I read K5ERV's editorial about the cost and other barriers to young people entering Amateur Radio and I have to say; Dan, I don't agree with you on several points.
First is cost. Yes, a top-of-the-line rig is better than $2,000, but a perfectly good rig, and one actually far better than what Dan or I had starting out 35 years ago, is less than $1,000 brand new from the ham store. I recently picked up a used rig for my father to use for less than $500. Moreover, when you consider the change in the value of the dollar from 35 years ago, that $250 dollar investment he made to get started translates represents much more than $2,000 today. I bought my first receiver - going halves with my brother, K1LLR - for $150. My half represented about 150 hours labor at the going rate for teenagers then. An equivalent amount of work today at hamburger-flipping wages would be give you about $500 to invest, and you can get a used rig, or a new 2-meter mobile, or a very nice HT plus antenna for that. Really, I don't think the cost of Amateur Radio has changed in real terms.
Dan's other point was about the attraction of the Internet and computing in general draining off the young people who might otherwise be attracted to radio. I concur. There are a lot of interesting things you can do with computers and lot's of information - good and bad - you can access over the Internet. Some people, young and old, will find that computers give them what they want in a hobby, and they will never be interested in ham radio. But computers are fundamentally different from ham radio, and the personal aspect of talking to real people, of communicating with far-away places, is still going to be exciting. I don't think we have been very active in getting the word out, frankly, so of course we don't have much to show.
73
Dave
K1MBO
dpotter@world.std.com
Back to table of contents