It used to be that ham radio clubs had quite a few teenage members. Our club even had a “youth net,” which met just before our regular Monday night net. Sadly, that’s not the case anymore.
Currently, we have four teenagers in our club (although one has just graduated from high school), and I’d like to have more. With that in mind, I got in touch with Andrea Hartlage, KG4IUM, the ARRL’s 16-year-old contributing editor for youth in ham radio. She writes a column that regularly appears on the ARRL website.
At this year’s Dayton Hamvention, she gave a talk on youth in ham radio. Below, are excerpts from her talk:
- Why Involve Youth?
- They are Amateur Radio’s future.
- They look up to their elmers; you have a chance to be their role model.
- It is a great way to keep youth involved in intellectually stimulating activities.
- It gives you the chance to teach youth about what you value and to make the world a better place.
- Keys to Involving Youth in Amateur Radio
- “Sell†ham radio—get them hooked.
- Invite them to fun events, like Field Day.
- Don’t make it seem “hard†or “boring.â€
- Respect them, just as you expect to be respected.
- Involve them, and make them feel important.
- Amateur Radio Selling Points
- You get to do unique things with community service events.
- You might get to meet a famous person.
- You can talk around the world.
- You can talk to astronauts.
- It works, even when cell phones don’t.
- Keys to KEEPING Youth Involved in Amateur Radio
- Stick with them.
- Encourage them to go to Amateur Radio events.
- Encourage them to talk on the radio, check into nets, etc.
I think the key is finding those that have an interest in radio and then encouraging them. Make sure that they feel like they are part of the club and encourage them and challenge them to take part in ham radio activities. Let’s see if we can get more kids into amateur radio!
Doug - KC7OVN says
I am in the process of teaching my 8 year old daughter (KE7QVB) for her General and my 5 year old for her Technician. I found what works good for us is to make them audio CDs. I have a copy of the question pool that I just read the question and correct answer into a microphone and record it. After I read the question and answer, I will re-read the question and answer a couple more times with voice inflections. The recording has lots of corny things on it like, “I Love You†or “You Smart Cookieâ€. I will also refer to them by name on it. They really seem to eat it up. I also found out that they love it when I make reading mistake and correct myself in the recording. They have just about every mistake I made memorized along with the correct answer. Then I burn an audio CD of it.
My 5 year old is a little young since she still does not read well, but she still enjoys listenning to her special CDs.