Rug Rat wrote to All <=-

Thought though I would post it here, to drum up same activity and get
your take.

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Ham Radio is Dying . not because of the internet, or technology, or
.kids these days. . It.s dying because of us .. And before you blame
the FCC, the internet, or kids these days, let's be honest ..

IT'S OUR FAULT.... The repeaters are quiet, the club meetings are
empty, and the *SAME* 10 people are running every event ..

Meanwhile, we spend more time arguing about Baofeng's and Digital modes than actually talking on the air ..

Not the first time I've seen/heard similar, and it's true. I was
talking to a friend yesterday about VHF vs HF, and we were talking
about the local repeaters being 'dead.' He commented that there
are way more repeaters than users in this area. :-)

This is something I've been thinking about for the past 10 months
(January 2025), and a lot of people do say Ham radio is dying and I
tend to agree .. I scan 80+ frequencies across town (daily), and what
do I hear... . STATIC.. I run my BF-F8HP PRO in Channel/Scan mode constantly.

I scan while I'm in the truck. I will say that I talked to a friend
on the way to work and another friend on the way to church. :-)

From what I hear .., local clubs are losing members faster than they
can recruit them .. And when someone does try to spark interest,
they're told, "THAT'S NOT REAL HAM RADIO" ..

I personally don't attend the meetings because I have a lot of
stuff going on... Church takes a lot of time, plus 'stuff around
the house' - etc.

We're making mistakes (DRASTIC MISTAKES).... Let's talk about the next generation. Where are they... They're on Discord | They're on Twitch | They're on Tik-Tok | They're on YouTube | They're on Facebook. Building massive communities around gaming and streaming and science,
technology, engineering, and math (STEM) .. They're not afraid of technology (they live in it) ..

And yet, we can't seem to show them how Ham radio is technology .. Instead, we'll tell them it's too expensive, too complicated, or
they'll need to earn it like they did in the 1980's. I laugh when they call 2m the Ham-walky channel ..

I think things like introducing to scouts to it is a good way to
go.

We were talking about this in church tonight too - that 'bringing in
the youth' is the future, but that's not nessasarily just the youngest
ones. So maybe this 'good attitude' that should be proffered in
the HAM community is not just for the 'younguns' but for ANYONE
of ANY age that is interested!

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So what are your personal thoughts?



... I just bought a cured ham...wonder what it had...
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* Origin: Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com (1:105/7)