In the late 1960s in my final years in the state grammar / latterly comprehensive school
system, in a school of 1200 pupils, there were only 3 of us with an interest
in amateur radio.
50 years on, is there any evidence that such small proportions have changed?
It is my belief that the apparent panic and repeated failed attempts to attract young
people (as opposed to those who gravitate naturally towards our numbers) come
only from the RSGB whose concern is not about the good of amateur radio (otherwise
they would have never proposed the Foundation Licence) but about keeping the coffers
filled in an organisation where membership is decreasing, not from a reduction in
radio amateurs, but because the RSGB itself is increasingly irrelevant to
amateur radio. (I resigned in disgust from the RSGB in 1988)
The palpably ridiculous proposal for an easier licence than the CB-like Foundation
licence has, not surprisingly, come from a leading light in the powers-that-would-be in
the RSGB (which organisation I have been deploring for years as the RSCB)
