2024-12-06 — Lynn Deffenbaugh KJ4ERJ is a SK, 75% of Techs Inactive After One Year?, The Use Case for Data Over Repeater - Part 2, M17 Foundation, New Low-Cost RF Power Amp for SD TX, HamSCI 2025
Perhaps the ARRL is measuring "active" vs. "inactive" by ARRL membership renewals? In all the years I've been an amateur radio operator, most of which as a Tech licensee and non-ARRL member, I don't recall every being surveyed regarding being active or not? You'd think that after almost 50 years, the random sample might have stumbled across me for a survey?
(Ugh, I just reminded myself I'm an old fart. You made me do the math, and now I'm sad!)
I think I upgraded to Extra from Technician about a decade ago, on a lark, as I had stumbled over some exam sessions being given and thought "Why TF not?" Since then I got into HF because FT8 and SDR and that was a new (to me) interesting area to explore. Still not an ARRL member, and DX contesting and awards are still not on the agenda. Am I "active" from the ARRL's perspective? Do they even know that I exist?
Since starting as a Technician class license in high school, and screwing around with with AX.25 and related tomfoolery over the years as an avocation led to some contributions professionally. I was deep into the start-up phase of my career and still a Technician license and mostly inactive because, well, hair-on-fire explosive Internet growth of Internet backbone infrastructure in the 90's.
At least I could call BS on vendors pitching me snake-oil, or have some really interesting and in-depth conversations with others about early satellite Internet proposals. Anyone remember Teledesic from Microsoft and SkyBridge from Alcatel? in the late '90's - probably not. Neither of these things ever came to be. But I did learn about a fascinating type of antenna called a Luneburg Lens (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luneburg_lens ) which is an interesting solution to the problem of tracking two different satellites from one ground terminal that's fixed. It's the feed points that move across the surface of a sphere! As a ham with some experience with antennas, what a wonderful find and unexpected, detailed, conversation topic with Alcatel about this part of their system design for user terminals!
Hey, ham radio, antennas and the occasional Field Day RF burn was enough to make me sufficiently knowledgeable to be a danger to myself and others. Or at least appreciate what those fixed-wireless vendors were pitching to me, and why adaptive equalizers were probably useful for that QAM modulation in free-space with multipath that wasn't there on CATV systems. Oh really, tell me more! I might have a Computer Science degree and build large data networks, but we can talk about link margin, coding gain and path loss! Thanks, Ham Radio!
But there I was, evidence of the "problem" of inactive Technician-class licensees as far as the ARRL is concerned. HF was still a couple of decades in the future for me -- you know, what the ARRL considers "real" ham radio. The part of amateur radio that offers "incentives" to newbies. Yeah, that's the problem, er, "solution."
Oh look, another screed has escaped into your fine weekly publication! I'll bet there are thousands of stories like mine where ham radio was unofficial career training for many people, in various interesting and surprising ways. Another hook to get new people into the hobby if we could communicate that, perhaps adjacent to the "Maker" thing, which I'd expect has similar stories.
Louis - Thanks for your comments. Yeah, it would be... useful... to know exactly what metric the ARRL uses to determine whether a newly licensed Technician is "active" or "not active".
I have a nagging suspicion that the only two metrics the ARRL CAN measure are:
1. Whether a new Technician renews ARRL membership after one year, and
2. Whether a Technician "upgrades" to General or Extra.
You and I agree that those are poor metrics of involvement and interest in Amateur Radio, as you and I have similarly long, satisfying and informative stints as a Technician that "springboarded" us into more successful careers than we would have otherwise had without Amateur Radio experience.
As a writer of magazine articles about Broadband Wireless Internet Access systems, I regularly surprised interview subjects with my understanding of radio technology basics, often far better than their own marketing people understood (and they had to resort to getting an engineer involved in the conversation to answer my questions). It was often funny to see their reactions when they asked what my background was and I innocently replied Electronic Techician training, but mostly Amateur Radio.
"75% of Technician Licensees Inactive After One Year?" The metric of this has already been discussed. In my view you should evaluate whether the licenses are renewed or not.
I think we should discuss this combined with the extremely cheap handheld transceivers: Consider where you can buy your Baofeng etc.: The market is obviously much larger than "those few" licensed hams! The handhelds and perhaps even mobile rigs are obviously often bought by people without a license for their strictly private purposes. Quite some Web sites and Youtube channels discuss the usage of these transceivers for preparedness etc.
I think that quite some people do the Technician exam simply to legalize their existing equipment and never think about the ham radio community. They think FRS (or PMR in EU) handhelds are too limited and want something that can bridge "5 km".
"We have very fast, very cheap dedicated computers such as the Raspberry Pi series": I recently bought a mini computer with a N100 CPU directly from China: 16 GB RAM, 512 GB M2-SSD, Win11pro for 200 EUR (210 US$), *12 V DC power supply*. I primarily use it for VarAC and found that the VARA CPU usage meter hardly ever went above 25%.
So I turned off two of the 4 CPU cores. Starting a Web browser might last longer now, but otherwise I see no delays, even using SDRuno software with a 2 MHz RF window.
This computer is directly powered by my 200 Ah/12.8 V LiFePO4 battery bank with voltages up to 13.8 V. As everything in this box works on 5 V or lower, there must be a switching regulator up front.
This week I measured the power consumption over 24 h: 285 Wh/day or 22 Ah/day. This is Raspi class power consumption without the limitations of a Raspi! No SD cards that die after a few months, without limitation to open source software...
Simply face it: Most ham radio software has been written for Windows or Linux on X86 hardware. On a Raspberry Pi you can use Pat Winlink, but Winlink Express is much better. Has anyone VARA running on a Raspi?
Alexander - Agreed that a LOT of Amateur Radio software is written to run on Windows, particularly software intended for use by the general Amateur Radio population - logging software, software for particular radios such as Icom, even my West Mountain Radio Computerized Battery Analyzer (CBA).
And yes, VARA (FM and HF). And yes, VARA has been successfully run on Raspberry Pi computers, and it just keeps getting better, especially under the Raspberry Pi 4 and now the Raspberry Pi 5. Not only do you have to emulate Windows on Linux (WINE), but you also have to emulate the X86 instruction set on ARM instruction set. It can be done, and has been done. There are various instructions, scripts, etc. The trick is to perfect a particular "build" and then don't change it - don't update Linux, or Windows (and, obviously, keep the unit off the Internet as much as possible).
Thus, given that degree of difficulty and overall "fussiness", I agree with you that the easiest, least hassle, overall most cost effective solution when you want to run a Windows app is to do so on a Windows appliance computer - ideally a computer inexpensive enough to dedicated to a particular app and capable of running off 12 volts. That's exactly why I bought a stack of 5 retired Lenovo computers that had been updated to Windows 10 to load various Windows apps that have no equivalent in Linux. In intend to update them one last time to the most current security updates, run one of the "Windows delousing" scripts (no more phoning home, etc.), and call that particular computer updated for the remainder of its usable life as a Windows device.
But I continue to have a lot of enthusiasm for the Raspberry Pi series because more, and more Amateur Radio software is being developed for, or ported to Linux. One of the most critical in the Zero Retries Interesting ecosystem is DIRE WOLF. It just works under Linux. Ditto all the software in DigiPi. And the fldigi suite of apps. Even WSJT-X and FT8. Etc.
I think that someone will eventually (at least, I hope they will) do something like HamPi - https://sourceforge.net/projects/hampi/ but built to run various Amateur Radio Windows apps on the dual emulation layer of X86>ARM and Windows>Linux and it'll just work well enough. And they'll do so as a community so that when EA5HVK updates VARA, it's run against the "standard VARA emulation" and if tweaks are needed for the new version, those get done.
One last reason for my enthusiasm for the Raspberry Pi series for Amateur Radio use - "compatibility" and familiarity within STEM / Maker / Hacker folks. Those communities are the easiest and closest "in spirit" to Amateur Radio (low hanging fruit). Thus it makes an impression when Amateur Radio can showcase radio technology projects that use Raspberry Pi computers - like SatNOGS - https://satnogs.org and WsprryPi - https://github.com/JamesP6000/WsprryPi.
Simply put... There is a strong perception that Windows is for old folks and business applications... and some gaming. Most younger folks use mobile phones (IOS / Android), Google Chrome OS (tablets / thin laptops used in education) and Linux.
Thus, if Amateur Radio can showcase applications and projects running on Raspberry Pi computers and Linux, then we've already demonstrated some real world relevance about Amateur Radio - refuting the perception that Amateur Radio is stuck in the past century , sitting at a desk tapping on a Morse Code key or yakking into a microphone.
I hope that helps explain my Amateur Radio / Zero Retries Interesting enthusiasm for Raspberry Pi computers running Linux.
Inactive hams are a thing, a really bad thing for our hobby. Every ham, repeat *EVERY HAM* needs to be very welcoming to new hams, reaching out and being encouraging. All new hams are different, some hams have mic fright, some get yelled at in their first QSO, etc. Contrast that to the ELMER story of a kindly grandpa figure patiently explaining everything.
John - One of the more salient things I've learned in the last few years is that "Elmering" is an issue in itself. That term is meaningless to most folks - what experienced Amateur Radio Operators need to offer is to MENTOR new Amateur Radio Operators. Amateur Radio's history of quirky traditions and language like "the league", QTH, Elmering, etc. all create subtle barriers to newcomers.
But to your larger point - agreed wholeheartedly. Amateur Radio needs to be more welcoming and biased TOWARDS newcomers. We need an embarrassing number of newcomer videos, going granular about every possible thing (that earlier generations received from their Elmers) - what's the difference between cheap, thin coax and more expensive, thicker coax. What's the difference between a beam antenna and omni antenna. How to choose a good 12 volt power supply. Bias construction projects away from soldering because fewer people know how these days (but learning to solder is a wonderful hands-on group activity). Etc.
In short, Amateur Radio really needs to rethink the experience of new Amateur Radio Operators getting active on Amateur Radio "from first principles"... AND ADAPT TO THAT NEW REALITY. AND DO SO FAST, VERY FAST. Thus I don't think our existing organizations are up for such a challenge, except a very few brave, inspirational, forward-looking clubs. We need to highlight what such clubs are doing, and start replicating their successes.
Unfortunately, that's not a job that I as an individual publishing a newsletter on a shoestring budget am equipped to tackle. My only "angle" on this immense problem is that the folks that get into Amateur Radio to experiment with data modes are essentially invisible to "mainstream" Amateur Radio... and especially the ARRL. I can speak to that from the Zero Retries perspective.
Such a "New Amateur Radio" organization needs to be broad based, mostly virtual, built by younger folks, have a real budget, and a real plan. I'd love to help, but I'm a generation, maybe two, behind the focus of such an organization.
Very interesting discussion. Being a newbie to amateur radio, as you know, Steve, I would love to know more about why you say AR needs to ADAPT TO THAT NEW REALITY. AND DO SO FAST, VERY FAST. To protect ham spectrum maybe? To keep it alive generally?
Ronald - Thanks for asking. Good question! I say that because the older generation of Amateur Radio Operators is aging out fast... and they have little clue on how to engage the current generation. How do you bridge the gap between the Saturday Evening Post generation and the TikTok generation? Thus without significant engagement to encourage the newcomer Amateur Radio Operators, they'll walk away from Amateur Radio having found nothing much to keep them interested and engaged.
In Zero Retries, I'm trying to engage the newcomer Amateur Radio Operators that are inclined towards digital / data / technical aspects of Amateur Radio and experimentation in Amateur Radio, such as those coming from technical fields such as IT, Makers, Hackers, Engineering, etc. looking at Amateur Radio as another facet of their interests and careers. But those "Zero Retries Interesting" Amateur Radio Operators aren't the majority of new Amateur Radio Operators... at least not yet. Thus my various projects in Zero Retries to hopefully reshape Amateur Radio to be more relevant and interesting to such Amateur Radio Operators, such as my SuperPeater concept discussed in Zero Retries 0182.
So I fantasize about a new Amateur Radio organization for this era. For example, the Online Amateur Radio Community - https://www.oarc.uk isn't quite all that I had in mind, but they certainly have the right idea, engaging younger Amateur Radio Operators on Discord. Their web page says they currently have 1700 members, and I'll guess those 1700 are significantly engaged, so that's the right idea... we just need something with more scale.
"tunnel data over a digital television system" reminded me of this hack utilizing YouTube video as a data storage warehouse. The right encoding/decoding scheme could theoretically turn those digital video streams into a data stream. https://hackaday.com/2023/02/21/youtube-as-infinite-file-storage/
Cale - Yeah, I remember that hack. And before that, there was a board that could encode data into a video stream so that you could use an off the shelf video recorder (VHS) for storage of large files (that made sense back when hard disks were small and expensive).
I think that dedicated video hardware and modulations made sense in an earlier era when computers weren't very powerful (at least versus dedicated video chips produced at massive scale for consumer use). Now that we can do video in software and cheap, commodity, embedded computers like Raspberry Pi 5, coupled to cheap D/A and A/D converters, I think it makes more sense overall to create general purpose data networks that can carry all kinds of data. Oh wait... we did - the Internet running TCP/IP, UDP, etc.
Our problem in Amateur Radio is that we think too small most of the time, and we don't think of all that we can be doing with the vast radio technology privileges that we have. We can be doing at least 1 Mbps off the shelf with New Packet Radio for example. I'm pretty sure we can do at least SOME video comms over such a link... which can also do data.
That said, the Amateur Radio video folks are rabid about their favorite mode and they put their effort, money, time, and resources behind it. The only equivalent that I've found in Amateur Radio for data that's comparable to the video folks is the AREDN folks, and yeah, you can easily do video over those networks (including at high resolution, at least HD, and I've seen 4k discussed).
I can see this statement from the ARRL being true for two reasons. First, is the fact that preparing for the tests teaches you absolutely zero about how to use radios. It teaches theory on electricity, frequency bands, outdated electronics, a smidge on antennas, a little bit on safety and the rules/laws of the FCC. Secondly, is the turn off that is being driven by older hams towards new hams.
I punched my Technician's ticket 14 yrs ago, I was inactive 2 weeks later even though I bought a new Yaesu 2M mobile, 30A Alinco PS, couple mobile antennas, and a couple cheap HT with upgraded antennas, etc.
The reason I punched my ticket was for EmComm. If something happened, I wanted a way to communicate, find out news, reach out to a couple friends within 10-20 miles of my QTH.
The reason I went inactive is i tried a few times to get stuff working, but I didn't have the time to figure out the radios on my own, especially since there really wasn't a lot of online information - YouTube was still in its infancy even back then.
At that time I had just turned 40. I was the CEO of a successful tech company, I held board seats on two startups as an early stage investor, i also spent some time mentoring startups at a leading incubator here in Atlanta, and was on the board for one national non profit as well AND I was married with a daughter in middle school.... I didn't have time to breath, let alone have the time to figure out what all the hobby had to offer.
A few years ago I took the golden parachute on doctor's orders, sold the business and retired. Earlier this year, I found my old radios - and even though I passed that simple test in 6 minutes with a 100% score - i found knew NOTHING about my radios - how to program them, how to join a net meeting, etc. This time I had ChatGPT and YouTube.
I studied for a month for my General, i watched W4EEY videos over and over, I read the ARRL book cover to cover twice, took the practice tests and even went paid for hamradioprep to make sure i knew the information. Spent five hours a day, seven days a week learning the material inside and out... again easy test i passed it 100% in 12 minutes... and what does it really teach you? NOTHING about the operations of the radio, zip, zero, nadda a dang thing. OK it gives you some Q codes and tells you that you start a transmission with CQ CQ CQ, but does it go into detail about what does a notch filter do and why or when to use it? What DNR is, why use it, when to use it? Grab the ARRL General test prep book and point out the page number if I am wrong please, cause if it is there, I missed it 100%.
As a new/old ham IMO - these tests need to really be revamped. There needs to be a way to teach - this is a repeater, this is how you connect to it, this is why it has an offset or an uplink/downlink frequency. This is what digital can do, Dstar, DMR, Fusion, Hotspot/Bridging, this is things you can do to "dial in" a faint signal on 10M phone, this is how you setup X top digital communication modes (FT8, winlink, varAC, etc)... and revamp it every couple of years as technology changes...
Also there needs to be a change in the mindset of the older hams. Join almost any Social Media platform subreddit or group about ham radio and the in-fighting is horrible. The tube guys vs the sdr guys, the CW only fanboys hating on the FT8 fanboys, the brand fanboys fighting over which radio is best, the outright disdain for those coming into the hobby from CBs or for preparedness reasons. The down right rude comments on the simplest questions... runs off a large % of newcomers.
My guess looking at my four local (and very active) clubs I beliebe most elmers or older hams are in the 70's. If this is true across the US. I hate to say it this way, but if they truly love the hobby and want it to last generations.. then they need to realize they may have maybe a decade left spinning the radio dial. They need do a much better join embracing every new ham, stop hating on what is new or different than they way they became a ham and accept it, respect its place in the hobby...
Mike - Thanks for sharing your experience, and I'm glad you're back into Amateur Radio.
Yeah, there needs to be massive changes in the average experience of newcomers to Amateur Radio. There are a lot of good ideas floating around out there, including a few brave clubs that are trying new things and having success in engaging and retaining and encouraging newcomer Amateur Radio Operators.
And I agree that the Amateur Radio test should be vastly simplified to things like:
* Spectrum regulations - where is legal to transmit, etc.
* Safety (some electrical, some RF including acceptable exposure limits)
* Acceptable behavior - must ID regularly, no exclusive frequencies, not acceptable to deliberately cause interference
* Know the penalties for violating the regulations
* If you want to really experiment, how to post your unique modulation technique or modem hardware to a public website, and how to request a Special Temporary Authority.
If you want to understand the physics - ionosphere, or the technology (circuits, formulas) you can learn that as you go.
But there's no clearinghouse for replicating the really good programs... and there really needs to be.
The question is how to push this change, when it seems those at the "top" of the hobby, don't listen to the every day ham?
I think the key to driving new membership is being missed on two fronts - first of course is when we have such a tragic event as Helena happen, we need to focus on the fact that "fear sells"... for several weeks after Helena, social media platforms were flooded with "how do I get into ham radio?" Or "how do I study for the ham licensem" or "what radio do I need to contact my family"... there should have been a marketing plan with a budget set aside at the national level to drive these individuals to the local clubs or VEs or even the training sites. The second missed opportunity I feel is the fact the ARRL (and manufacturers) aren't working hand in hand with every S.T.E.M. School in the nation. My daughter when to a public high school that had education tracks for Engineering, Architecture, Medical, & Software Development. They had a whole slew of academic clubs - but nothing regarding ham radio... Lexis and Thompson give access to their legal databases to every law student in the nation for free... first touched, often becomes the preferred system of the student. Student graduates and starts their own practice they subscribe. If they join a firm that uses the same software they are happy, if not the are forced to use the other... but when they become partners, they push for their favorite systems even though they haven't touched it for 4 or 6 years.
Mike - In fairness to ARRL, they are making significant effort in the direction you suggest - https://www.arrl.org/teachers-institute-on-wireless-technology... though it mystifies me why they don't try to establish a strategic relationship with Make Magazine / Maker Faires, etc. to advertise Amateur Radio (in a relevant way) to the Maker / STEM communities. Not to mention that ARRL has no significant relationship (that I've seen) to IEEE which works hard to reach out to techies in college.
As to why ARRL doesn't "make its materials widely available like Lexis and Thompson... ARRL's true core business is being a publisher of magazines and books, and if they "open sourced" that... their entire financial structure would become precarious. At least... ARRL feels that's what would happen. In my opinion, ARRL's biggest issue isn't profitability... it's irrelevance at hiding most of its material behind a paywall, which essentially means that it's invisible and uninteresting to the newer Amateur Radio Operators. 73 Magazine, available on the Internet Archive's Digital Library of Amateur Radio & Communications (DLARC) - https://archive.org/details/73-magazine is more relevant to new Amateur Radio Operators than any of the ARRL magazines because it's completely and totally available online without restriction.
Steve, I couldn't agree more that the ham licensing in the US needs a big change. I've been licensed for over 30 years, and only recently upgraded to General primarily because (pause for dramatic effect) I have little to no interest in talking on the radio. Data modes are the "in" for me, and have been since I started playing with ham radio. Packet, APRS, TCP/IP over RF have been the big draw, and only recently as data over HF has become practical did I have any interest at all in "upgrading" to General. FT8 started the interest, then JS8Call, FreeDATA, ARDOP, etc. These are the "cool" things for me. I played on 10m for years before getting General.
Personally I find the information covered on the exams to be mostly useless. I learned the information to pass the exam, but the vast majority of the info is useless to how I participate in ham radio.
I would love to see the ham license structure changed to just one single exam with one license level that grants all privileges. The exam content should simply be the rules and regulations on what you are allowed to do. That's it.
The simple fact is that if someone wants to learn about a technology, like how to design and build an antenna, they are going to do it on their own, not from an exam. If someone wants to learn about CW, they'll go to a web page, watch a Youtube video, or buy a book and read about it. Same with any of the digital modes. It simply doesn't make sense to me to have this information on the exam.
I like the comment from Mike KK4PMW, "There needs to be a way to teach - this is a repeater, this is how you connect to it, this is why it has an offset or an uplink/downlink frequency. This is what digital can do, Dstar, DMR, Fusion, Hotspot/Bridging, this is things you can do to "dial in" a faint signal on 10M phone, this is how you setup X top digital communication modes (FT8, winlink, varAC, etc)... and revamp it every couple of years as technology changes". I disagree that this should be on the exam, but I think this is exactly the type of thing the ARRL should be offering. Essentially, practical introductory guides for various aspects of ham radio.
Although I have radios/computers up 24/7 running things like APRS and AREDN, I'm also probably considered "inactive" by the ARRL because I let my membership lapse. They simply don't offer anything interesting to me.
Dj - You and I would have a good time sitting across the table from each other with a few adult beverages exchanging interesting ideas about data modes in Amateur Radio. I'm glad to have you as a reader of Zero Retries.
Please see my earlier replies to John Simmons NI0K and Mike - KK4PMW. We need to rethink the whole experience of new Amateur Radio Operators. We in Amateur Radio might not be able to influence the regulations (much... yet...), but we can influence the Amateur Radio testing. Most folks don't realize that the Amateur Radio (Volunteer Examiner) testing question pool is composed by VECs (Amateur Radio) - not the FCC. Thus we can influence that "on ramp" to Amateur Radio. And of course we can do a lot for the experience of newcomer Amateur Radio Operators. If only there was an organization to reach out to every new Amateur Radio Operator... without the expectation of "give us money to join our fine organization, THEN we can help you".
We really need a very organized system of video (backed up by text) tutorials on every aspect of the typical Amateur Radio experience. If we need a guideline for what we need to cover, look to the ARRL Handbook. I'm not saying "rip off the content of the ARRL Handbook", but the scope of ideas in that book are pretty solid and have been refined for more than 100 editions, so at least there's a guideline of what to cover. For example, there needs to be (probably is...) a video tutorial on how to choose the right coaxial cable for your first radio / antenna combination. How to put up an antenna safely (pole? tower? chimney mount?).
And to do that we need a new organization with a new focus and young energy. I hope we see such an organization coalesce soon.
I think "* 75% of Techs Inactive After 1 Year?" is true in many countries.
I don't think it is often a case of deciding it isn't for them. There is little support if you don't have confidence to get started (fear of transmitting is common at first) and aren't involved in a club. Where I am, clubs are mainly run by and for retirees, but new hams are generally younger. Nets frequently happen during the working day, or on bands that don't work well if you have limited space.
I'm one such radio experimenter that picked up this hobby with the idea that it would be fulfilling to help the local emergency teams in a time of need. I had not considered that operators are not called for every emergency and also it takes learning, training and practice to become the skilled operator that emergency teams need. Reality was not kind and that motivation spark found nothing out there to make me pick up a microphone or key. I would have given up 6 months after being licensed if it were not for the support of my local radio club. The good thing is that this 'inactive operator' situation is being discussed in multiple forums and many societies are taking action to the best of their abilities to help these 'inactive' operators pickup the hobby again.
Sandip - Thanks for your comments. I know that the situation of "inactive operators" is being recognized - by some, and acted upon - by some. But those efforts are currently very diffused and there's no coordination to make them more effective and communicate what is proven to work, not just to make the "doing" organizations better, but to encourage organizations to BECOME "doing" organizations by making it easier by providing a template.
Thank you for this article. I agree with all the issues raised.
I also wonder how the “Ham Cram” sessions contributed to the denominator for these stats. (A single day session reviewing/cramming the Tech question pool and then taking the exam. ). How many of these students were really interested in ham radio or really know what it was. Just a thought
Chris - Agreed that the "cram sessions" to get members of the (non-technical) general public licensed as a Technician and hand them a portable radio, and have the expectation that "now you can communicate in an emergency" is ultimately unproductive and actually detrimental as those folk's perceptions of Amateur Radio will end up being pretty negative.
On the other hand, the "cram" sessions for folks like techies that just need the license to be doing more interesting experimentation in Amateur Radio spectrum (example, the VE testing at DEF CON) doesn't have value in my opinion. Those folks will quickly educate themselves on what they need to know be doing experimentation within Amateur Radio. I've cited the example in Zero Retries of a Technician licensees that got licensed solely to experiment with (outdoor, Wide Area Network) microwave networks because they enjoyed doing Wi-Fi in their IT jobs.
I was not aware of those people who want to experiment but it makes sense. You are correct that these people would be motivated and have the expertise to get licensed without much tutoring. I would guess the cram sessions would be of value these people in the non-technical portions of the question pool.
The unrealistic expectation for EMCOMM is also a shame. It’s more than an HT.
The pricing of equipment, from my view, is what is pushing newly-licensed hams from the air waves. Hand-held units are held up as the expensive solution, but they often lack sufficient power to escape the local community. We need a company similar to Heath to produce solid-state kits that use cheaper transistors and arrays and can compete with the likes of current transceiver manufacturers.
Robert - We're getting there. The Chinese radio manufacturers are amazingly efficient at following trends towards "whatever makes us a few bucks" and are slowly coming around to the idea of a basic, inexpensive (comparatively) "data" radio with reasonable transmit power. We're seeing interesting variants of mobile radios with a basic "APRS" TNC built in, to radios with no physical front panel but instead a Bluetooth link to an Android device running their "radio app", to completely Software Defined Transceivers able to operate at VHF / UHF and finally we have a few power amplifiers that can work with those very TX power levels of those SDTs. Icom, Kenwood, Yaesu, Flex, and Elecraft don't see this growing market, so they'll eventually get left in the dust like Kodak, Northern Telecom, Nokia, Blackberry, etc. The "Heathkit" approach is cobbling together the SDT plus the power amplifier and the requisite software. I'd argue that GNU Radio is the "Heathkit" of this era.
Perhaps the ARRL is measuring "active" vs. "inactive" by ARRL membership renewals? In all the years I've been an amateur radio operator, most of which as a Tech licensee and non-ARRL member, I don't recall every being surveyed regarding being active or not? You'd think that after almost 50 years, the random sample might have stumbled across me for a survey?
(Ugh, I just reminded myself I'm an old fart. You made me do the math, and now I'm sad!)
I think I upgraded to Extra from Technician about a decade ago, on a lark, as I had stumbled over some exam sessions being given and thought "Why TF not?" Since then I got into HF because FT8 and SDR and that was a new (to me) interesting area to explore. Still not an ARRL member, and DX contesting and awards are still not on the agenda. Am I "active" from the ARRL's perspective? Do they even know that I exist?
Since starting as a Technician class license in high school, and screwing around with with AX.25 and related tomfoolery over the years as an avocation led to some contributions professionally. I was deep into the start-up phase of my career and still a Technician license and mostly inactive because, well, hair-on-fire explosive Internet growth of Internet backbone infrastructure in the 90's.
At least I could call BS on vendors pitching me snake-oil, or have some really interesting and in-depth conversations with others about early satellite Internet proposals. Anyone remember Teledesic from Microsoft and SkyBridge from Alcatel? in the late '90's - probably not. Neither of these things ever came to be. But I did learn about a fascinating type of antenna called a Luneburg Lens (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luneburg_lens ) which is an interesting solution to the problem of tracking two different satellites from one ground terminal that's fixed. It's the feed points that move across the surface of a sphere! As a ham with some experience with antennas, what a wonderful find and unexpected, detailed, conversation topic with Alcatel about this part of their system design for user terminals!
Hey, ham radio, antennas and the occasional Field Day RF burn was enough to make me sufficiently knowledgeable to be a danger to myself and others. Or at least appreciate what those fixed-wireless vendors were pitching to me, and why adaptive equalizers were probably useful for that QAM modulation in free-space with multipath that wasn't there on CATV systems. Oh really, tell me more! I might have a Computer Science degree and build large data networks, but we can talk about link margin, coding gain and path loss! Thanks, Ham Radio!
But there I was, evidence of the "problem" of inactive Technician-class licensees as far as the ARRL is concerned. HF was still a couple of decades in the future for me -- you know, what the ARRL considers "real" ham radio. The part of amateur radio that offers "incentives" to newbies. Yeah, that's the problem, er, "solution."
Oh look, another screed has escaped into your fine weekly publication! I'll bet there are thousands of stories like mine where ham radio was unofficial career training for many people, in various interesting and surprising ways. Another hook to get new people into the hobby if we could communicate that, perhaps adjacent to the "Maker" thing, which I'd expect has similar stories.
Louis - Thanks for your comments. Yeah, it would be... useful... to know exactly what metric the ARRL uses to determine whether a newly licensed Technician is "active" or "not active".
I have a nagging suspicion that the only two metrics the ARRL CAN measure are:
1. Whether a new Technician renews ARRL membership after one year, and
2. Whether a Technician "upgrades" to General or Extra.
You and I agree that those are poor metrics of involvement and interest in Amateur Radio, as you and I have similarly long, satisfying and informative stints as a Technician that "springboarded" us into more successful careers than we would have otherwise had without Amateur Radio experience.
As a writer of magazine articles about Broadband Wireless Internet Access systems, I regularly surprised interview subjects with my understanding of radio technology basics, often far better than their own marketing people understood (and they had to resort to getting an engineer involved in the conversation to answer my questions). It was often funny to see their reactions when they asked what my background was and I innocently replied Electronic Techician training, but mostly Amateur Radio.
"75% of Technician Licensees Inactive After One Year?" The metric of this has already been discussed. In my view you should evaluate whether the licenses are renewed or not.
I think we should discuss this combined with the extremely cheap handheld transceivers: Consider where you can buy your Baofeng etc.: The market is obviously much larger than "those few" licensed hams! The handhelds and perhaps even mobile rigs are obviously often bought by people without a license for their strictly private purposes. Quite some Web sites and Youtube channels discuss the usage of these transceivers for preparedness etc.
I think that quite some people do the Technician exam simply to legalize their existing equipment and never think about the ham radio community. They think FRS (or PMR in EU) handhelds are too limited and want something that can bridge "5 km".
"We have very fast, very cheap dedicated computers such as the Raspberry Pi series": I recently bought a mini computer with a N100 CPU directly from China: 16 GB RAM, 512 GB M2-SSD, Win11pro for 200 EUR (210 US$), *12 V DC power supply*. I primarily use it for VarAC and found that the VARA CPU usage meter hardly ever went above 25%.
So I turned off two of the 4 CPU cores. Starting a Web browser might last longer now, but otherwise I see no delays, even using SDRuno software with a 2 MHz RF window.
This computer is directly powered by my 200 Ah/12.8 V LiFePO4 battery bank with voltages up to 13.8 V. As everything in this box works on 5 V or lower, there must be a switching regulator up front.
This week I measured the power consumption over 24 h: 285 Wh/day or 22 Ah/day. This is Raspi class power consumption without the limitations of a Raspi! No SD cards that die after a few months, without limitation to open source software...
Simply face it: Most ham radio software has been written for Windows or Linux on X86 hardware. On a Raspberry Pi you can use Pat Winlink, but Winlink Express is much better. Has anyone VARA running on a Raspi?
Alexander - Agreed that a LOT of Amateur Radio software is written to run on Windows, particularly software intended for use by the general Amateur Radio population - logging software, software for particular radios such as Icom, even my West Mountain Radio Computerized Battery Analyzer (CBA).
And yes, VARA (FM and HF). And yes, VARA has been successfully run on Raspberry Pi computers, and it just keeps getting better, especially under the Raspberry Pi 4 and now the Raspberry Pi 5. Not only do you have to emulate Windows on Linux (WINE), but you also have to emulate the X86 instruction set on ARM instruction set. It can be done, and has been done. There are various instructions, scripts, etc. The trick is to perfect a particular "build" and then don't change it - don't update Linux, or Windows (and, obviously, keep the unit off the Internet as much as possible).
Thus, given that degree of difficulty and overall "fussiness", I agree with you that the easiest, least hassle, overall most cost effective solution when you want to run a Windows app is to do so on a Windows appliance computer - ideally a computer inexpensive enough to dedicated to a particular app and capable of running off 12 volts. That's exactly why I bought a stack of 5 retired Lenovo computers that had been updated to Windows 10 to load various Windows apps that have no equivalent in Linux. In intend to update them one last time to the most current security updates, run one of the "Windows delousing" scripts (no more phoning home, etc.), and call that particular computer updated for the remainder of its usable life as a Windows device.
But I continue to have a lot of enthusiasm for the Raspberry Pi series because more, and more Amateur Radio software is being developed for, or ported to Linux. One of the most critical in the Zero Retries Interesting ecosystem is DIRE WOLF. It just works under Linux. Ditto all the software in DigiPi. And the fldigi suite of apps. Even WSJT-X and FT8. Etc.
I think that someone will eventually (at least, I hope they will) do something like HamPi - https://sourceforge.net/projects/hampi/ but built to run various Amateur Radio Windows apps on the dual emulation layer of X86>ARM and Windows>Linux and it'll just work well enough. And they'll do so as a community so that when EA5HVK updates VARA, it's run against the "standard VARA emulation" and if tweaks are needed for the new version, those get done.
One last reason for my enthusiasm for the Raspberry Pi series for Amateur Radio use - "compatibility" and familiarity within STEM / Maker / Hacker folks. Those communities are the easiest and closest "in spirit" to Amateur Radio (low hanging fruit). Thus it makes an impression when Amateur Radio can showcase radio technology projects that use Raspberry Pi computers - like SatNOGS - https://satnogs.org and WsprryPi - https://github.com/JamesP6000/WsprryPi.
Simply put... There is a strong perception that Windows is for old folks and business applications... and some gaming. Most younger folks use mobile phones (IOS / Android), Google Chrome OS (tablets / thin laptops used in education) and Linux.
Thus, if Amateur Radio can showcase applications and projects running on Raspberry Pi computers and Linux, then we've already demonstrated some real world relevance about Amateur Radio - refuting the perception that Amateur Radio is stuck in the past century , sitting at a desk tapping on a Morse Code key or yakking into a microphone.
I hope that helps explain my Amateur Radio / Zero Retries Interesting enthusiasm for Raspberry Pi computers running Linux.
Inactive hams are a thing, a really bad thing for our hobby. Every ham, repeat *EVERY HAM* needs to be very welcoming to new hams, reaching out and being encouraging. All new hams are different, some hams have mic fright, some get yelled at in their first QSO, etc. Contrast that to the ELMER story of a kindly grandpa figure patiently explaining everything.
John - One of the more salient things I've learned in the last few years is that "Elmering" is an issue in itself. That term is meaningless to most folks - what experienced Amateur Radio Operators need to offer is to MENTOR new Amateur Radio Operators. Amateur Radio's history of quirky traditions and language like "the league", QTH, Elmering, etc. all create subtle barriers to newcomers.
But to your larger point - agreed wholeheartedly. Amateur Radio needs to be more welcoming and biased TOWARDS newcomers. We need an embarrassing number of newcomer videos, going granular about every possible thing (that earlier generations received from their Elmers) - what's the difference between cheap, thin coax and more expensive, thicker coax. What's the difference between a beam antenna and omni antenna. How to choose a good 12 volt power supply. Bias construction projects away from soldering because fewer people know how these days (but learning to solder is a wonderful hands-on group activity). Etc.
In short, Amateur Radio really needs to rethink the experience of new Amateur Radio Operators getting active on Amateur Radio "from first principles"... AND ADAPT TO THAT NEW REALITY. AND DO SO FAST, VERY FAST. Thus I don't think our existing organizations are up for such a challenge, except a very few brave, inspirational, forward-looking clubs. We need to highlight what such clubs are doing, and start replicating their successes.
Unfortunately, that's not a job that I as an individual publishing a newsletter on a shoestring budget am equipped to tackle. My only "angle" on this immense problem is that the folks that get into Amateur Radio to experiment with data modes are essentially invisible to "mainstream" Amateur Radio... and especially the ARRL. I can speak to that from the Zero Retries perspective.
Such a "New Amateur Radio" organization needs to be broad based, mostly virtual, built by younger folks, have a real budget, and a real plan. I'd love to help, but I'm a generation, maybe two, behind the focus of such an organization.
Very interesting discussion. Being a newbie to amateur radio, as you know, Steve, I would love to know more about why you say AR needs to ADAPT TO THAT NEW REALITY. AND DO SO FAST, VERY FAST. To protect ham spectrum maybe? To keep it alive generally?
Ronald - Thanks for asking. Good question! I say that because the older generation of Amateur Radio Operators is aging out fast... and they have little clue on how to engage the current generation. How do you bridge the gap between the Saturday Evening Post generation and the TikTok generation? Thus without significant engagement to encourage the newcomer Amateur Radio Operators, they'll walk away from Amateur Radio having found nothing much to keep them interested and engaged.
In Zero Retries, I'm trying to engage the newcomer Amateur Radio Operators that are inclined towards digital / data / technical aspects of Amateur Radio and experimentation in Amateur Radio, such as those coming from technical fields such as IT, Makers, Hackers, Engineering, etc. looking at Amateur Radio as another facet of their interests and careers. But those "Zero Retries Interesting" Amateur Radio Operators aren't the majority of new Amateur Radio Operators... at least not yet. Thus my various projects in Zero Retries to hopefully reshape Amateur Radio to be more relevant and interesting to such Amateur Radio Operators, such as my SuperPeater concept discussed in Zero Retries 0182.
So I fantasize about a new Amateur Radio organization for this era. For example, the Online Amateur Radio Community - https://www.oarc.uk isn't quite all that I had in mind, but they certainly have the right idea, engaging younger Amateur Radio Operators on Discord. Their web page says they currently have 1700 members, and I'll guess those 1700 are significantly engaged, so that's the right idea... we just need something with more scale.
"tunnel data over a digital television system" reminded me of this hack utilizing YouTube video as a data storage warehouse. The right encoding/decoding scheme could theoretically turn those digital video streams into a data stream. https://hackaday.com/2023/02/21/youtube-as-infinite-file-storage/
Cale - Yeah, I remember that hack. And before that, there was a board that could encode data into a video stream so that you could use an off the shelf video recorder (VHS) for storage of large files (that made sense back when hard disks were small and expensive).
I think that dedicated video hardware and modulations made sense in an earlier era when computers weren't very powerful (at least versus dedicated video chips produced at massive scale for consumer use). Now that we can do video in software and cheap, commodity, embedded computers like Raspberry Pi 5, coupled to cheap D/A and A/D converters, I think it makes more sense overall to create general purpose data networks that can carry all kinds of data. Oh wait... we did - the Internet running TCP/IP, UDP, etc.
Our problem in Amateur Radio is that we think too small most of the time, and we don't think of all that we can be doing with the vast radio technology privileges that we have. We can be doing at least 1 Mbps off the shelf with New Packet Radio for example. I'm pretty sure we can do at least SOME video comms over such a link... which can also do data.
That said, the Amateur Radio video folks are rabid about their favorite mode and they put their effort, money, time, and resources behind it. The only equivalent that I've found in Amateur Radio for data that's comparable to the video folks is the AREDN folks, and yeah, you can easily do video over those networks (including at high resolution, at least HD, and I've seen 4k discussed).
I can see this statement from the ARRL being true for two reasons. First, is the fact that preparing for the tests teaches you absolutely zero about how to use radios. It teaches theory on electricity, frequency bands, outdated electronics, a smidge on antennas, a little bit on safety and the rules/laws of the FCC. Secondly, is the turn off that is being driven by older hams towards new hams.
I punched my Technician's ticket 14 yrs ago, I was inactive 2 weeks later even though I bought a new Yaesu 2M mobile, 30A Alinco PS, couple mobile antennas, and a couple cheap HT with upgraded antennas, etc.
The reason I punched my ticket was for EmComm. If something happened, I wanted a way to communicate, find out news, reach out to a couple friends within 10-20 miles of my QTH.
The reason I went inactive is i tried a few times to get stuff working, but I didn't have the time to figure out the radios on my own, especially since there really wasn't a lot of online information - YouTube was still in its infancy even back then.
At that time I had just turned 40. I was the CEO of a successful tech company, I held board seats on two startups as an early stage investor, i also spent some time mentoring startups at a leading incubator here in Atlanta, and was on the board for one national non profit as well AND I was married with a daughter in middle school.... I didn't have time to breath, let alone have the time to figure out what all the hobby had to offer.
A few years ago I took the golden parachute on doctor's orders, sold the business and retired. Earlier this year, I found my old radios - and even though I passed that simple test in 6 minutes with a 100% score - i found knew NOTHING about my radios - how to program them, how to join a net meeting, etc. This time I had ChatGPT and YouTube.
I studied for a month for my General, i watched W4EEY videos over and over, I read the ARRL book cover to cover twice, took the practice tests and even went paid for hamradioprep to make sure i knew the information. Spent five hours a day, seven days a week learning the material inside and out... again easy test i passed it 100% in 12 minutes... and what does it really teach you? NOTHING about the operations of the radio, zip, zero, nadda a dang thing. OK it gives you some Q codes and tells you that you start a transmission with CQ CQ CQ, but does it go into detail about what does a notch filter do and why or when to use it? What DNR is, why use it, when to use it? Grab the ARRL General test prep book and point out the page number if I am wrong please, cause if it is there, I missed it 100%.
As a new/old ham IMO - these tests need to really be revamped. There needs to be a way to teach - this is a repeater, this is how you connect to it, this is why it has an offset or an uplink/downlink frequency. This is what digital can do, Dstar, DMR, Fusion, Hotspot/Bridging, this is things you can do to "dial in" a faint signal on 10M phone, this is how you setup X top digital communication modes (FT8, winlink, varAC, etc)... and revamp it every couple of years as technology changes...
Also there needs to be a change in the mindset of the older hams. Join almost any Social Media platform subreddit or group about ham radio and the in-fighting is horrible. The tube guys vs the sdr guys, the CW only fanboys hating on the FT8 fanboys, the brand fanboys fighting over which radio is best, the outright disdain for those coming into the hobby from CBs or for preparedness reasons. The down right rude comments on the simplest questions... runs off a large % of newcomers.
My guess looking at my four local (and very active) clubs I beliebe most elmers or older hams are in the 70's. If this is true across the US. I hate to say it this way, but if they truly love the hobby and want it to last generations.. then they need to realize they may have maybe a decade left spinning the radio dial. They need do a much better join embracing every new ham, stop hating on what is new or different than they way they became a ham and accept it, respect its place in the hobby...
Mike - Thanks for sharing your experience, and I'm glad you're back into Amateur Radio.
Yeah, there needs to be massive changes in the average experience of newcomers to Amateur Radio. There are a lot of good ideas floating around out there, including a few brave clubs that are trying new things and having success in engaging and retaining and encouraging newcomer Amateur Radio Operators.
And I agree that the Amateur Radio test should be vastly simplified to things like:
* Spectrum regulations - where is legal to transmit, etc.
* Safety (some electrical, some RF including acceptable exposure limits)
* Acceptable behavior - must ID regularly, no exclusive frequencies, not acceptable to deliberately cause interference
* Know the penalties for violating the regulations
* If you want to really experiment, how to post your unique modulation technique or modem hardware to a public website, and how to request a Special Temporary Authority.
If you want to understand the physics - ionosphere, or the technology (circuits, formulas) you can learn that as you go.
But there's no clearinghouse for replicating the really good programs... and there really needs to be.
The question is how to push this change, when it seems those at the "top" of the hobby, don't listen to the every day ham?
I think the key to driving new membership is being missed on two fronts - first of course is when we have such a tragic event as Helena happen, we need to focus on the fact that "fear sells"... for several weeks after Helena, social media platforms were flooded with "how do I get into ham radio?" Or "how do I study for the ham licensem" or "what radio do I need to contact my family"... there should have been a marketing plan with a budget set aside at the national level to drive these individuals to the local clubs or VEs or even the training sites. The second missed opportunity I feel is the fact the ARRL (and manufacturers) aren't working hand in hand with every S.T.E.M. School in the nation. My daughter when to a public high school that had education tracks for Engineering, Architecture, Medical, & Software Development. They had a whole slew of academic clubs - but nothing regarding ham radio... Lexis and Thompson give access to their legal databases to every law student in the nation for free... first touched, often becomes the preferred system of the student. Student graduates and starts their own practice they subscribe. If they join a firm that uses the same software they are happy, if not the are forced to use the other... but when they become partners, they push for their favorite systems even though they haven't touched it for 4 or 6 years.
Mike - In fairness to ARRL, they are making significant effort in the direction you suggest - https://www.arrl.org/teachers-institute-on-wireless-technology... though it mystifies me why they don't try to establish a strategic relationship with Make Magazine / Maker Faires, etc. to advertise Amateur Radio (in a relevant way) to the Maker / STEM communities. Not to mention that ARRL has no significant relationship (that I've seen) to IEEE which works hard to reach out to techies in college.
As to why ARRL doesn't "make its materials widely available like Lexis and Thompson... ARRL's true core business is being a publisher of magazines and books, and if they "open sourced" that... their entire financial structure would become precarious. At least... ARRL feels that's what would happen. In my opinion, ARRL's biggest issue isn't profitability... it's irrelevance at hiding most of its material behind a paywall, which essentially means that it's invisible and uninteresting to the newer Amateur Radio Operators. 73 Magazine, available on the Internet Archive's Digital Library of Amateur Radio & Communications (DLARC) - https://archive.org/details/73-magazine is more relevant to new Amateur Radio Operators than any of the ARRL magazines because it's completely and totally available online without restriction.
Steve, I couldn't agree more that the ham licensing in the US needs a big change. I've been licensed for over 30 years, and only recently upgraded to General primarily because (pause for dramatic effect) I have little to no interest in talking on the radio. Data modes are the "in" for me, and have been since I started playing with ham radio. Packet, APRS, TCP/IP over RF have been the big draw, and only recently as data over HF has become practical did I have any interest at all in "upgrading" to General. FT8 started the interest, then JS8Call, FreeDATA, ARDOP, etc. These are the "cool" things for me. I played on 10m for years before getting General.
Personally I find the information covered on the exams to be mostly useless. I learned the information to pass the exam, but the vast majority of the info is useless to how I participate in ham radio.
I would love to see the ham license structure changed to just one single exam with one license level that grants all privileges. The exam content should simply be the rules and regulations on what you are allowed to do. That's it.
The simple fact is that if someone wants to learn about a technology, like how to design and build an antenna, they are going to do it on their own, not from an exam. If someone wants to learn about CW, they'll go to a web page, watch a Youtube video, or buy a book and read about it. Same with any of the digital modes. It simply doesn't make sense to me to have this information on the exam.
I like the comment from Mike KK4PMW, "There needs to be a way to teach - this is a repeater, this is how you connect to it, this is why it has an offset or an uplink/downlink frequency. This is what digital can do, Dstar, DMR, Fusion, Hotspot/Bridging, this is things you can do to "dial in" a faint signal on 10M phone, this is how you setup X top digital communication modes (FT8, winlink, varAC, etc)... and revamp it every couple of years as technology changes". I disagree that this should be on the exam, but I think this is exactly the type of thing the ARRL should be offering. Essentially, practical introductory guides for various aspects of ham radio.
Although I have radios/computers up 24/7 running things like APRS and AREDN, I'm also probably considered "inactive" by the ARRL because I let my membership lapse. They simply don't offer anything interesting to me.
Dj - You and I would have a good time sitting across the table from each other with a few adult beverages exchanging interesting ideas about data modes in Amateur Radio. I'm glad to have you as a reader of Zero Retries.
Please see my earlier replies to John Simmons NI0K and Mike - KK4PMW. We need to rethink the whole experience of new Amateur Radio Operators. We in Amateur Radio might not be able to influence the regulations (much... yet...), but we can influence the Amateur Radio testing. Most folks don't realize that the Amateur Radio (Volunteer Examiner) testing question pool is composed by VECs (Amateur Radio) - not the FCC. Thus we can influence that "on ramp" to Amateur Radio. And of course we can do a lot for the experience of newcomer Amateur Radio Operators. If only there was an organization to reach out to every new Amateur Radio Operator... without the expectation of "give us money to join our fine organization, THEN we can help you".
We really need a very organized system of video (backed up by text) tutorials on every aspect of the typical Amateur Radio experience. If we need a guideline for what we need to cover, look to the ARRL Handbook. I'm not saying "rip off the content of the ARRL Handbook", but the scope of ideas in that book are pretty solid and have been refined for more than 100 editions, so at least there's a guideline of what to cover. For example, there needs to be (probably is...) a video tutorial on how to choose the right coaxial cable for your first radio / antenna combination. How to put up an antenna safely (pole? tower? chimney mount?).
And to do that we need a new organization with a new focus and young energy. I hope we see such an organization coalesce soon.
Dropping this in from Mastodon user "womble":
I think "* 75% of Techs Inactive After 1 Year?" is true in many countries.
I don't think it is often a case of deciding it isn't for them. There is little support if you don't have confidence to get started (fear of transmitting is common at first) and aren't involved in a club. Where I am, clubs are mainly run by and for retirees, but new hams are generally younger. Nets frequently happen during the working day, or on bands that don't work well if you have limited space.
I'm one such radio experimenter that picked up this hobby with the idea that it would be fulfilling to help the local emergency teams in a time of need. I had not considered that operators are not called for every emergency and also it takes learning, training and practice to become the skilled operator that emergency teams need. Reality was not kind and that motivation spark found nothing out there to make me pick up a microphone or key. I would have given up 6 months after being licensed if it were not for the support of my local radio club. The good thing is that this 'inactive operator' situation is being discussed in multiple forums and many societies are taking action to the best of their abilities to help these 'inactive' operators pickup the hobby again.
Sandip - Thanks for your comments. I know that the situation of "inactive operators" is being recognized - by some, and acted upon - by some. But those efforts are currently very diffused and there's no coordination to make them more effective and communicate what is proven to work, not just to make the "doing" organizations better, but to encourage organizations to BECOME "doing" organizations by making it easier by providing a template.
Thank you for this article. I agree with all the issues raised.
I also wonder how the “Ham Cram” sessions contributed to the denominator for these stats. (A single day session reviewing/cramming the Tech question pool and then taking the exam. ). How many of these students were really interested in ham radio or really know what it was. Just a thought
Chris - Agreed that the "cram sessions" to get members of the (non-technical) general public licensed as a Technician and hand them a portable radio, and have the expectation that "now you can communicate in an emergency" is ultimately unproductive and actually detrimental as those folk's perceptions of Amateur Radio will end up being pretty negative.
On the other hand, the "cram" sessions for folks like techies that just need the license to be doing more interesting experimentation in Amateur Radio spectrum (example, the VE testing at DEF CON) doesn't have value in my opinion. Those folks will quickly educate themselves on what they need to know be doing experimentation within Amateur Radio. I've cited the example in Zero Retries of a Technician licensees that got licensed solely to experiment with (outdoor, Wide Area Network) microwave networks because they enjoyed doing Wi-Fi in their IT jobs.
I was not aware of those people who want to experiment but it makes sense. You are correct that these people would be motivated and have the expertise to get licensed without much tutoring. I would guess the cram sessions would be of value these people in the non-technical portions of the question pool.
The unrealistic expectation for EMCOMM is also a shame. It’s more than an HT.
The pricing of equipment, from my view, is what is pushing newly-licensed hams from the air waves. Hand-held units are held up as the expensive solution, but they often lack sufficient power to escape the local community. We need a company similar to Heath to produce solid-state kits that use cheaper transistors and arrays and can compete with the likes of current transceiver manufacturers.
Robert - We're getting there. The Chinese radio manufacturers are amazingly efficient at following trends towards "whatever makes us a few bucks" and are slowly coming around to the idea of a basic, inexpensive (comparatively) "data" radio with reasonable transmit power. We're seeing interesting variants of mobile radios with a basic "APRS" TNC built in, to radios with no physical front panel but instead a Bluetooth link to an Android device running their "radio app", to completely Software Defined Transceivers able to operate at VHF / UHF and finally we have a few power amplifiers that can work with those very TX power levels of those SDTs. Icom, Kenwood, Yaesu, Flex, and Elecraft don't see this growing market, so they'll eventually get left in the dust like Kodak, Northern Telecom, Nokia, Blackberry, etc. The "Heathkit" approach is cobbling together the SDT plus the power amplifier and the requisite software. I'd argue that GNU Radio is the "Heathkit" of this era.