What do you talk about?

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M3PIE
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What do you talk about?

Unread post by M3PIE »

What do you talk about?
When was the last time you told anyone anything about your hobby? What about someone who isn't also an amateur?

Have you ever considered why there is a perception that our hobby is dying, why it's running out of people, why we struggle to get air-time in mainstream media, why attracting new members is hard and why there is a very narrow range of understanding about what our hobby is, what it does and how it's relevant in the world today?

I'm a radio amateur. So are you. You might not be licensed yet, but the fact that you're here right now indicates a willingness to understand and learn, to participate and question.

Those qualities are the fundamental building blocks that make up a radio amateur.
When you sign up to be an amateur, you don't give up all the other things you are. You don't stop being a member of society, you just add in another box marked radio amateur and you get on with your life.

If you get into this hobby you begin to realise that it sneaks into everyday life all the time. You use it to figure out how something works, or explain why it doesn't, you use it to trace a circuit or to plug in your new surround sound system. You use it to encourage curiosity in your children and to talk to your grand-children. It's not an add-on, it's part of who you are.

That's always been the case, but the perception in the general public has not been like that, it's been based around the idea that being a radio amateur is being special, being separate, being knowledgeable, studied, licensed. The reality is that the world we live in is more connected than ever and the things we once did in isolation are now part of mainstream life.

There is a perception that amateur radio is dying. Articles describe how we need to attract more people, how we need to appeal to children, how we need to recruit, become sexy or relevant. There's discussion about what's broken in the hobby, how we need to fix it.

When you talk about your activities of the day, if you made a rare contact with Tuvalu, or managed to connect your computer to your radio, or made an antenna work, or climbed on a hill or learnt Morse Code, you need to share your victories and the excitement that they bring you.

As a society we're not shy about tweeting what we had for breakfast, sharing an interesting picture or discussing an article we saw on reddit. Fundamentally what you do and who you are is worth talking about and sharing.

So, next time you talk about going camping, or discuss a barbecue you had with friends, or relate to your friends something that happened, don't be shy about your amateur radio affiliation.

It's not a secret society, it's not weird or embarrassing, it's just part of what makes you who you are.

Thanks to Onno VK6FLAB
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G6CSL
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Re: What do you talk about?

Unread post by G6CSL »

Wow. I thought I was back in 1981 then.

Nice dream, but you'll wake up soon. :)
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G0BHD
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Re: What do you talk about?

Unread post by G0BHD »

I posted elsewhere on this very subject, I wont repeat it all here, suffice to say that the "very last topic of conversation" I would these days embark on with with none amateur folks, with all the internet based competition they daily use and take for granted, would be the "benefits" of dabbling with "amateur radio", as in truth it has no major benefits they would recognise in comparison to what they already have to hand on their phones and tablets!
It's different to be sure, and quirky and more difficult to pull off successfully, but even it's deepest digital modern technical modes comes nowhere close to what they already have readily to hand on their smart phones via a free downloaded app!
As a hobby this is the flogged dead horse, those of us that stick with it just put up with flogging our favorite dead horse, those that join it either leave in very short order, or have a similar mentality to us old fossils concerning dead horses. ;)
But selling it to the wider general public, with what they have to readily to hand today?.....best of luck with that!
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G6CSL
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Re: What do you talk about?

Unread post by G6CSL »

About two years ago, a workmate expressed an interest. Like me, he had dabbled with CB many years ago, but packed it in when all the retards came on.

On the Friday, I brought in a shortwave receiver and wire for him to have a listen for himself.

First thing Monday morning it came back. He just shook his head and said "Naaa".
Sangoma
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Re: What do you talk about?

Unread post by Sangoma »

Not just amateur radio, people just don't have hobbies these days.

If you ask some one if they have any hobbies, they will probably ask what's that, and once you explain, they just look blank.

Same has happened to fishing, RC flying, photography, to a large extent gardening.
No more pigeons, fixing up cars.

My youngest doesn't know stamp collecting is (though he is unusual I suppose, as him what he wants for his birthday, and he says pieces of aluminium, plywood, nuts bolts and screws etc etc so that he can make things.

When I was his age, I was building balsa electric boats and using them on the river Wey (and having to ask paddlers to retrieve them for me :) ) and Jettex boats in the park on the boating lake.

I think hobbies in general have disappeared.
G 3 E J S
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G0BHD
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Re: What do you talk about?

Unread post by G0BHD »

:)
You are not wrong there mate!
My brothers daughter has an 8 year old son, he's a phone and computer/games addict, its basically all he does full stop.
I was trying to explain to him one day about the hours of pleasure I used to get building various "Airfix" models when I was his age, carefully separating all the molded plastic bits, gluing them together with the proper plastic cement glue, waiting for it all to set properly, then spending hours hand painting them and applying any "transfers" etc., and how I would save up my pocket money every week just to buy the next one, getting ever more ambitious in size as time went on.
Blank look of total disinterest followed by a quick shrug,....... and straight back to his phone! :lol:
Sangoma
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Re: What do you talk about?

Unread post by Sangoma »

I built quite a few too, but they didn't last long, they didn't fly too well :lol:
G 3 E J S
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M3PIE
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Re: What do you talk about?

Unread post by M3PIE »

Sangoma wrote: Sun Jul 26, 2020 3:49 am I built quite a few too, but they didn't last long, they didn't fly too well :lol:

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Mine too?
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G0BHD
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Re: What do you talk about?

Unread post by G0BHD »

M3PIE wrote: Sun Jul 26, 2020 7:13 pm
Sangoma wrote: Sun Jul 26, 2020 3:49 am I built quite a few too, but they didn't last long, they didn't fly too well :lol:

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Mine too?
:D
I never tried to "fly mine", unless the piece of cotton they were hanging on from a drawing pin in my bedroom ceiling broke! :lol:
I went into building Airfix "Ship" models, still have a couple from my spotty youth, a very nice model of the Bismark, and another of the Cutty Sark.
The planes I built all got given away to my brothers two sons when they were young lads, sadly they didn't treasure them as I did, and they managed to smash them to bits over time between them! :D
But I loved the hours I spent building them and carefully painting them all in my "hobby" time at their age. ;)
Sangoma
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Re: What do you talk about?

Unread post by Sangoma »

I didn't see much point in an aeroplane that did not fly, or a ship that did not sail.

I built them as I was given them, but I don't think they were ever treasured.

I lover free flight rubber powered planes, electric and sailing boats though and spent may hours and days on them.

Still have the book my father bought me in 1961
bk1.jpg
bk2.jpg

I built the Viking ship again in 2006 when my daughter's class did Vikings, and it survived in my school until a couple of years ago.
G 3 E J S
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