I started but then seeing it was Google I dumped the survey. Questions are personal and anything held on United States servers are not private even though you do your best. Sorry, that's how the some rest of the world sees it. ZL4IV
Often, "surveys" are inaccurate. I try to do my part by answering the questions honestly... sometimes.
This is my experience as well. In general, the older hams I know first hand bear scant resemblance to the picture that's painted of them on this site.
I love the idea of an independent survey and filled mine out. Ever since I walked into a ___ Amateur Radio Club meeting in my homestate of Delaware in 1977 (attended by 25 grey haired gentlemen and one teenager) I knew something had to be done. Now, details on my own personal survey: I walked the streets of my own locale here in Toronto, starting in my own postal code area, and interviewed Canadian Amateur Certificate holders (I cannot, in good conscience, call them hams) in my own neighbourhood(s). Totally caught these folks off-guard (one asked if I was a bill collector) - but always got a handshake. The results were anything but promising. Two of them actually held up their cell phones and said "I have this now". I ran into former homes of SKs who had been silent for years (decades) and who were still in the government database. Another (too busy to answer the door and the XYL spoke to me) had not been active in over forty years. Two other guys lived three doors from each other and had no idea each was licensed. Perhaps most vivid was the fellow whose maple tree had grown up from under his tower in the back yard to the point that the tree branches were a full 15 feet through and above the elements of his once majestic tri-bander. Could not possibly have been rotated in the past 20 years. "I golf now", he said when asked about his involvement in this awesome hobby. Well, I swim three times a week (hamming is a sedentary activity as we all know). Doesn't keep me from checking into the 3755 Net on a daily basis for all of 2 minutes, does it? When I interviewed others in my hometown back in the US, I got similar results. Too depressed to continue, I focused on developing my own shack, and getting the recent certificate holders here in Toronto, on the air. Oh yeah, my results: 95% of hams within a mile radius of my home (thousands here) are QRT. Might have a radio packed away in a closet somewhere. My advice to anyone taking anything away from this long note is to focus on getting the more-recently "licensed" hams QRV. I managed to convince two coworkers of mine to get a Canadian operating certificate, only to see them not get on the air. I'm still working on them, after a full year. Giving away privileges has been tried before - won't amount to increased activity in my opinion. The key is actual face to face grass roots communication and Elmering. Loan out that dusty antenna in the basement that was last used in Field Day 1984. Call up a local ham and invite him/her to the next club meeting. Reach out to help a ham upgrade. Build a kit together. Sponsor a school club. Lend a hand, not just a handout. Heck, shame them into getting back on the air if you feel the need. VE3EEI/N3AIS
Maybe it will, and maybe it won't. But the fact is that here in the U.S. we have an entry level license that was never designed for that purpose and is doing a pretty lousy job of that.
That's why I undertook my own side project of face to face interviews of "real" people in my own town, who hold some kind of ham privilege. You will find that the results are way different than what an online survey of mostly-active hams reveals. VE3EEI
It sounds like you and I might share the same level of urgency of the current situation, or might not. The situation being that the long term health of this hobby that we all love is in danger of collapsing due to hams themselves/ourselves, not necessarily any decision of ham organizations. We can all gripe, pontificate, opine, vent, etc. on the Internet all day (and feel so right about it), but that won't help the new No-Code Tech two doors down get excited about Field day, try a new digital mode, or (horrors!) maybe learn CW for fun unless we all get in their faces - literally. I know most hams don't like doing that.
I agree that helping new hams is very important. Old Elmer is needed more than ever. However, the other half of the equation is a license that simply does not provide a good introduction to ham radio...to what is possible. What worse way to begin ham radio could there be right now than a license that emphasizes VHF? The repeaters are dead almost everywhere. Well, how about 10-meters? The conditions are going to keep it asleep for years--there was a little activity, but only a little activity, during the SSB Contest. One way to begin improving the license would be for Techs to be authorized to use digital modes in the HF bands were they currently have CW privileges. That would be a start, anyway.
"The conditions are going to keep it asleep for years--there was a little activity, but only a little activity, during the SSB Contest." Interesting observation. Also interesting is how so many bemoan how the bands are dead..UNTIL a contest rolls around. LOL 7pm local Sunday night when a contest ends; the band scope says it all.
That happens on the lower bands for sure. But unless 10 is somewhat open it doesn't. And openings are few in these days of the quiet Sun. I did make some QSOs on 10-meters during the contest, but not the numbers you would expect during the big phone contest. Be that as it may, Technician does NOT provide a balanced introduction to ham radio.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Yeah, I saw that too and chuckled. I'd like to see 8.2 though as I'm not on board with 10. de NK2U
