Because I teach amateur radio classes and publish a series of popular amateur radio license study guides, I often get kudos for “growing the ranks.” In fact, Gordon West, WB6NOA, told me this just yesterday, when he stopped by the booth I was in at the Dayton Hamvention. I’m paraphrasing a little, but after telling me that he’s heard good things about my study guides, he said something like, “You’re doing good work in helping get more people into ham radio.”
People say that as if this is—or should be—the ultimate goal of teaching a license class. While this may be one of the goals, if that’s your primary goal, I think that you’re barking up the wrong tree.
In a way, creating more hams is selfish. If there are more licensed amateur radio operators, they say, then amateur radio will have more political clout with the FCC and with Congress, making it easier to pass legislation like the Amateur Radio Parity Act. While this may certainly help the new ham down the line, its main thrust is to reduce restrictions on those who are currently hams.
With that in mind, my goal isn’t to create more hams. My goal is to help people have fun with ham radio. The first step in helping people have fun with ham radio is, of course, helping them get their license. I do that by publishing my study guides and teaching ham classes.
The next step, and I’m only really getting started on this right now, is to help people learn what they need to know to become better ham radio operators. I touched briefly on this recently in the blog post.”A program to help new hams.” I’ve started soliciting help developing and teaching these classes, but if you’re at all interested in working with me on this, please get in touch.
Helping new hams—and old hams—have more fun with amateur radio is a lot more satisfying than just “growing the ranks.” It would be nice to say that we have a million licensed radio amateurs in the U.S., but I think it would be a lot more valuable to the hobby to say that a larger percentage of licensed hams were active and enjoying ham radio. I know that, for me, increasing the number of active, engaged hams would be more personally satisfying than simply creating a lot of new licensees.
Bob K0NR says
Dan,
Good article. This is another “quality vs quantity” argument. Really, I think we want both.
Another way to think of it: getting a ham radio license is a (critical) step along the way so it does make some sense to focus on that. But to stop there (in terms of assisting new folks) is short sighted.
Dan Baker KM6CQ says
Well said, Dan. I have no desire to teach or be a VE. That’s not my calling. I enjoy the hobby and I like socializing with others that share the same passion for radio that I do. Hams have helped on my journey through this hobby and I do same for others. I am happy to share my knowledge with people who are not hams IF they ask. Ham radio is not a religion, and I am not looking to make converts. It is a great hobby, and the ham radio community is, in many ways, like bluegrass music community, wonderful. And, just like bluegrass, everyone loves ham radio, even if they don’t know it yet.
Larry Koziel says
Fun sure is an important component. I ran across a group that by their own admission is “not a membership club, per se” but has a very simple mission statement that many other clubs should take inspiration from:
Do radio stuff.
Have fun doing it.
Show people just how fun it is.
Check out their website at http://www.noiseblankers.com/ and explore the Ham Hijinks tab for a sample of the fun they have satirizing ham radio.
73,
Larry K8MU
Rob W4ZNG says
I’m going to say that after passing through General, your “21 Things to Do After You Get Your Amateur Radio License” was an enormous help in getting me off the dime and onto the air. Since then I’ve enjoyed several short kindle books on topics like QRP and antennas. These sorts of brief introductions to various ham areas are kind of like speed dating — if it’s fun and it works, good, but if not a new ham can move on before too much time, money, and effort are invested. Some podcasts are good for this exposure to new topics too, same basic concept.
But books, podcasts, and web sites can only go so far. I’m seeing a lot of new hams in my club who need and find somebody to help them past the speed bumps on their early projects — getting on the local repeaters, getting that first HF antenna up and running, those sorts of things. My club’s been doing a monthly series of maker workshops, usually with some topic of the day, and they’ve been a big success for both new and old hams. After that it comes down to helping new hams on an individual basis achieve what they’re particularly interested in, and getting them some early successes. Once they have a few projects checked off, they’re generally having fun and are self-sustaining, and maybe even ready to teach others. The key is to ask what they want to do, and then let the new hams drive things, helping just enough to get past the rough spots. It’s very different than elmering a student through an established set of goals.
You make a lot of good points here, Dan. It’s not about the numbers (though they are looking good these days), it’s about lots of people having fun on the air and learning for the joy of it.