanner and I’m not trying to take a test, buy a fancy radio just to shoot the shit….I have the whole internet in my pocket I can do that with.

    I travel the US with my scanner and listen in….i just don’t see the appeal other than the electronics side of it, and there are other areas to learn about that.

    I’d like to want my tech license, but I just don’t know why….sounds like a membership to the dork club, but I’m already in it, so I’m conflicted.

    • It's not the access to the club or whatever, it's how cool it is that it works at all. The science behind it.

      Yeah you can call Japan right now, and your voice will get digitized, and it'll travel thousands of miles over copper, fiber, microwave. It'll go under the sea and to space and back through satellites, through millions of dollars of backbone and infrastructure. And that's pretty cool, but also has become mundane. It's so easy. But that infrastructure is delicate. Now I'm not a prepper or doomsdayer, I'm just saying, think about it it wasn't there. Could you talk across the world? Across the country? Heck, across the state might be hard.

      Back in the day, hams in Alaska would communicate with people back in the States to keep families in touch, relay information and well wishes alike, because it was all that was available, and it worked.

      I got my license just before COVID, and one of my first contacts was over 6000 miles to Japan. Nothing between me and him but a piece of wire in a tree, and some radio waves bouncing off the ionosphere. His voice in my ear, milliseconds after he spoke. It was just... Kind of awe inspiring, and I was hooked.

      Not just because I was talking to a guy in Japan, one with similar interests to me I'll remind you, but because of HOW we were doing it. That's what made it awesome.

      And these radio waves are everywhere, all the time, passing through us every day. But unless you know what you don't know, you'll never know.

      So I started playing with it more, different antennas, more power, fixing and building my own radios. There's even games to play over the air, both related to the hobby directly, or just using it as a data backbone. You've got POTA, SOTA, fox hunting, digital modes, even Morse code is still heavily used. It was challenging to learn, but fun.

      Now I didn't go turbo nerd, I just did this for a number of years, pretty heavily, but I've eased off the gas now. I have a basic setup and I use it a few dozen times a year, maybe more. It's still awesome but it doesn't have to be your life. I have other hobbies. I'm a member of a club, because it costs like $10-20 a year, and they're nice people. They've helped me and I've helped them.

      IDK I guess all I'm saying is don't discount it entirely, without knowing what you're missing out on. It's not just a means to an end. Just because it's normally easy to talk across the world, doesn't mean the hard way isn't amazing that it even works, let alone that it still works and we still have access to the bands that let us do it. Even though corporations definitely want to take them.

      But still it's ok to not be interested in it 🤷‍♂️

  • I found the most effective way to get a nerd into ham is: mention that ham radio is in the criteria to become an astronaut. Suddenly they're doing the study courses all on their own. Granted, they have to already be a nerd. ;)

    For the non nerds, the prepper angle seems to work with some.

    The thing you have to deliver is the "why", not the how. If they've decided they want to learn it, they will.

  • I think it’s pretty screwed. What is ham radio? The name means nothing to today’s youth, it’s just confusing and they’ll move on to something else. Our attention is so fractioned these days that no one will stick around to find out more, we’re never bored. And you need boredom to get into this type of thing.

    What can you do with ham radio? Talk to strangers? You can do that online with milliohms of resistance whereas getting on ham radio is megaohms of resistance in comparison. What I’m saying with this resistance analogy is that ham radio has a big learning curve and friction. You’re competing with the internet, social media, games. Ham radio simply doesn’t have a good hook, it doesn’t have a good incentive.

    • The name means nothing to today’s youth

      Story time: When I was a kid in the late 90s, there was a fad for toy walkie-talkies at my school. I was obsessed with seeing how far I could get my signal, which wasn't very far given the likely minuscule power.

      The teachers decided to capitalize on this trend by inviting a representative of a local ham club to speak at our school. I was absolutely floored when I learned you could talk around the world. Two things kept me from pursuing my license at the time. There was still a code requirement, and nobody for the life of me could tell me what lunch meat had to do with wireless communication.

  • I love the idea of using it, but between getting married, looking for better jobs, and maintaining friendships, I haven't found the time to study for the amateur radio exam, which appears to be considerable.

    GMRS is $35 and a license so that I can use a radio with my family, husband, and licensed friends while skiing or mountain biking, making localized communication easy, while the cert process was mostly friction free (looking at you, ancient FCC website and the guides needed to figure out licensing- something less dedicated people forgo, hint hint). The friction for getting ham licensed makes it difficult for young people who don't have much time for additional hobbies.

    I do hope it's around when I'm older and (hopefully) have more free time!

  • Present it as an alternative to social media -- one without the kinds of mental health issues and corporate controls.

    Present things like electronics tinkering as a life skill instead of a hobby. That includes the Tech license.

    It's a long shot, sure.

  • Offer alternatives such as all-beef radio, or turkey radio.

    Insert "soy radio" / [radio station you dislike] joke here

86 comments