This just in from GL Division Director Dale Williams, WA8EFK:
The ARRL Contest Advisory Committee is studying how to get more youth involved in the contesting aspects of our hobby and has designed a very thorough survey to solicit input. The committee would like as many people to take the survey as possible and requests that you take the survey and also ask any youth you know, whether they are hams or not, to take it as well. The survey asks different questions that depend on the answers you submit and will only take a few minutes to complete.
The link to the survey is: tinyurl.com/YouthHamRadio.
Please help them to gather data by taking the survey, asking others to take it, and sharing this email with your friends and clubs.
Thanks and 73,
Dale WA8EFK
As an aside, does anyone else have a problem with calling kids “youth?” It’s perfectly correct, but it seems kind of stilted to me. I’m far from being a kid, but if I was younger, I’m not sure I’d like to be called a youth.
As another aside, do we really want to be encouraging youth to participate in contests? One might say that there are already enough contesters on the bands during contest weekends as it is.
Razvan says
Hi Dan,
I’m sure you don’t see all the implications of such a question. This is just a hobby and everyone is free to practice it, as radio amateurs we should be much more open and welcoming and most importantly, youth ALWAYS brings value. I think amateur radio is at a point where it actually NEEDS a huge influx of young people.
Cheers,
Razvan (M0HZH, YO9IRF)
David - N9UXU says
I would say that we need to get more youth/youngsters/kids/hipsters/FolksWithAPulse involved in all aspects of ham radio. Contesting is not necessarily a boon to society, but for the competitive, it may be the hook that gets them interested in the hobby. Once the log is submitted, hand them an Arduino/PI/Beagle Board and see what they can do with it…