A recent news story on the ARRL website reports on Howard Michel, WB2ITX and some of the things he’s working on early in his tenure as ARRL’s CEO. It notes:
Michel would like to see ARRL focus on the future of Amateur Radio (sic) and not become the redoubt of a particular generation of radio amateur or interest group. He said, ‘Ham radio shouldn’t abandon the old guardians of the hobby, but at the same time, it needs to have new things that appeal to people who have different interests and different passions.’
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Acknowledging the incessant push to get more young people into Amateur Radio, Michel wants to explore ways ‘to morph some of the League’s processes and services and products into something that would appeal to the newer generation of hams.’
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Michel said he definitely wants to encourage partnerships with other organizations with which ARRL might share some common ground, including IEEE. ‘We can’t do everything ourselves. We have to find partnerships,’ he said. Some IEEE operating units would be applicable to Amateur Radio, and he’s already heard from two unit heads that are both hams.
At the risk of being accused again of being a fanboy, I like this approach. I think collaboration with the IEEE could be a really good thing. I’m a member of the IEEE myself, and in January, will be teaching a one-day Tech class under the auspices of our local IEEE chapter.
In the amateurradio subreddit, there is a post discussing this news story. The comments are really worth reading. While hams of all ages are /r/amateurradio subscribers, the list does skew younger. It’s not surprising, then that some of the comments point to some of the challenges that younger hams face. For example, one commenter said:
I only got into ham [radio] because of RTL-SDRs. I only got my Tech because I could afford a Baofeng and the book. I like the idea of HF, but I hate the idea of a $500+ transceiver. I’ve been looking at QRP kit transmitters because I can actually afford that.
Older people in general need to realize how many more bills us young people have to pay. Cell phones and the internet are required these days and they aren’t cheap. That leaves little for hobbies.
Another replied:
And they need to realize the young people haven’t had fifty years to amass wealth with little debt which they can use to buy radio stuff.
There are many other great comments in this post.
I emailed WB2ITX and told him that I thought it would be worth his while to read the post. He emailed me back and said,
Thanks Dan, I did check it out. I’m glad to see hams engaged in the discussion. FYI, I intend to use that platform to engage our members in discussion about important issues.
I was involved with IEEE when I studied Electrical Engineering in college and we never got exposure to Ham Radio – if I had, I definitely would have started the hobby then. Especially with the advent of cheap computing available via devices like Raspberry Pi, there is ample room for clubs in colleges to experiment with ham radio in new ways. I like this new focus!
Why are you an IEEE member? Even as a professional software engineer I had a hard time justifying the expense given the apparent value.
I ask myself that every year about this time when I get my renewal notice. I’m not sure that I have a really good answer for you.
This encourages me about the ARRL – the new CEO is actually doing something about bringing young STEM educated people into Amateur radio. If amateur radio is going to survive this century with the ever advancing technologies that are going to shape the next generations of radio communications we are going to need leadership that recognizes the need to focus on bringing younger people into ham radio instead of codes of conduct that only apply to the ARRL board.
I would hope that even though Howard Michel is no longer CEO, the ARRL Board of Directors will continue to seek a partnership the IEEE and other organizations that would be of benefit to Amateur Radio. By the same token, I think that many of Howard’s ideas, particularly the one concerning the attracting new people, especially youngsters, to Amateur Radio.
Howard, I wish you Good Luck & Good DX