Sorry John, I couldn't disagree with you more. Ham radio's been
knocking on death's door since the end of World War I. First, the navy
tried to kill it. Then cw (Spark forever! Arrrrgh!) A few years later
(OK, decades later), it was those darn Novices. No lids, no kids, no
space cadets. Then it was those slopbucketeers with their Donald Duck
talk. Fast forward again, and the codeless Tech license was gonna do
us in for sure. I was on that particular bandwagon, and I'm happy to
have been wrong. Now, for the past, oh, I dunno, 15 years or so, the
Internet has been poised to kill ham radio. We ain't dead yet.
Here's my point. Well, one of them, anyway. Change is the only
constant in this world,and that includes hams and ham radio. If we
want to attract more young, technically minded people who will advance
the state of the art, we not only need to put ourselves out there as
communicators, but, let's face it, worldwide communications is now
passe. We need to get these kids where they live: on the Internet and
behind the computer. Software-defined radio? Robot contest stations?
New digital modes? You bet, it's all coming. Will we like all the
changes? Probably not, but it's a darn good thing ham adio's so wide
ranging and broad in its aspects, there's enough to appeal to any of us.
But here's my other point. While we as hams may use the Internet for
things like VOIP radio linking, APRS linking, gateways to pass traffic
across, and so on, one of ham radio's greatest strengths is that,
while we can use the infrastructure when it's available, we're
flexible enough that we don't *have* to use any infrastructure if that
infrastructure goes down. Why not get these net savvy kids involved to
help us develop robust off-the-grid networks to use when the
commercial infrastructure crumbles or becomes unavailable? How will we
find these people if we don't use the infrastructure that *is*
available to show what is possible now and find the people who can
stretch those possibilities?
I say--use it if you got it.
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