This morning a friend of mine forwarded me an e-mail that was originally posted to the Elecraft_K3 Yahoo Group. Basically, it’s yet another rant about how most hams nowadays dress like slobs and need to take a bath. I don’t know about you, but I’m getting really sick of this kind of talk.
In this e-mail, our friend says,
Frankly I wish I could get back every penny I’ve spent on the hobby since I got licensed and spend it all on a month long lavish vacation with my wife in the South Pacific or maybe a new telescope. The vacation will happen but getting every penny back that I’ve spent on ham radio won’t. The obscenities, the QRM, the vicious and malicious nonsense, the on air drunks & druggies & the shear (sic) ignorance and stupidity of the American ham radio community of today is simply embarrassing. I rarely use my station these days, I have other hobbies I enjoy more.
I feel very sorry for this guy that he can’t see beyond the few miscreants that we have in this hobby. Personally, I just blow them off and don’t let it affect my enjoyment of amateur radio.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I attended the Dayton Hamvention last week. I met so many great people and had so much fun that I’m not about to let a few badly-behaving hams ruin it for me.
My advice is that you do the same. Why dwell on the bad things, when there are plenty of great people in ham radio and more cool and interesting things to do than one could ever do in a lifetime?
tim says
Funny how one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch. It may be time to look to invite his close friends into Ham radio. This way his friends will overwhelm the bad apple and he will make an effort to improve the hobby. Just a thought…
John Ji says
I was first licensed in 1960. I happen to agree with “your friend.” Back in my early days there was a bad side of ham radio but it was the exception. These days it is far, far worse. I attribute part of it to the FCC doing away with the morse code requirement. CBers flocked to ham radio when that happened. There are twice the number of hams now in comparison to the 60s and way too many of them don’t belong.
Sam says
That knife cuts both ways. There’s a *huge* maker community out there working on robots, microprocessors, weird LED contraptions, homebrew computing, drones… and radio. Cool stuff, but they tend to stick with Part 15, and some of them are harder sticklers for the law than your standard brass-pounding contester doing something unspeakable to his linear.
Ham radio would be a perfect hobby for them, and I think that we need these people in the hobby. Some of them do see their way to a ticket, fortunately. But I know more than one who went to a fest or club meeting and got the idea that they weren’t welcome, because the hobby is essentially a more expensive, less social Moose Lodge and their experimentation with technology wasn’t welcome.
Maybe ditching code brought some bad people in, but the constant bellyaching about it is keeping good people out.
Larry W2LJ says
Dan, in every group there’s always someone more Catholic than the Pope. These folks are tiresome and boorish. I have many good friends that I would not have if it wasn’t for Amateur Radio. I pity these people who “are above it all”.
Jim says
The bad people in ham radio are such a tiny minority that to be exposed to them one must be diligently looking for them and also possessed of a negative nature to begin with.
Blaming this on the lack of a morse code requirement for a license is pure hogwash, and I posit that EVERY SINGLE PERSON that whines about “back in my day we had to know Samuel Morse PERSONALLY to get a license” are the TRULY BAD PEOPLE in ham radio today. It reeks of exclusivity and elitism and DISCRIMINATION. Enough already! THE WORLD has stopped using morse as a primary means of communications, times change. Either stay up with technology or just sell your gear and go away.
Don N4KC says
Well, I agree wholeheartedly with Tim, Jim and Dan. And disagree just as wholeheartedly with Jim Ji and the goofball who made the original post. I try to refute such ignorance and broad-brush-painting whenever I see it in the various discussion groups to which I subscribe. I also try to counter it in the articles and books I write on the subject. Some potential or newly-licensed hams might actually believe this garbage. And it absolutely does not describe what this very active ham hears on the bands.
I’m a data guy but have none handy on this particular subject. However, I would bet that the percentage of hams who are jerks is actually somewhat less than is found in the general population. The fact that the few that do exist might have benefit of a big power amplifier and nice antenna could possibly skew the perception.
Anyway, if the original commenter is so disgusted with the hobby, he should certainly sell his gear and partake in those other avocations he enjoys so much more. I’m sure none of them–no matter what they may be–have any participants who are ignorant and stupid drunks or druggies.
Don Keith N4KC
http://www.n4kc.com
http://www.donkeith.com
Cale K4CDN says
Great Post Dan!
It’s not just Ham Radio though, it’s our Entire Society! We’re sliding down the morass as a whole-and Ham Radio is just along for the ride.
Cale/K4CDN
http://www.itsfotime.com
KD0TLS Todd says
You realise, of course, Cale that old guys have been saying that about “our Entire Society” for as long as there’s been old guys around. Your grandfather was probably saying the same thing about the world as you were getting into ham radio.