12 ms·

Totally the truth. I got my technician license with about an hour of studying and the "experts" were great folks, and desperate for new blood. Young people aren

by ejcx 10y ago

Totally the truth. I got my technician license with about an hour of studying and the "experts" were great folks, and desperate for new blood. Young people aren't learning about radio as much these days. One of the old guys took me out in his brand new Tesla Model S around the time the cars had just come out and I had never seen one. It was pretty neat and a good memory I have of the community. There are some really nice and knowledgable people on the radio. Listen for me, KK4PPF!

rhinoceraptor 10y ago
At my license exam, I was the only one under 40 there. There's definitely room for hobbyist radio to expand, especially with the proliferation of SDR, arduino and other hobby electronics. But the stereotype of hams as old white men who use fancy radios to talk about the weather is pretty accurate in my experience.
- tlrobinson 10y ago
  At my license exam, almost everyone was under 40. But that was at DEFCON. In general you are right. They don't only talk about weather though.... they also talk about their health problems and rant about Obama.
  - rhinoceraptor 10y ago
    Is it a good crowd there? I didn't try and find where they were doing it at DC 23. I might try for my general at 24.
- peterkshultz 10y ago
  I'm on the board of the amateur radio club at my university. It's incredibly difficult to attract students to the club. I think it's less a problem of an age gap and more a problem of the opportunity cost from tinkering with transceivers and not, say, strongly typed programming languages.
  - lucb1e 10y ago
    If my university had such a thing, I'd be the first person to sign up! As it stands we don't, but a couple friends and I are working on a CTF team (the security competition kind) with weekly meetings. We have been meeting for almost two years now, but as we go on internships and even graduate, potential new members seem indeed more interested in drinking and Call of Duty...
    - grandalf 10y ago
      You should start one. When I was a freshman my university had a faltering club and I sort of gave up on it but really wish I'd helped revitalize it.
  - Steltek 10y ago
    The same could have been said about a lot of electronics not too long ago. I feel like the tide could swing back with the resurgence of hardware tinkering/Maker movement. It wouldn't take the form of cranky old vacuum tube radios though. More likely HackRF digital stuff controlling a wide area of IoT widgets or something. I'm surprised we're not seeing more Amateur Radio style equipment used in drones but perhaps the FAA line of sight restrictions don't make range such a priority.
- lostapathy 10y ago
  You're lucky if weather is the big topic in your area - usually all I hear are bowel problems.
- Grishnakh 10y ago
  I'll probably get modded down for saying this, but I think the stereotype is true, and there's a good reason no one under 40 bothers with the hobby: why waste so much time and energy and money on a hobby where all you can do is talk to people? (Note, I'm not under 40, I'm just over it.) I can get a smartphone and use apps to text people, and see their photos, save the conversations, etc. I can get on the internet with a phone or laptop and participate in discussion forums like this one, and see people's thoughts in text form: it's much faster to read than to listen to someone drawl, plus I don't have to actually be here at the same time; I can read someone's response hours or days later and then compose my reply. What exactly does ham radio offer than isn't done in a FAR superior manner with the internet? I tried getting into ham radio when I was younger, but I quickly realized I had no interest in it beyond the technology itself (since I like electronics). For my to get interested in a hobby, there has to be some real utility to it (such as car repair), or it has to bring me real enjoyment somehow (such as playing guitar). Ham does not offer this at all. There's no utility to it for me (I'm not really interested in being involved in emergency communications), and there's absolutely zero enjoyment in it (I have zero desire to "shoot the shit" with a bunch of random men and no women, and all of them in far-away places where I can't even see them). It seems that the only real value the hobby has, once you have a working radio, is for socializing. But if I want to socialize, there's far better ways for me to do this using technology: dating apps, meetup.com events, or planning something with one of my existing friends in "meatspace". Jabbering with some random old guy 2000 miles away does not sound like fun to me.
  - grandalf 10y ago
    Here are a few examples of things that are fun and are not conversation oriented: - Radiosport: competitions involve completing short contacts with other stations, but the information exchanged is usually a serial number, location indicator, etc. This is fun because it's a flow activity that requires great strategy and knowledge of radio wave propagation, band conditions, etc. It requires no pleasantries or exchange of personal info whatsoever. - Satellite stuff: Brief contacts are made during flyovers, but most of the energy goes into understanding the orbits, timing, doppler shift, antenna characteristics, etc. - Low Power / experimental VLF bands: Some amateurs love to squeeze out the most from milliwatts. - Designing / Building radios, circuits, filters, antennas, etc. There is always room to improve the state of the art, share designs, ideas, construction methods, etc. This is similar to hobby electronics however the communications use of the gear is a nice way to prove that your approach was solid (or superior to other engineering approaches used in the past). I think for most who end up enjoying amateur radio, radio waves feel a bit like magic, and there is something very cool about understanding them and (relatively directly) manipulating them. If you don't feel a difference between communications on HF using gear you built or designed and using Skype, then I'm pretty sure you would not enjoy Amateur radio. The same argument could be made about the other hobbies you mention. Why play your own instrument if you aren't better than whatever professional musician you like best? Why play casual sports if you aren't ready for the professional team? If you look at the difference in band activity between popular radiosport events and casual conversation, there is about 1000x more activity during the radiosport competitions. The nice thing is that many radio amateurs are fairly interesting to talk to and have interesting backgrounds and stories. Not all, but I'd say that compared to the people I typically meet at a meetup or random community event, amateur radio is a better predictor of someone being interesting, creative, successful, having good critical thinking skills, etc. There are always exceptions, but it is a pretty unique subculture. If you don't find it a fit, that's completely fine, but it's likely to be your loss. I think your comment got downvotes because it comes off like a bro lamenting too many dudes at a bar.
- wolfgke 10y ago
  > At my license exam, I was the only one under 40 there. If they want more young blood, ham activist should seriously lobby to abolish the licensing requirements.
  - TrevorJ 10y ago
    That may or may not be true (CB radio isn't licensed and there's still not much interest in it), but I think the cons far outweigh the pros there.
  - grandalf 10y ago
    The licensing requirements in the US are largely guided by the American Radio Relay League, which is Amateur Radio's lobbying group. The requirements are quite minimal. I was licensed as a pre-teen with no trouble, and many on HN describe passing after studying for a few hours. The important thing about the license is that it is a knowledge-based test. Even though you can memorize the answers to the questions, you learn that there is theory behind it and it's not just magical technology. There are also a lot of questions about band plans and operating procedure, which help keep things civil and organized (though we could use more FCC enforcement).
TrevorJ 10y ago
Some of the youngest guys in my class were Rally racers who competed on really long remote courses and needed some bulletproof communication devices for emergencies.

by ejcx 10y ago

rhinoceraptor 10y ago

At my license exam, I was the only one under 40 there. There's definitely room for hobbyist radio to expand, especially with the proliferation of SDR, arduino and other hobby electronics. But the stereotype of hams as old white men who use fancy radios to talk about the weather is pretty accurate in my experience.

tlrobinson 10y ago
At my license exam, almost everyone was under 40. But that was at DEFCON. In general you are right. They don't only talk about weather though.... they also talk about their health problems and rant about Obama.
- rhinoceraptor 10y ago
  Is it a good crowd there? I didn't try and find where they were doing it at DC 23. I might try for my general at 24.
peterkshultz 10y ago
I'm on the board of the amateur radio club at my university. It's incredibly difficult to attract students to the club. I think it's less a problem of an age gap and more a problem of the opportunity cost from tinkering with transceivers and not, say, strongly typed programming languages.
- lucb1e 10y ago
  If my university had such a thing, I'd be the first person to sign up! As it stands we don't, but a couple friends and I are working on a CTF team (the security competition kind) with weekly meetings. We have been meeting for almost two years now, but as we go on internships and even graduate, potential new members seem indeed more interested in drinking and Call of Duty...
  - grandalf 10y ago
    You should start one. When I was a freshman my university had a faltering club and I sort of gave up on it but really wish I'd helped revitalize it.
- Steltek 10y ago
  The same could have been said about a lot of electronics not too long ago. I feel like the tide could swing back with the resurgence of hardware tinkering/Maker movement. It wouldn't take the form of cranky old vacuum tube radios though. More likely HackRF digital stuff controlling a wide area of IoT widgets or something. I'm surprised we're not seeing more Amateur Radio style equipment used in drones but perhaps the FAA line of sight restrictions don't make range such a priority.
lostapathy 10y ago
You're lucky if weather is the big topic in your area - usually all I hear are bowel problems.
Grishnakh 10y ago
I'll probably get modded down for saying this, but I think the stereotype is true, and there's a good reason no one under 40 bothers with the hobby: why waste so much time and energy and money on a hobby where all you can do is talk to people? (Note, I'm not under 40, I'm just over it.) I can get a smartphone and use apps to text people, and see their photos, save the conversations, etc. I can get on the internet with a phone or laptop and participate in discussion forums like this one, and see people's thoughts in text form: it's much faster to read than to listen to someone drawl, plus I don't have to actually be here at the same time; I can read someone's response hours or days later and then compose my reply. What exactly does ham radio offer than isn't done in a FAR superior manner with the internet? I tried getting into ham radio when I was younger, but I quickly realized I had no interest in it beyond the technology itself (since I like electronics). For my to get interested in a hobby, there has to be some real utility to it (such as car repair), or it has to bring me real enjoyment somehow (such as playing guitar). Ham does not offer this at all. There's no utility to it for me (I'm not really interested in being involved in emergency communications), and there's absolutely zero enjoyment in it (I have zero desire to "shoot the shit" with a bunch of random men and no women, and all of them in far-away places where I can't even see them). It seems that the only real value the hobby has, once you have a working radio, is for socializing. But if I want to socialize, there's far better ways for me to do this using technology: dating apps, meetup.com events, or planning something with one of my existing friends in "meatspace". Jabbering with some random old guy 2000 miles away does not sound like fun to me.
- grandalf 10y ago
  Here are a few examples of things that are fun and are not conversation oriented: - Radiosport: competitions involve completing short contacts with other stations, but the information exchanged is usually a serial number, location indicator, etc. This is fun because it's a flow activity that requires great strategy and knowledge of radio wave propagation, band conditions, etc. It requires no pleasantries or exchange of personal info whatsoever. - Satellite stuff: Brief contacts are made during flyovers, but most of the energy goes into understanding the orbits, timing, doppler shift, antenna characteristics, etc. - Low Power / experimental VLF bands: Some amateurs love to squeeze out the most from milliwatts. - Designing / Building radios, circuits, filters, antennas, etc. There is always room to improve the state of the art, share designs, ideas, construction methods, etc. This is similar to hobby electronics however the communications use of the gear is a nice way to prove that your approach was solid (or superior to other engineering approaches used in the past). I think for most who end up enjoying amateur radio, radio waves feel a bit like magic, and there is something very cool about understanding them and (relatively directly) manipulating them. If you don't feel a difference between communications on HF using gear you built or designed and using Skype, then I'm pretty sure you would not enjoy Amateur radio. The same argument could be made about the other hobbies you mention. Why play your own instrument if you aren't better than whatever professional musician you like best? Why play casual sports if you aren't ready for the professional team? If you look at the difference in band activity between popular radiosport events and casual conversation, there is about 1000x more activity during the radiosport competitions. The nice thing is that many radio amateurs are fairly interesting to talk to and have interesting backgrounds and stories. Not all, but I'd say that compared to the people I typically meet at a meetup or random community event, amateur radio is a better predictor of someone being interesting, creative, successful, having good critical thinking skills, etc. There are always exceptions, but it is a pretty unique subculture. If you don't find it a fit, that's completely fine, but it's likely to be your loss. I think your comment got downvotes because it comes off like a bro lamenting too many dudes at a bar.
wolfgke 10y ago
> At my license exam, I was the only one under 40 there. If they want more young blood, ham activist should seriously lobby to abolish the licensing requirements.
- TrevorJ 10y ago
  That may or may not be true (CB radio isn't licensed and there's still not much interest in it), but I think the cons far outweigh the pros there.
- grandalf 10y ago
  The licensing requirements in the US are largely guided by the American Radio Relay League, which is Amateur Radio's lobbying group. The requirements are quite minimal. I was licensed as a pre-teen with no trouble, and many on HN describe passing after studying for a few hours. The important thing about the license is that it is a knowledge-based test. Even though you can memorize the answers to the questions, you learn that there is theory behind it and it's not just magical technology. There are also a lot of questions about band plans and operating procedure, which help keep things civil and organized (though we could use more FCC enforcement).

TrevorJ 10y ago

Some of the youngest guys in my class were Rally racers who competed on really long remote courses and needed some bulletproof communication devices for emergencies.