Issue #31: Women of Amateur Radio

Thank you for reading the current issue, "Women of Amateur Radio." I hope you'll join us here for discussion on this topic. How can we attract more newcomers to our hobby? In particular, wouldn't you love to have more YLs on the radio? I would! What's the secret sauce to getting more gals to express interest? For Suzie, it was the new friends that she would make, and for Debby it was not only the new friends, but the remarkable magic of signals passing from antenna to antenna, despite the long distances! Your thoughts here, please!

 

One of my favorite ham-radio writings is Eulalia M. Thomas, "XYL," QST, September 1929, pages 23, 24, 72, 74. (QSTs from that era and more are available free in PDF form from https://www.worldradiohistory.com/QST.htm.) My favorite passage:

To me, one of the greatest things in amateur radio is the friendships one forms. Ofttimes there is naught but the thinnest strands of communication binding them. It is as the poet Dix has said, "My world is as wide as the realm of thought." But it is not only the "thoughts" of our game; it is the friendships that intrigue us. Only we, who have sat in a fast-chilling room, listening with queer, hypnotic fascination to a friend, a mile, a thousand -- or even ten thousand miles away, saying "73," can understand. We snap on our transmitter and out through the clear air go thin, etheric fingers; out through the infinite goes a handclasp of friendship. So we, sitting along by our set, become suddenly warm and happy, for the Angel of Friendship has entered and we know that across the miles we have found a friend.

 

David, that's one terrific quote in regards to the themes of the article. Thank you for this! Dave Jensen

 

Does anyone reading this issue feel that perhaps it is a mistake to think of recruitment of new hams from only the male perspective? That's what we've done for years. As a predominantly male pastime, we guys are always talking up how cool the gear is, how much fun it is to put up an antenna, build a radio, tear down a shack and rebuild it, and so on . . . those are all "hot buttons" for interest. While some women may be excited by this, others (perhaps especially the older ones) may be attracted more to the social and friendship aspects of the hobby. It sure seems that way to me based on my wife's comments and the comments passed along by both women I interviewed for this piece. Maybe my sales pitch for my wife needs to change. Dave, W7DGJ

 

Great column! There's a chapter devoted to early women wireless operators in "SOS to the Rescue" that folks might find interesting.

 

My wife and daughter have both been licensed for many years. In the beginning my wife was pretty active and achieved DXCC fairly quickly. She also was a contest operator at multi op stations. Her interest has diminished as other things in life (like her home business) now occupy her time. She does fully support my ham activities though.

My daughter was only minimally active even at the beginning. Of course she was just 8 yrs old at the time. These days she is not active as she is a full time 9-1-1 dispatcher and in her words "I have more than enough time on the radio every 12 hour shift I work". I can't argue with that. She remains licensed however. If she is deployed in the field in a mobile communications unit as a tactical dispatcher there is also ham gear on board. She wants to be able to use it if necessary.

 

While there are a lot of very active male AR operators that eschew the technical side of the hobby, I think David hit it on the head. The social aspects of the hobby are the main draw for most, but not all the YL's that I know.

 

I'm hoping that the women in our cohort will chime in. I know and have known some exceptional female operators and hope they'll join the conversation.

 

Thank you very much for including me in the article. RATPAC has been a deeply rewarding and productive use of my time.

https://www.ratpac.us/

I'm the CEO and co-founder of Open Research Institute, a non-profit dedicated to open source digital radio work. We do technical and regulatory work that directly benefits the amtateur radio and amateur radio satellite service.

You can find out more about what I have supported and helped build here: https://www.openresearch.institute/

The reason ORI exists is because of very bad experiences with traditional and legacy amateur radio groups.

Those bad experiences have been documented and fought back against. However, the lack of any real repercussions for bad behavior from AMSAT, ARRL, and ARDC leadership made it very clear that these groups were not safe to volunteer for or depend upon in any way. Women are welcome in these groups if they are non-technical or confused. Females are most welcome if they are subservient or compliant girls.

After figuring this out, we made our own successful and diverse community. We then delivered the highest ROI of any amateur radio group out there, and we continue to do so. We're proud of what we do and we will keep doing it.

All are welcome at ORI. We have a newsletter and a mailing list. Technical discussions are held on on our Slack. Our GitHub accounts can be found at the following links.

https://github.com/OpenResearchInstitute
https://github.com/Haifuraiya

-Michelle Thompson

 

It is absolutely a mistake to think of "recruitment of new hams" - PERIOD.

Amateur Radio isn't something that people should be "recruited" for. Rather, it's something EVERYONE should know about, through GOOD publicity, so that the few who ARE interested will join up.

What's needed is GOOD, ACCURATE PUBLICITY - not "recruitment".

I disagree 100%. With all due respect, your sample size is too small.

I've known quite a few female amateurs over the years, and their reasons for being a ham were and are all over the place. Sometimes it was because they were in a "ham family", sometimes because they were interested in technology, sometimes because they came across "radio for radio's sake" and got the bug.

What's needed, IMHO, is equal treatment. Make no assumptions about what will attract someone because of their chromosomes, gender, whatever. Make no assumptions about what someone can do, what interests them, what their contribution can be, what their needs are. Consider the individual, not what group they do or do not belong to.

73 de Jim, N2EY

 

Hi Jim, do we have some basic disagreements here. I'm flexible. I see your point, but after 40 years in recruitment, I know that you can't approach everyone the same way.

There are basic differences between people that need to be recognized. (I'm trying not to talk in "HR speak" here with regards to hiring diversity). Recruitment is just what you say it is not . . . it is putting up a brand, the right publicity, the right image, and people are then attracted to it if they are the least bit receptive. The "brand" that ham radio has put up in the past just hasn't worked all that well with many who might otherwise be interested in the amateur radio services . . . The brand that people think of is an old guy (like me, like you) sitting at a bench filled with old radios, CW keys, and soldering irons, doing "weird stuff" on the radio. Heck no, that won't fly.

It wasn't until my wife saw that we could make new friends that she expressed an interest in radio. Likewise with many I have spoken to, both women and men (and particularly during the pandemic years). You're right, that there are a lot of women who could tear apart a Collins and put it back together, and Ria or Michelle (both mentioned in my article) would fall into that category. But there are many where that would have little interest -- not that they couldn't do it. Ham radio needs a new brand.

No, the sample size is not too small. It goes back to the idea, expressed in two recent T&E issues, that we need a mix of people (a diverse amateur radio crowd) consisting of both people who have a love of theory, of electronics, of radio, of code, etc. along with those operators who just learned enough to get their license and pick it up from there. They just want to get on the radio. And while many of us old-timers might resist that wave of newcomers, there are people out there who would be attracted to ham radio if only the "brand" and the "recruitment" weren't so far off the mark (for them).

If you treat everyone as if they are the same (your "equal treatment") you'll end up with only the same type of operator coming into the hobby and that leaves out people who start out being "purely plug and play" but who discover, by being on the radio, that the gear itself is fun as well . . . they had no idea when they started with the hobby, because they wanted to make radio friends, that they would pick up an interest in antennas, or learn morse code. Because we were accepting of them, they got a license and discovered it themselves. That's how you build a base to replace all of us old guys who will go away and leave a void unless something is done about it.

Dave, W7DGJ

 

Gotta agree with DGJ here. Amateur radio is changing fast. Not just CW being left in the dust, either. HF SSB is feeling the pressure. The youngsters are tech savvy but a lot of them are going digital in part because digital modes are fairly anonymous and in part because they like bits and bytes better than dits and dahs. These kids need to be welcomed and respected. They are the future. They will make ham radio whatever it will be.

 

Another disaster of an article that completely misses the mark. I don’t always agree with Jim, but he is spot on here.

Sexist much bro? Seriously, go to a high school or college and try to “recruit” class of mix gender students. Pitch the males on the technology and electronics of the hobby. How they can advance their scientific skill. Then pitch the females that they can “talk to other people” and increase the social presence, because after all that’s females do right? They just talk, cackling hens in the hen house, right? Then get back to us and tell us how your “recruiting”efforts played out.

I shouldn’t be, I know better by now, but I’m absolutely stunned that in this day and age someone thinks the best we can offer a female is that they can talk to someone else. “Yeah, use HAM radio and you can make more friends and talk, because that all you girls do anyways.”

That’s straight up garbage. Females are just as much involved in math, science, electronics and anything else in the world far more than you or I are. Singling them out that the best they can do is make friends and talk to other people is garbage.

And this is why all your “recruitment efforts” suck. Not just you, but all the efforts I see posted on here. Many of you are so far detached from society you don’t even know what you’re pitching or who you’re pitching it too.

Seriously, you do more harm than good trying to recruit people. Let them make the choice. If radio is for them, they’ll find it and they can decide if they want to be technical or a ham radio socialite.*

And please, do not think that women are only good at socializing and talking. They are far better than that.

* BTW, I don’t see a long list of women complaining about lack of rag chewing on the bands here. Most of the women on here are very active in building and experimenting. It’s mostly dudes in their 70s and 80s that complain nobody will talk to them. By those metrics, you’re barking up the wrong tree.

 

Scott, it looks like you've spent a lot of time in the military and in fire departments. So, first off, thank you for your service. But I object to the "disaster of an article" comment as it continues your tradition of vicious commentary. Can't you just post comments, positive or negative, about the article as others have?

I suspect you were on the team at the FDNY when the gals were let into the fire department? Do you remember Brenda Berkman? How did you treat those women firefighters? Were you as "woke" as you make yourself seem here, with regards to women on the force? I'm sure you'll recall those days at FDNY when women were hazed and basically pushed as hard as they could to drop out of FDNY so it could remain an old boy's club.

I've reviewed and revised my article to make sure that it's clear that, just like with men, there are multiple "types" of hot buttons that attract women (thank you for the push). Ria and Michelle, two women mentioned in my piece, are clearly far more interested in technical aspects of radio than I am, or a lot of other men. Either gender can find an interest in those aspects of radio. Just as easily, some guys just love to make new friends on the radio and that's their sole reason for turning on the lights in the shack. More power to them! What I am saying is that the BRAND (the representation we've placed of "ham radio" in the mind of the public) is still off-putting to many. Off-putting to some women, and off-putting to some men.

Your comment "Sexist much, bro" either comes because you didn't read (or understand) my comments, or else I've written it improperly -- as communication is a two-way street. I'll go back and review that. But I can assure you I know what STEM is all about, and how women are just as turned on to those four topics as men are. Over a forty year career in professional recruitment, I placed just as many women in jobs like biology/engineering/math as men. Check out my comments in the Dan Rather Reports video, available on the Internet ("PhDon't") where Dan interviews me about STEM careers and some of the issues of the day (albeit, from 10-12 years ago). STEM was my life, for decades.

You'll note that the women identified in the article, Suzie and Debby, were not high schoolers or college-aged. Suzie is a retired attorney, and I am certain that Debby is of the same age bracket. We make a mistake when hams assume that all newcomers for the future of the amateur radio services are going to come from high schools and consist only of young kids. That's not true. There's a huge, untapped population of adults -- often our age (just guessing for you based on your picture) who find radio attractive, and for different reasons. For some, as I said, it's a social thing and we can't simply leave the "it's fun to tear apart a radio, put up an antenna, and pound a brass CW key" as the brand's message. We'll miss half the newcomers that way.

This forum is for a back-and-forth discussion of the topic from one article. It's fine to comment that you don't like the column, but please don't come back with personal attacks, especially to mysterious "others" who can't even be identified in your post.

Dave W7DGJ

 

Thanks for posting Michelle. I love the material you and your colleagues have put up on RATPAC, and my link was a hot one in the article in hopes that you'd get some traffic out of it. I'm sorry that you got so much trouble out of our major radio association just because you are teaching ham radio topics there. With regards to ORI, I know that you've been responsible for bringing some great technology to amateurs, and as you know we had an article here on T&E that focused on one of those. Thank you for all that you do, Dave W7DGJ