Re: ?BITX as a Tool for Recruiting New Hams
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Given the shrinking urban spaces, we need to take the sota movement, combining radio and outdoors. weekend radio meets in parks, fox hunts and pedestrian contests are the way to go me thinks. - f
On 15 Dec 2017 10:12 pm, "WERNER G VAVKEN" < wernervavken@...> wrote: Jack, you are spot on. It is mission critical to get new hams ACTIVE both on the air (including HF) and also to get them on the road to get their hands dirty building hardware, including antennas.? The uBitx is a great way to do this that I will use next month¡see below. I ordered 8 of them and 8 plastic cases from BangGood.?
I am a retired EE with over 30+ years experience in designing hardware and radio systems from audio thru 40GHz. Teaching is my new passion. I have been teaching ham courses (and how to put science experiments on the ISS) at the high school level for over seven years. My ham classes (disguised with the name Satellite Tracking) is a high school level ?¡°science elective¡± and I offer it over three semesters to allow students to earn their Tech, General and Extra class licenses. Doing it over a 4+ month period, for each level, I actually get to TEACH the relevant material, have students build stuff and get them on the air. They also learn a lot about tracking satellites.
Every one of my new ham student ¡°earns" an Alinco DJ-G7 triband HT ?and an Elk LPA Antenna to track satellites if they pass the Tech exam. They also build an EggBeater antenna I designed and presented at recent Pacificon events,?
Next Semester they will each build one of the uBitx transceivers and a 40M dipole and they WILL get on HF!
BTW, Jack, we have a mutually close friend, Dennis -W6DQ, I manage the Collins Collectors Association West Coast Friday night NET on 3895 at 7PM. He is one of my NET control operators for that net!
Thanks for all you do for our Ham Radio hobby and, of course, your contributions to this uBitx, etc.
? 73¡¯²õ
WERNER G VAVKEN, WB6RAW Cell: 408-375-6165
On Dec 15, 2017, at 8:24 AM, Jack Purdum via Groups.Io < jjpurdum@...> wrote:
I changed the topic to narrow the focus. You're right, Joe, the social media sites have a lock on young people. My club gives the FCC exams every month (except Dec.) for free and we always have people show up; sometimes as many as three dozen. Most are going for the Tech license to get their toe wet. Then they buy a 2M HT and we never see them again. I did run into one guy almost a year later and asked how he was enjoying his license. He said: "I haven't done anything for the past several months. It doesn't even let me do what my cell phone does." We need to get Tech's more than just a small slice of 10M in the HF spectrum. Otherwise, I think they are missing out on 90% of what ham radio has to offer. When I was a Novice, we had small chunks of HF (e.g., 40M) to play with. True, you were rock-bound and limited to 75W and CW, but I spent almost all of my time on 40M. Britain has had more success than we have with young people, and I think part of the reason is because they give their Tech-equivalent hams small slices of spectrum on all bands, including HF. They are limited to 5W, but at least they can chase DX. Other than the rare atmospheric events, DX on 2M is a couple of counties away with the HT that most end up buying.
I look around at my club and I can almost hear the arteries calcifying. I can say that 'cuz I'm two years younger than dirt so I know the aging membership issues quite well. We need some younger members; perhaps younger than those who are recently married and starting their families. The real solution: I don't know, but there are things we can do. I have a FB account, but probably use it twice a year. I'm not on Twitter. I need to root around there for a while and see what I can do for the cause.
Jack, W8TEE
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