No, not too soon. But let's do a little math.... Let's say the price drop costs $5 per young person. How many will actually take advantage of the deal? 5000 per year? That's $25,000. But there are over 100,000 annual (not life) members, so it works out to less than 25 cents per annual member. Those ads pay for much but not all of the magazine. What has been done for some time now is to put all the ads together at the front and back, and all the articles in the middle. That's great! How much is membership? How big is the magazine? What else do members get? 73 de Jim N2EY
Because senior citizens are more likely to have money. And it's not like senior citizens don't get discounts all over the place, on all sorts of things. Fun fact: For the entire 49 years that the Novice license was available to newcomers (1951 - 2000), there was no fee for that license. 73 de Jim N2EY
Consider that many young people don't have designer clothes nor fancy cellphones. Consider that, in today's world, a cellphone is pretty much a necessity. When I was a teenager, I always carried some change for a pay phone in case I had to call home - but today's teenagers can't do that because the pay phones are GONE. Family plans allow multiple lines at low cost. With both spouses working full time and kids having lots of activities, cellphones become a necessity. Also a safety measure. My folks paid for housing, food, clothing, medical care, utilities, and other necessities. Amateur Radio was on me. 73 de Jim N2EY
Yeah, the VEs will be overwhelmed I am sure. Next thing you know a famous actress or popular singer will be dating a ham too…. Our hobby is about to go viral folks!
This is true. Here is a photo of my son a few years ago inspecting the ancient ruins of what was once a pay phone:
People think that dropping the price by 10 dollars is going to be earth shattering and draw thousands upon thousands of kids who think ham radio is the best........get your heads out of the sand. more often than not the parents are paying for the fee. If you want kids to join the ranks..........let the FCC make the rule and not the ARRL...realistically going thru all the hoops just t get a refund of the fees from the ARRL is a waste. The FCC alone should make it so kids under 16 would get their tech license for free...no fees, no bs of going thru the arrl...just make it so kids under 16 get their tech for free....it is not rocket science. Why do we always have to complicate things...keep it simple stupid =K.I.S.S.
So the fee shouldn't change? The fee I'm question is the TESTING fee, not the LICENSE fee. The TESTING fee goes to the VEC, to defray the expenses of running the VEC. FCC sets an upper limit on the license fee. The LICENSE fee goes to the FCC, who puts it in the general fund. The LICENSE fee is $35. FCC was REQUIRED by the Ray Baum Act to add the LICENSE fee. 73 de Jim N2EY
Hmm...under 18, one hand Amateur radio test vs other hand new cover for my smart phone, or gaming item add-on, or even something fun to do with my gaming or online camera add-on.... Free for under 18 would have been a game changer.
You're correct, when I was working as a field service engineer a few decades ago, I relied on finding a pay phone daily, of course that was back in the days when cell phones were not very common and they were expensive to use! 73
