KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

future

Amateur radio videos: amateur radio in Montana, dealing with noise, update on the IARU R1’s future of #hamradio program

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Ham Radio in Montana

This documentary has been praised by many in the amateur radio community. Here’s how Montana PBS describes the film:

Join us as we investigate the culture of Montana Amateur Radio Operators, or “hams”, as they recount their admiration for the global Amateur Radio community.  This niche hobby has produced long-lasting friendships between radio enthusiasts around the globe, and has been a pastime of choice for much of their lives.  Produced as part of a new Certificate in Documentary Film program, by students in the School of Journalism and the School of Visual & Media Arts at the University of Montana, this short film takes an in-depth look at the particular ways in which amateur radio enthusiasts remain active both locally and globally.

Dealing with Noise

A presentation by Ian, VK3BUF. He shows you how to deal with noise at your station.

IARU Region 1 programme “Shaping the Future”

This is an update to the IARU Region 1 program, “Shaping the Future.” This is a short video, and worth watching if you’re interested in the future of our hobby.

IARU-R1: Shaping the Future

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Got this from Southgate and thought it was worth re-posting. I’ll be keeping an eye on this effort….73, Dan

Following their recent workshop IARU Region 1 have launched their Shaping the Future program

The IARU-R1 website says:

In October 2021 the Region 1 workshop for the future of amateur radio was organized online. About 50 countries and 100 participants joined the 5 days workshop and the 7 sessions.

For many years there have been discussions about the ham radio situation: what will our hobby look like ten years from now? Can we still take advantage of the radio spectrum to experiment, learn, or simply have a good time chatting with our friends?

So as not to let the future – or others – define this for us, we have decided to take matters into our own hands: The member societies of Region 1 have agreed to meet and reflect together on the direction they want to give to amateur radio.

After taking the time to analyze the current situation, a process of reflection was carried out to agree on the medium-term objectives and on the actions to be taken to make this ambition a reality.

We will shape our future together, to move amateur radio in the direction we have chosen.

Background
https://www.iaru-r1.org/stf/background/

Workshop result
https://www.iaru-r1.org/stf/workshop-result/

Program organisation
https://www.iaru-r1.org/stf/organisation/

Join us
https://www.iaru-r1.org/stf/join-us/

ARRL says stats need updating, number of new hams declining in UK, IARU to hold workshop on the future of #hamradio

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Over the past couple of days, there has been three news stories related to the future of amateur radio. The first, Data on Number of Radio Amateurs Worldwide Needs Updating, is kind of an odd story, if you ask me. The first paragraph reads:

The oft-cited figure of 3 million radio amateurs worldwide may need updating. That number was what the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) published in 2000 for the global head count. The IARU once regularly collected amateur radio population statistics, but stopped the practice around the point when the worldwide amateur radio population began to decline.

It then goes on to cite some statistics on the declining number of amateur radio operators around the world. For example, the story says, ” Japan’s ham radio population has dropped by more than 600,000 over the past 2 decades; as of 2015, it was 435,581, according to JARL.” And, the story concludes, “The specific size of the worldwide amateur radio population remains open to speculation, although a 2021 figure of 1.75 million may be closer to the truth.”

My reaction to this is, “OK, so why doesn’t the ARRL get the IARU to start counting again?” The ARRL is, after all, the elephant in the room when it comes to to the IARU, isn’t it?

The next story, Numbers taking up amateur radio in UK declining, reports:

Figures in RSGB Board Proceedings suggest there has been a decline during this year in numbers joining the hobby but numbers are still much better than those before [remote] online exams were introduced.

Unfortunately, the story gives no reasons for the decline.

The third story, “IARU Region 1 prepares for Workshop,” announces the upcoming event, “Shaping the Future.” According to the story, the event is “designed as a highly interactive workshop where small groups of delegates will discuss the goals for amateur radio into the future and how Member Societies and IARU can support progress towards those aims.”

The workshop takes place October 17-21, and is being held virtually. I’ve emailed the IARU to see if this workshop is open to the general public, but I’m guessing that it’s only for invited IARU delegates. If I find out otherwise, I’ll post that information here.

 

IARU Region 1 to host conference on the future of amateur radio

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IARU Region 1 seems be ahead of the pack when it comes to thinking about the future of amateur radio. Here’s a recent example from the IARU Region 1 website…

Facing the future of amateur radio

Mar 24, 2021
Lisa, PA2LS

Tonight IARU Region 1 started preparing together with its Member Societies a Workshop with focus on the future of amateur radio. The message being shared in this session is clear. IARU societies are losing members; loss in members in some societies is remarkable in the last ten years, even with good examination throughput. Next to this, persons in leadership roles in these societies are getting older. Not all Member Societies have top team members under the age of 35 years.

The IARU Region 1 Executive Committee shares that it’s time for change and we need to start moving forward. Working together and changing the current trends. We need to refocus our thinking and way of operating.

Main questions and topics which will be covered in the Workshop are:

  • What is amateur radio today?
  • How is it changing?
  • Where are tomorrow’s radio amateurs?
  • How do others see amateur radio?
  • What do we need to do for the future?

Member societies are called upon to take actively part by nominating people with future oriented mind-set and prepare for this Workshop. Key will be to include new people into the discussion, hoping to reach new ideas and new ways of thinking. The Workshop “Facing the future” is scheduled to be held in October 2021 hopefully in Novi-Sad Serbia, hosted by SRS, the Serbian Amateur Radio Society. A virtual alternative Workshop will be prepared as well.

RSGB general manager on the future of amateur radio

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RSGB General Manager, Graham Coomber G0NBI, recently expounded on his vision for the future of Amateur Radio at the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium on Sunday, July 21, 2013. The video is now available in the Film Archive section of the BATC site.

You can watch the video at http://www.batc.tv/ by doing the following:

  • Click on the `Film Archive’ icon
  • Select `AMSAT-UK 2013? from the Category drop down menu
  • Click `Select Category’
  • Select the video ‘AMSAT2013 09 RSGB’
  • Click on `Select Stream’
  • Click the play icon `>’ on the player
  • Clicking on the icon to the left of the player volume control will give you full screen display.

You can also download the video file to your PC by clicking on the `Click Here’ link under the player.

G0NBI has some interesting observations on the rising median age of amateur radio operators, how people get into amateur radio, and the role of experimentation in amateur radio. The statistics he quotes are all for the UK. It would be interesting to compare those to statistics for the US (if there are any such statistics).