Before getting back into ham radio in a big way two years ago, I bicycled a lot. For a couple of years, I managed to ride more than 1,000 miles a year, including a seven-day bike tour along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. I’m still a member of the Ann Arbor Bicycle Touring Society.
The AABTS has rides every night of the week. I always liked the Tuesday night ride, led by Manfred and Judy Schmidt. Judy is a retired school librarian, and always interesting to talk to. Manfred grew up in Germany, and is also interesting to talk to, although in a different way (I’ll let it go at that. :) )
Well, after not being on the bike at all this year, I decided to go riding last night. Manfred and Judy were shocked to see me, as I hadn’t been on their ride for quite a while.
Out on the route, Judy and I started talking about what I had been doing, and I bored her to tears talking about Field Day and other ham radio topics. We did, however, find something to talk about that was of interest to both of us.
I mentioned that one of the big challenges facing amateur radio is the graying of the ham radio population. That with computers and all, it was getting difficult to get kids interested in the hobby. I also mentioned that I had contacted a high school teacher, but had received no response from him.
Judy told me that instead of targeting high school students, I should instead be trying to get middle school students interested in ham radio. Her reasoning was that by the time kids get into high school, they’ve already developed a set of interests, and with more school activities, they’re already too busy to take up a hobby. In middle school, they are more impressionable and have more time to take up a hobby.
I like this idea a lot. In thinking back on my own “career” in radio, I got hooked when I was 9 or 10, and probably would have had my ham license by the age of 12 if I’d known someone to Elmer me into the hobby.
Of course, the next step is how to go about finding kids with a nascent interest in electricity, electronics, and radio, and getting them hooked as I was. I’m thinking that one way to do this would be to demonstrate stuff like Tesla coils. That’s the suggestion of an article in the June 2004 CQ magazine. Coincidentally, Tim KT8K sent me a link to Tesla Mania, a website with information on:
Quarter Shrinking, Tesla Coils, Out of Print Technical Books, “Captured Lightning” (3D Lichtenberg Figures), BIG Arcs and Sparks, Nikola Tesla Information, and more….
I’m going to have to think about this some more and try to come up with a presentation to give to middle school students. Now that everyone has a computer in their home, maybe it’s time that electricity and radio made a comeback in the hearts and minds of school kids.