Newspaper misrepresents ham radio numbers

Generally, it's a case of journalists understanding nothing at all about the hobby, and writing with their own prejudice and ill-informed opinion. Of course, we also have a big part to play in this 'anorak' and 'irrelevant' reaction to our hobby: our national societies have failed to adequately engage with mainstream media. Writing endless articles for those who already practice radio is not the same thing - at all - as writing interesting, accesible pieces for a lay audience. I'm afraid we're all far too good at shouting in our own echo chambers and feeling impressed by the quality of the return.

 

Indeed. But we have too many 'Cold War' structures - an ageing representative population sitting, urchin-like, to committees that afford them, so they think, much kudos and respectability. What this inevitably leads to is an unresponsive cadre of people who become lost in matters of minutiae that are rarely of any importance, and certainly do nothing to address the biggest problems we have - lack of interest from the younger folk, and Baby Boomer mainstays that are now well into their 70s, and won't be there much longer. It's not about ageism. It's about reading the writing on the wall - and mostly doing nothing.

 

This is a major problem, the lack of engagement and the complacency among radio amateurs.
Most believe that our privileges, that were given to us in the aftermath of WW2, will be forever.

Being professionally involved in spectrum management matters, it has become quite clear to me
that amateur radio no longer "earns its keep" and as we, unfortunately, have caused a lot of unnecessary work
and aggravations for the regulators with various forms of petty sandbox quarrels, they see us as a royal PITA.

The days when the powers-that-be actively encouraged amateur radio are long gone.

73/
Karl-Arne
SM0AOM

 

Fake News using ink is cool.

 

WELL??? IS THAT REALLY WRONG??? AMATEUR RADIO "IS" IMPORTANT TO OUR ENTIRE NATION!!! WE PROVIDE EVERYTHING THAT OUR "OWN" GOV. CAN'T SUPPLY, INCLUDING OUR EQUIPMENT, EXPERTISE, & COSTS!!! WE PROVIDE COMM'S AT OUR OWN EXPENSE AND IT DOESN'T COST OUR LEADERS (GOV'T) A DAMN CENT!!! WE DO IT "WILLINGLY"!!!

 

Wow...

 

CFN OL'BOY !!!

Very astutely put !!! But think about this as well, in that a number of NATIONS have "WASHED THEIR HANDS" of "CITIZEN COMM. BANDS" like either here in the U.S of A or the Netherlands and I think Spain & France!!! So with that said MY PREDICTION is that the FCC (USA) will "DE-REGULATE" our HF bands completely because we (HAMS) aren't generating ENOUGH REVENUES FOR "THEM"!!! But can you think of ANY COMMERCIAL ENTITIES that would WANT ANY OF OUR HF BANDS???

Just a THOUGHT!!!

REGARDS,
Jim Davis-NN6EE

 

I'm not trying to hijack the thread, but I suspect the problem is more than just amateur radio. Each and every time during the last 15 or 20 years in which I hear a news story about something with which I'm extremely familiar, the story is rife with errors more than 90% of the time. I now suspect the veracity of each and every news story, as the 24 hour news cycle has created an air of, "Run with it, publish it - to heck with accuracy." I realize that I'm generalizing and I apologize profusely to reporters and editors that DO make every effort to ensure that they publish/print/transmit the truth. It seems to be a lost art.

 

Dear All

This Belgium Newspaper also post a rectification as they ment Proffesional Broadcast Radio stations and not us HAM-RADIO operators.

In the article(see below) they placed the correct figures of 5.000 HAM-RADIO operators and the difference between Radio Broadcast stations vs HAM-Radio ops.

 

Says a lot about the news media's credibility.

 

The media publishing inaccuracies? Nahhh, not the newspapers.
This is precisely why I don’t waste my time or money on 99% of media.