"Who Are We" - Demographics of US Amateur Radio Licensees

A somewhat significant part of the problem is the FACT that many current technicians were lured into the hobby by the "when all else fails" propaganda of the ARRL...anything to increase League membership you know. Many of them seemingly came into the hobby to save the world when the SHTF and soon found that there was little if any role for them to play. Repeaters? For them only in a disaster where their smart phones cease working. HF? Nope, they went to a local radio club meeting and found it to be dominated by a bunch of crusty old men (I am old but not crusty) who belittled them for their lack of interest in and proficiency with CW. I am not a pessimist by nature but IMO ham radio as many of us have known it is dying. In 20 years ham radio will likely be DOA.

 

As we've known it, absolutely! It won't be DOA, though, it's evolving.

It is evolving into a set of HF bands reserved for "citizens."

 

while there is valid points in these discussions there is also contention, as a tech im studying for general and extra.
I have yet to go on the air until i can get a permanent antenna up.( while i can get around pretty good its very difficult to climb a ladder ( which i shouldn't be doing anyway))
also with the budget constraints i have to get extra gear to do so. my cw is rusty to the point i need to relearn it.
given the understanding that standard electronics values drop even faster than car values do as soon as you drive it off the lot.
yet tack the word ham radio to it and even un-salvageable junk immediately demands a premium price!
so what does a cash strapped recent licensed tech face? and what are their choices? (very low power, limited kit's and designs) and above all justifying the expenditure of cash for a Hobby radio
having access to the higher bands requires some pricey gear and facing the ridicule of long term operators for purchasing cheap radios.
our access to hf (aside from 10 meter) is limited to cw only, which i have no problem with.
hf radios however command ridiculous prices often for gear you cannot get parts for anymore and the need for a large footprint of land for any decent (simple) antennas such as dipoles and inverted v's
sure you can use a variety of different antennas but they all have some limiting issues requiring special construction, tuners, balun's/unun's

look on any youtube site talking about ham radios and you will see a few about different kits, home brews, various tricks! All well and good.
but also see a lot more glowing reviews about this radio and that radio and more than a few $hi##ing in the cheap chinese junk.
where are the videos about modifying and improving them? not many of them at all
and the same here on this site, where are the elmers that are ready to help you improve them?
sure the baofeng is cheap and crappy and you can get attenuation filters for them BUT often at more cost than the radio itself.
is anyone teaching how to homebrew these items? so far i haven't seen any.
i read about keeping up with todays technology, and some techs not advancing!
if the tests have many more questions about todays technology instead of the basics is the tech going to want to change to use technology he doesn't have available or may not have in the foreseeable future

changing licensing structure or making the tests more difficult or even larger is counterproductive to bringing new people into the fold.
so is holding back knowledge!

amateur radio suffers drastically from curmudgeon syndrome and the (I got better than you got) attitude!
spend your kids inheritance to get the shiny waterfall display and pretty bells and whistles! (gratuitous sarcasm) keep up with the Jones's syndrome so you can brag about it.
young people when they see this usually don't want anything to do with it.
rules and regs are important this i understand but to a young person studying them is boring as hell! not to mention they tend to be a bit confusing.
quite frankly a kid about 8 to 10 can pass the test providing they study the material only because their short term retention is much better than an adults, especially if the topic is interesting to them.
The Gordon West books are funny and interesting, quite frankly i wish he was my instructor.
while im an avid reader many people are not. Audio lessons work wonders for many(But only if it is kept interesting)

if we want to change anything we need to stop being sour old farts and learn a little more patience.
I enjoy teaching, I take great pains to make the topics interesting, and i get great pleasure when a student learns something useful.
Im 61 years old and i know how difficult is is for us older folks to change our way of thinking

 

Ah yes--being increasingly used for computer to computer contacts with no humans being necessary at the time of the auto QSOs. Easy to get DXCC that way LOL

 

Huh? Why is "citizens" in scare quotes?

Oh, I get it now. It's a citizens band joke. You do realize that few people under 40 years of age even know what citizens band is? Not even half the American population wouldn't get the joke because the phenomenon it references ended decades ago.

I brought up some ideas on changes to licensing that I thought might help keep Amateur radio relevant and I was reprimanded for not giving racism and sexism in Amateur radio sufficient emphasis. Apparently this is so important that it needs to be discussed to the exclusion of all other demographic issues. It is such an important issue in need of discussion that weeks after the thread was started we haven't broken 50 comments on it yet.

So far there's been demands that quality of those with an Amateur license needs to improve but we can't discuss the testing and privileges of the licenses because the licensing is just fine, will stand the test of time, and even if we did need to change the licensing we shouldn't bother because it would take too long and Amateur radio would likely die first.

So, apparently we are incapable of doing more than one thing at a time. While Amateur radio gets older and crustier, and apparently more racist and sexist, we should drop everything to talk about how bad Amateur radio is getting as opposed to discussing what we could possibly do to fix it. It's too late to save Amateur radio so it's best to not even try.

Do I have this about right?

 

I’m still a brand new ham but have had a lifelong love of radios and electronics, plus I spend a lot of time jabbering on radios at work. But anyways, I don’t think the licensing is the core issue for amateur radio. There’s a lot of “other” stuff competing for peoples attention and dollars. I get excited about every hf contact I make especially if they’re thousands of miles away, yet most people I tell that to are like “ so what? I can talk to people on the other side of the world on my cellphone while sitting in Starbucks sipping on my $7 coffee milkshake.” There’s just not the same passion or curiosity for something that most people consider an antiquated technology. That seems to be the biggest hurdle to sparking renewed interest at least from my rather limited point of view.

 

It doesn't have to be a core issue to be an issue in need of discussion.

The FCC does periodic reviews of their rules and at some point they are going to give Part 97 a closer look. We can prepare ourselves for this inevitability by discussing what licensing should look like so we have an answer when the FCC comes asking, or we can take whatever the FCC hands us. I made my choice. Who is with me?

 

The problems have nothing to do with the hobby or the licensing structure.

Young people aren't buying ham radio equipment, upgrading their licenses, etc., for the same reason they're not buying other expensive durable goods. Incomes have stagnated for 40+ years while the cost of many goods and services (e.g., higher education, health care) have skyrocketed. 50 years ago, a man could be expected to support a family of four by himself. Today, it would be the extreme exception for that to even be possible.

I'm here and on the air because I come from a DINK household. Before that was the case, there were large gaps in my time on the air.

 

It's never been easier to achieve DXCC than today! Even at the bottom of the sun spot cycle!

I dropped the "B" in my call sign a couple years ago, started fresh and had CW DXCC in 6 months. CW WAS in 8 months (it took a while to find one of the three hams in Delaware on the air! )

With FT8/4, it would probably take even less time. (I don't see the point in even trying...)

And now, even I am going back to my roots to find enjoyment in ham radio these days. The demographics are changing and so are the pursuits of happiness (in ham radio.) Just simple, day time, 40 meter (short) CW, an exchange of a hard copy QSL card and hang it on the wall gives me reason to get on the air these days.

Some people say, sure, you've achieved DXCC, but have you achieved DXCC on each band yet? UGH! That's just pointless busy work. If it's not fun in ham radio, I'm not doing it.

(To the younger generation, "I get it!")

 

"Scare" quotes? That's a new one for me. (Just another example of everything changing continuously to keep every one off balance, but that's another subject.) I'm not trying to scare anyone. I just wanted to emphasize it. That's one of the things quotes used to mean (to those I grew up with a few years ago before the internet and cell phones).

Giving racism and sexism emphasis on ham radio is something new to me also. I've never known racism or sexism in ham radio. And people telling me I'm a racist and a sexist (and that I don't know it or I refuse to admit it!) just makes me shut up and walk away--which is the intended effect (which creates the illusion they've won the argument).

And I've seen your suggestions of changing the licensing structure. I'm all for it! Simplify simplify simplify!

It was pretty easy getting a CB license back in the 1970s. And for all practical intents and purposes, to deal with today's "issues" (as you've stated,) I believe it's inevitable that getting a ham license in the near future will be very much like getting a CB license in the past.

But then again, we have an apparently growing number of people who want to keep things confusing and convoluted for what ever reason. (Probably because there's some sort of selfish advantage in it for them.)

 

So, it is inevitable for licensing to change for the worst? Or the question pool watered down? What would make getting an Amateur radio license any easier than it is now? Are you willing to at least try to stop this "inevitability"? It will be inevitable if enough people choose to let it happen. That's not inevitability, that's just thermodynamics where every object in motion remains on an unchanging path unless acted on by an outside force.

I see plenty of people complaining of the path Amateur radio is on but not doing anything to change it.

I don't see anyone calling you a racist and sexist, or any one person to be racist and sexist. They claim it is institutional or something, that it is pervasive and exists where most people won't recognize it until it is pointed out to them. They keep using that word but I don't think it means what they think it means. If these people can point out a racist or sexist policy or law then we can do something about it. By claiming it is invisible and surrounds us then that's like trying to punch the air.

Maybe they will say you are contributing to the problem by not doing anything. I'm not seeing a problem in Amateur radio of racism and sexism that is in anyway different or unique from society at large. Therefore we need not do anything specific in Amateur radio to fight it. There's a natural distaste for racism and sexism in society, and some remnants of racism and sexism in society from another time and place. This battle is not likely to ever end, and we have in our laws and social norms punishment for sexism and racism. When taken to an unhealthy extreme this distaste for bad behavior becomes "cancel culture". That is a level of intolerance that should not be tolerated. We should shun bad behavior so people learn to do better, but that should not come to the level of being "canceled". Without forgiveness for past sins people won't learn. Cancel culture is built on never forgiving, and that's only going to feed bad behavior, not correct it. If there's no improvement in how one is treated for changing their behavior then there's no reason to change their behavior. To forgive does not mean to forget. In fact forgiveness requires that we recall past wrongs, so we can learn from them.

Most of the time today accusations of racism is just an accusation with nothing real to back it up, it's merely the first step in being "canceled". If everyone gets "canceled" for the tiniest misstep then we all end up locked in the same pose, pointing and screeching like the pod people in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Do that and society can't function.

 

Y'all are getting way off thread. Ham radio is in its current state for simple reasons.
When us old folks were kids, radio was magic and shortwave was the only way to communicate over long distances cheaply. Now radio is taken for granted and smart phones make long distance communication easy.
When us old folks were kids, microwaves were the realm of the military and the experimenter. Now they're a valuable commodity.
When us old folks were kids, Equipment was large and the insides could be repaired and modified by the user. Now, the parts are microscopic and if it breaks you throw it away and buy a new one.
Ultimately ham radio exists for the purpose of providing emergency communications under the direst of circumstances (war, natural disasters). When us old folks were kids, it also provided society with a resource of savvy electronics people who could be tapped in an emergency (consider WW2). The former still makes sense, the latter not so much.
So today we have an older demographic and that's not likely to change. The world has moved on and the youth of today have other priorities.

 

Precisely!
It's beneficial to include today's technology but not at the cost of abandoning past knowledge!
Communication Theory and history is important, without it we are nothing but commodity users and slaves to those commodities,
Without the knowledge to repair them we just get faced with throwing money away.
Think about it!
How do you think today's laptops and phones are designed, at the first sign of failure, throw it away and buy another.
Planned obsolescence, objects designed for failure, all for the purpose of emptying your bank account.

 

Pure bushwaaw.

Amateur radio existed for well over a decade and a half before the US government even recognized its' existence. It was another half century before the government decide to create a "purpose".

Amateur radio exists because of people's natural interest in radio, electronics, science and communications. The government does not define its' existence. Emergency communications is only one (1) of about nine purposes (and nearly the last) the FCC presently has listed.

 

@AC0GT - There is no way to win an argument against someone who calls you a racist or a sexist today. And probably for at least a few more years. That's my conclusion and I'll say no more about it, because... well, it'll just go down hill from here.

And I wouldn't say licensing is changing or has changed or will change "for the worst." I will say, based on everything else I see in society, amateur radio licensing will continue to become easier and easier. Ultimately, you'll just fill out a form, pay a fee, mail it in and you'll be authorized to operate FCC type accepted radio equipment for that service. Part 95, but with maybe just a little more technical knowledge required. But not much. Some people will call it "better" and as time goes on, more and more people will call it good. "Better" and "worse" are relative terms.

@KI5CAW - yup. Nicely summed up.

@KC3TEC - yup. Everything electronic today is used until it breaks, then it's thrown away. The stuff that's still fixable, will remain fixable for a few more years. But not many more years. I'm guessing for about another 10 years or so.

@KA0HCP - Amateur radio has over a hundred years of history now. And that's all it is... history. The only thing we learn from history is that we don't learn from history. (Who said that already? Oh, that's right, German philosopher Friedrich Hegel.) People have a very short memory these days. All the flashing lights and sounds from all our electronic devices as we scroll through the screens as we navigate rush hour traffic are distracting us. This prevents most people from remembering things last week, let alone years ago. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. (Who said that already? Oh, that's right, the philosopher George Santayana.)