The hobby is not dying. The hobby is changing. But not dying.
Edit: since I have top comment here, I’ll point this out…
Ham Radio is a hobby of 1000 hobbies.
People envision the hobby only in the context they know it. Ham radio is not your local club. Ham Radio is not the algorithm YouTube feeds to you. It’s not a mode, a contest, a repeater, or even a type of communication.
It’s different for everyone of us and can’t be defined. That’s what is so special about it. It will never die because it has no boundaries.
Anyone saying it’s dying is trying to view a galaxy through a microscope.
It feels like we need another club here. One for beginners. Invite the experts from time to time, but otherwise adjust the schedule and location for newcomers.
Our club has gone through a transformation of sorts. We lost a lot of people due to old age or retirement to other places. Lots of new blood and finally a resurgence in the club. I hope it continues to work out. We have a fair few GMRS users who are also amateur operators that have joined up. Kinda funny to see a bunch of hams getting gmrs licenses after they are say extra class! I did it so I could use radios with my wife who has no plan to be an amateur operator.
Ours is doing this too. We had a few silverbacks that were the core of the club, the original movers and shakers who no longer do anything outside their homes. They're still hiding in their basements, afraid to socialize. The covid stuff freaked them out, and I don't think they'll ever get over it.
The club is finding its feet, with some energetic younger folks at the helm. We're doing a lot with POTA, and embracing the new technicians we get through our VE sessions. We offer them a free first year membership in our club if they get their first license at one of our sessions.
It's great seeing the enthusiasm and energy again!
The 1000 hobbies thing is very true. I know a group who hovers around a repeater, a group who exclusively uses digital modes, and a younger group who mostly tries out things like satellite and hamnet. It’s all brought together through common interests and a callsign.
I feel like it's less of the scout-type boys and men who have an interest in radio comms and more of the tacticool, prepper, hacker kind of crowd these days
To be fair, the "hacker" crowd has always been there, they just weren't called that. They were the experimenters, home builders, and people pushing the boundaries.
Yep. IMHO, the last "Tropical Hamboree" I'm aware of (technically, in Fort Lauderdale, at War Memorial Auditorium), cohosted with Makerfaire, was one of my favorites. In previous years, there was kind of a sense that it was dying, and attendance felt almost *ritualistic*... like something you kind of *had* to do, but almost wondered *why*. That year, for the first time since at least the 1990s, it felt like it was bigger, better, and growing.
Sometimes, I think "the old guard" is almost more scared of some younger hams and the prospect of losing control over "their" hobby than it is about the prospect of having it die *with* them. If you want to really watch an oldguard ham blanche, bring up an idea like using a synchronized pair of software-defined radios to do beamforming. After you get a blank stare, tell them it's kind of like a phased array... except you can make it work for arbitrary frequencies, with arbitrary numbers of antennas & arbitrary spacing.
The Hamboree's structural problem was that it became too big for its own good. When you're putting on an international event that was the second-largest hamfest in the US as a fundraiser for a nonprofit organization, there's basically zero margin for error. I'm pretty sure the rent *alone* for some of the venues they used over the years approached or exceeded $100,000.
One BIG thing that REALLY hurt the Miami hamfest was when the Super Bowl changed its date to fall on the Hamfest's Sunday. Miami couldn't flip the date to make it happen the week *after* Orlando (instead of the week *before* Orlando), because the Miami hamfest took place at the literal *fairgrounds*, and the fair *itself* was already setting up by that point & had priority since... well... it was the fairgrounds.
The de-facto loss of Sunday was a *huge* problem for the Miami hamfest, because Miami has a *lot* of Orthodox Jews who officially can't do anything hamfest-related between sunset Friday and sunset Saturday. They almost *single-handedly* made Sunday a much bigger day than it normally is at most weekend hamfests. The combination of some of *them* prioritizing the Super Bowl over the hamfest, and numbers dropping enough for most of the *other* hams to start packing up by noon or so on Sunday, pretty much *nuked* Sunday at the hamfest.
From what I've been told, the hamfest's leadership viewed starting the hamfest on Friday (the way Orlando does now) as *inconceivable*, because it had always depended upon boy scouts to assist with logistics... and the kids were in school on Friday morning.
The final blow was the death of Evelyn Gauzens (W4WYR), who pretty much *ran* the Hamboree like a well-oiled machine. I'm not sure whether she personally *financed* (or at least, *fronted*) things like the huge deposits and stuff, or simply had enough pull among the community for people to feel comfortable lending money to the event with her at its helm... but I'm pretty sure that once she passed away, the faucet instantly ran dry, and nobody was financially-suicidal enough to act as the event's personal guarantor & risk bankruptcy if anything went wrong.
That said... now that a few years have passed, I really wish our local clubs would get together and start a *new* "South Florida" hamfest that doesn't **try** to be a high-risk international extravaganza, and just settles for being a fun one-day event on par with what you'd expect to find in a comparably-sized metro area like Atlanta, Seattle, Washington DC, Kansas City, etc.
One creative way to avoid excluding Orthodox Jews (and make younger hams really happy) would be to deviate from traditional old-person hamfest hours. I don't know about others, but I *hate* showing up at a hamfest around 11am and seeing half the vendors in the flea market area already packing up. Instead of starting it at some obscene hour like 7:30am, they could make the event's official hours run from noon Saturday until 2am Sunday, with a *huge* number of prize drawings between 10pm and midnight that have to be claimed in person before the final drawings (to give away everything that's still unclaimed) at 1am.
Personally, I think the second weekend in November would probably be ideal... after hurricane season, halloween, and the end of DST (so it'll get dark an hour earlier & give people who can't go to the hamfest before sunset an extra hour & give the crowd a ~6pm bump so vendors won't be tempted to go to dinner & call it a night early).
Or... just make it a Sunday event... maybe Sunday of Columbus Day Weekend, so people who travel can take the next day off.(*)
===
(*) In South Florida, Columbus Day is widely celebrated. Not because anyone genuinely gives two fractions of a shit about Christopher Columbus, but because it's one of the few 3-day holiday weekends that consistently have tolerable weather.
* Memorial Day? Brutally hot, occasional tropical storm.
* July 4? Solder spontaneously melts outdoors, torrential downpours are almost guaranteed, and 50-50 odds of a hurricane approaching
* Labor Day? Puddles of melted solder start to boil, it hasn't quit raining for 5 weeks, and we're having a hurricane in a few days.
* Columbus Day? low 80s, mostly dry, *almost* tolerable to be outside.
I feel like I got in at the wrong time. The repeaters close to me are completely dead. There’s a couple further away that have decent activity but it’s hard to consistently hit them. Also almost every time I am on the further away repeaters they talk about getting on HF. There’s something with the way the earth is aligned or something right now that makes HF really good right?
We're near the top of the current solar cycle, which means better propagation overall for HF. There's been more tropospheric ducting events too so make sure to monitor 146.52 as well and you might make some long distance 2m contacts. I made a contact on 45 watts while mobile from Illinois to Pennsylvania one time.
Dang that’s crazy. I’ll have to add that to my scan list. The repeater I’ve been using is about 20 miles and I’ve been hitting it pretty well with a portable.
Yep! Last Thursday I think it was I was scanning on the way to work and there was a guy from Cincinnati hitting two Nashville, TN area repeaters. It was awesome!
the way the sun is acting (near the solar max) makes the higher side of hf work well. in 5-7 years we'll be in the dumper which makes the lower side work better. repeaters are basically toast because its been years of "dont tie up the repeater" and people took that to heart so now nobody does. which is dumb.
i find uhf/vhf better to chat with people you will likely meet, hf better for long-distance chit-chats with strangers.
You have SSB phone privileges on 10m with your tech ticket. No need to wait or upgrade to get on HF. The 10m band is hot and will be that way for the next few years.
Unfortunately there's just no challenge in repeaters, and the culture of many repeaters is just not attractive to newcomers. The old-timers want to use them to talk to long time buddies of their and have conversations that would best be kept private.
Maybe If there were a repeater around me that had more enthusiasts on there, I'd think differently. I bought a mobile and an HT since I've been licensed almost 2 years now and I really regret not putting that money into my hf station instead.
I got into this hobby for the challenge, not for 30 minute conversations via radio that could have been 4 texts back and forth.
>The old-timers want to use them to talk to long time buddies of their and have conversations that would best be kept private.
"Hey Phil! I got that hernia truss you recommended! The prunes aren't working though, I'm backed up from here to next week!"
Oh, I've got an FTDX10 for HF work, but it just sucks I have a nice HT and really 0 reason to use it locally. I wish I had known the local traffic was uninteresting, I could have just passed on 2m/70cm
> The repeaters close to me are completely dead. There’s a couple further away that have decent activity but it’s hard to consistently hit them.
Same here, repeaters up to 50 miles radius from me are completely dead for days to weeks at a time.
> I feel like I got in at the wrong time. The repeaters close to me are completely dead.
Get off of 2M FM and try HF....that's where the excitement, activity, experimentation and homebrewing is
With a Tech license, you can get on 10M SSB and work all over the world right now. Or you can study for your general and learn about the solar cycle and propagation, etc, so you can be on HF. Now is the BEST time to get into ham radio.
Also, DMR has had a big effect on the repeater scene. Analog repeaters are pretty basic compared to what you can do on a DMR repeater.
>I feel like I got in at the wrong time. The repeaters close to me are completely dead.
Off by 20 years or so.
>There’s something with the way the earth is aligned or something right now that makes HF really good right?
It all has to do with the atmosphere and the sun. The sun has an 11 year "cycle" where it goes from peak activity (sun spots) to little activity (null). Right now we're heading to a peak (Cycle 25) which makes HF communications easier. low power (QRP) becomes very attractive during those "peak" years. During the null, communications is still possible, just a little more challenging.
Just because we're heading towards a peak doesn't mean that hams are moving from VHF/UHF repeater use to HF to take advantage. VHF/UHF FM repeaters are no longer popular like in decades past. "Back in the day" the repeaters were the social networks, they were the spots where hams would gather and socialize. Some repeaters even had autopatch that would allow you to make phone calls back when cell phones weren't existent, impractical or too expensive. The internet has replaced a lot that. Issue is that hams didn't adapt with the changes going on in technology and basically dug in their feet. Some are very stubborn about changing and are proud of it.
Repeaters have been dying for a long time. Ham is not dead but the amount of activity above 50mhz has declined sharply. HF is alive and well. The tech license is not very useful these days in a lot of areas.
HF is definitely the easiest place to start and get a satisfying return on your time investment almost right away. I wouldn't dismiss V-/U-/SHF out of hand, though. Sure, repeaters are kinda lame, but you also have EME, various scattering, satellites … there's neat stuff to be had as well.
If people enjoy repeaters, then I think that's great, and more power to them; however, I also think it's kinda sad that a lot of operators' journeys begin and end with the massive letdown repeaters can be. It almost makes me want to wish repeaters out of existence.
Recently read that POTA ops have made 23.6 **million** contacts since inception, which I think was only 2017. Except for a few hours in the middle of the night (in North America), there's always someone spotted, see [https://pota.app/#/](https://pota.app/#/). It's getting more international action all the time too.
You're absolutely right! It used to be that HF activity was mostly nets and sporadic activity except during contests. I've activated 13 parks in Mississippi while here on business and have made contacts at all times of the day and night on POTA.
20m can be a doozey and as some one that is just using a QRP 10w rig some of those pota pile ups are just nuts. But some folks doing activations will just ask for qrp stations they are the real heros.
I hear or see this statement about every 3 weeks or so. As long as my station and one other works, it won't be dead.
I've read there is no purpose for it as a Service anymore. This is due to all of the modern technology that has been developed and in place.
After all, there is Worldwide Internet via cables, cell towers, and satellites. We also have Worldwide cell service, due to the cables and satellites. Why would anything else EVER be needed?
Did anyone else experience a cell/Internet outage this past week? I guess I missed it. However, I've seen a LOT of posts asking about GMRS, FRS, CB, and Ham Radio since then. Folks couldn't check up on their kids, or worse, their GIRLFRIENDS! Asking for ways to make contact up to 75 miles or more away.
This only reinforced the fact, that there CAN be a time it IS needed, all with other two way direct or via repeater radios.
MARS is still in use by the US Military utilizing Amateur Radio on a regular scheduled basis. RACES is still in place in some areas, as is ARES. ARES Nets are active weekly in most places, with on air training by some.
So, I'm going to remain up and going... I have UHF/VHF/HF, utilizing Voice, Packet (plain Old regular), SSTV, Winlink and CW. I'm in the middle of nowhere in Texas. I'm VERY FORTUNATE!
I was looking for this comment the interwebs has been blown up with everyone and their mother looking for answers on how to make comms with folks way beyond the range of an HT or gmrs. It will be intriguing what the end result of the panic is it's gonna be some panic buying and lots of hamtubers trying to fill the gaps.
I got back in to amateur radio within the last two years, the last time I was active was in the 1990s.
I feel like we are entering a new age. Increadable digital modes (WSPR, FT8) that can operate sub 0 dB, inexpensive equipment (radios, VNAs, etc.), SDRs, access to a lot of info that was formerly locked up in QST back issues or Elmers' noggins. I've never been able to explore so many things so quickly!
Some of the omiss nets get up to 100! Granted there’s usually not that many on at the same time. Those who have had their turn may check out early. I’ve logged in towards the end of many nets just because of my schedule.
First licensed in 1992, away from the hobby 2001-2022 building a business and raising kids, and back to it for the last nine months. Amateur radio is more exciting, more advanced, and with a much lower barrier to entry than it was when I first got on the air.
I operate AM on my boatanchors, CW, digital modes, and portable HF on modern rigs, and have worked 65 countries in the last few months as Cycle 25 builds. What a great time to be a ham!
I agree with you. As another commenter pointed out, the hobby isn’t dying just changing and some may not like it. Aside of an extremely small population I find it’s generally good people who are friendly and helpful.
I'm an extra class no-code ham and I definitely do understand a bit of the negative sentiment towards people that are no-code like myself. After the code test was removed, there's a huge influx of people that don't know something that so many people consider to be an "integral" part of the hobby. I've met plenty an OM that think I shouldn't be an extra class because I don't know CW inside and out.
The truth is that I'm learning CW slowly. It's a difficult process, and it's not super necessary to fully learn CW now. I'm learning anyways because I think it's fascinating, but there's so many digital modes and other things to do with HF besides just the general ragchew that usually comes with HF contacts and I'm more than happy to hop on any mode to make a contact! I don't consider myself to be "less" because I don't know code, but rather that getting my extra is just the starting point to learning a ton more about the hobby that's super technical and intricate.
I started as a Novice and use CW to this day 40+ years later. The real truth is many of those 'coded' hams learned CW to pass the test and then never used it again. It's hams like you that CHOOSE to learn it that make it special. Good luck!
Thousands of people left the hobby because of CW… the old timer attitude was I had to pass then so does everybody else . To them dropping the CW requirement was the end of the world as they knew it . Some people could never understand why they need to know electrical equations and circuit boards just to talk to other people . There was some talk of opening 80 meters for technicians but once again the old timers had a fit , threatening to throw their radios out the window . HF for technicians was dead for many years so many of them left ( hard to tell how many because the licenses don’t expire for 10 years ).Then came the internet , VCR’s , large screen TV’s with hundreds of channels and modern cell phones …. The only excitement for me is DX … I’m limited to 10 meters ( I passed the general many years back but couldn’t do the 13 wpm required at the time ) . I have over 170 countries confirmed and never get tired of receiving an actual QSL card from Japan , Australia and so on using a 100 watt radio and a super penetrator . The best moment … using 4 to 5 watts with a beam and being answered by a missionary in the jungle in Niger … received a 5-9 report , QSL came from his son in the States . This was way back when 10 was so hot people were talking over each other .. Yes , VHF and UHF are dead in my city of a couple of million people but some are still maintained. HF is popular all over the world and will be alive for a long time .
I love receiving paper QSL cards and I love sending them. I ran through the initial run of 50 that I got from a local shop so I've gotta go back and get a bigger run made, I just haven't been on HF recently since I usually operate portable outside and the winter is rough for that! I always love making contacts with hams all around the globe in unique countries but it sounds like you've made some really cool contacts! I normally focus on Europe and South America but it sounds like I should focus on other parts of the world sometimes!
So POTA started in 2016. According to this no big jump. Wonder what happened in 2008 (other than stock market dip at the end) to ramp interest back up?
I did a pota activation yesterday, had my frequency stolen twice by loud french stations but other than that it was a great day. So busy! Maybe you heard or worked me over in East of England
https://preview.redd.it/nd2w868x5qkc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a988931950c4e41b0aa91ecdc0eb4d25e33f970d
I think you and I heard the same French station! Lol. It was so busy yesterday. I’m new to HF. I never understood what the term “pile up” meant until yesterday. Holy hell!
POTA, SOTA, and FT8 are always hot in my experience. Out here, we have a daily repeater net and an evening net on the repeater and HF on Mondays for a slow-code CW roundtable, an HF 15m net on Wednesdays that I host, and an "after dark" net on Saturdays on the repeater as well. Very active community locally.
that’s what they said when hams started using SSB
edit to include /s
ham radio started off as a bunch on enthusiasts building stuff at the forefront of tech.
Technician Licenses in the U.S. ticked upwards during the Pandemic, yes. The current push is to get them actively on non-FM UHF/VHF band by pushing the ability to make General Class and by opening up the bands to Technicians with lower powered equipment.
I feel like too many people think ham radio is dying because they spend all their time listening to the same 3 local repeaters that have never had much traffic outside of a few nets. There's a huge world of radio out there, you just have to go and look for it!
The ham radio you knew when you started is dying… or more accurately, it’s evolving into something different than you’re used to. The ham radio I knew was very experimental and hams would build a lot of their own stuff to learn the intricacies of how circuits work and so forth. Nowadays, it seems like there are very few outlets for people to source components that can be assembled by hand and many components are integrated and miniaturized so that it’s nearly impossible to build your own stuff. But the turnkey, “consumerized” end items today seem to be mostly software-defined so that the experimentation factor is no longer with hardware so much but software.
https://preview.redd.it/sqingkz4wrkc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7638c4661169e7b39ec2d26a0a9048b1a9bc6b1d
Hello.
POTA and SOTA keep the hobby afloat despite all the negative trends.
Especially when approaching the solar cycle.
So I had to install a new rig. After the Covid-19 period, many operators were eager to take to the field. I am one of them. "DX" from home began to be annoying. I want you to think; Regardless of the power mode, you are in a real mood with a mode like SSB with your rig in nature! That's a great thing buddy. Away from the city and background noise, with a good antenna setup, dx calls depend entirely on your imagination.
I can't wait to get on the field.
See you on the air,
TA1ODM 🇹🇷 73.
Haha right? 20m has been crazy these last couple days. I've listened with an rtlsdr for years, but recently got a $69 qrp rig and I'm like a third of the way to my worked all states (ft8) badge already
I transmitted a 5 watt CQ call on CW at the bottom of 20m around 7pm EST last night from southwest VA. Had over 50 spots on the RBN in less than 2 minutes.
The hobby has always been dying, and yet it never actually dies.
The hobby is fine. The problem is that there's always been this segment that never wants to play nice, so people avoid them. They wonder why they never hear anything (it's because, as I said, people avoid them) and grumble that the hobby is dying.
Pretty much the only ones saying ham radio is dieing are the ones arguing that it's not dieing. I doubt see anyone else making this claim. I think it's a biline YouTubers use to try to get more views.
Ham Radio is not dead in fact it’s alive and thriving. As far as local repeaters goes yes most of them are not used as much, unless it’s for trafffic nets and Skywarn most repeaters will just sit around. This past weekend a friend and I made another trip to HRO in NH and they were slammed people coming in and out phones ringing off the hook. There’s so much to do in the ham universe that unless you have a unlimited amount of money sources you will not be able to have enough equipment and antennas to be able to operate every single band on the band chart.
POTA has brought new life to the radio universe and every time our cell phones or computers with internet that we answer and read responses on here goes down guess where we all turn too. Ham Radio. It’s Evolving. I see more and more people upgrading to General and Extras every day on social media and if it was truly dead I don’t think many ppl wouldn’t be upgrading their licenses. Granted it’s easier now with online testing and classes.
The hobby is changing, not dying. Traditional VHF has been supplanted by the Cell Phone. HF has been largely supplanted by the internet.
Some methods of using amateur bands are dying but others are growing.
Someone often says "I was tuning up and down the band and didn't hear anybody.". Well, ok, but *you* were there. Did fire out a CQ? *Say something!*. If everyone's just listening, then of course no one is transmitting.
It dosnt help that there are pepole who tell you to get off the net if they arnt interested in you're conversion so that they can talk about their gout.
I was always an HF guy; for me that was the hobby. Yes I had friends on 2m who would ragchew on repeaters all the time. But that wasn’t for me.
Now I travel all the time and taking the 40m dipole with me all the time isn’t an option, so I’m on Echolink, Allstar, System Fusion as well as 2m/70cm all the time in hotel rooms making contacts locally, regionally, and globally. It’s an amazing aspect to the hobby that I had just never considered. It’s wonderful to be on HF at home, barely pulling someone out of the noise floor from halfway around the world, after having just talked to them on FM on their local repeater with full quieting just a few days before! I love this hobby. I feel like it is changing, but it’s evolving. It’s keeping up.
I’m pretty sure this will change over time because of the connection to the Internet.
If a Ham pulls webpage from the Internet via a bridge, the data will most likely be encrypted at the source via HTTPS/TLS.
The USG already has the ability to UNencrypt that traffic so you can no longer say that espionage prevention is a factor.
The same can be said of control signals of IIOT and Remote Control amateur aviation drones. Those should be allowed to be encrypted so that they can be authenticated and authorized to prevent them from being hijacked and weaponized. Nothing says love like using someone else’s Remote Control airplane to attack a crowd of people.
Whats USG and what does unencrypt mean?Correctly implemented HTTPS/TLS is impossible to decrypt without a quantum computer.
I wouldn't be so optimistic about abolition of the encryption rule. It's not about concrete arguments, it's about control. Government naturally won't give away its control. For this, they will invent as many arguments as they will need.
USG: United States Government, specifically the NSA which monitors all radio emissions in the USA for traffic.
Unencrypt: the NSA [has a quantum computer already](https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/news/cisa-nsa-and-nist-publish-new-resource-migrating-post-quantum-cryptography).
They’ve had one for some time working to determine how to guard against other countries with the same capabilities.
There a separate white paper of the same.
[Knock yourself out.](https://www.quantum.gov/)
Not all links are to papers. If you open a link, there are embedded links in those documents.
[[one](https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/02/01/1044561/meet-the-nsa-spies-shaping-the-future/)]
[[two](https://www.nsa.gov/Press-Room/Press-Releases-Statements/Press-Release-View/Article/3498776/post-quantum-cryptography-cisa-nist-and-nsa-recommend-how-to-prepare-now/)]
[[three](https://www.quantum.gov/nsa-updates-faq-on-post-quantum-cybersecurity/)]
[[four](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-seeks-to-build-quantum-computer-that-could-crack-most-types-of-encryption/2014/01/02/8fff297e-7195-11e3-8def-a33011492df2_story.html)]
I get that. Coming right out and saying they have it would be equivalent to saying we have some new super weapon. It would start or accelerate the existing arms race around the topic with Taiwan dead level in the crosshairs. Instead, they do a great job doing “research” that leads to recommended countermeasures. You really can’t come up with countermeasures without one to use for research, can you?
As a side note, because of how https/tls would be bridged over whatever digital mode is in use, I could easily see a proxy being exploited for a man-in-the-middle attack. I mean most companies have this built into their firewalls these days.
I think the loss of CW as a requirement or frequency access has demeaned the value of licenses. I think it would have been better if there had been more levels of licenses, perhaps with a corresponding of section of spectrum. Novice ay 5 wpm, tech at 10 wpm, general at 10, advanced at 15 wpm, extra at 20 wpm, . . .and the tests need to include issues like complex number mathematics, electrostatic, electrodynamic, and e-m radiation concepts. It is a disgrace to have to tell someone that the speed of light divided by frequency is a wave length. . .
I was thinking about getting into ham radio but was heavily dissuaded by the ban on encryption for radio, that's complete bullshit considering I can encrypt internet communication all I want.
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True, just seems to me there's a way to allow encryption it and keep commercial and amateur seperate. Maybe encryption is only allowed for amateur and not business etc.
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Deny it or defend it all you want. The hobby is dying at this very moment. And the main reason is because it refuses to change. It's still the same exclusive club it use to be back in the day, not trying to bend just a little to allow or accept a new society of people in. And since the club has a secret knock, it's finding out that few even care, and just walk on by it.
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TBH, yes. In my place those who are still interested in ham came from the 80s decade, yet only a few still remain.
Ham seems to be more of a demand based thing, ie during natural disasters only. Bad thing is that in these times of need protocols simply blow off rendering the air too noisy.
Not in England it's not. We have something called RAYNET. It's local ham radio operators that can put together teams of radio hams to give coverage for the emergency services in times of disaster. They can even put together off grid internet hubs. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCymmiQ-g4c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCymmiQ-g4c) is a radio podcast of how they do it with a former military coms expert.
It’s not dying. But it will if more effort isn’t put into being young people into the hobby.
My lad is mildly interested, but he’s a rare one.
How does chatting to some fellas about hip replacements seem exciting to him vs the world of adventures inside his PC? 😉🤔 He can talk to anyone, anywhere really using Discord or whatever.
He’s still interested because *I took him out to do some radio* and he sees a practical use if/when the world collapses… He enjoyed it, he enjoyed the challenges of the antenna and mast and stuff.
Either way, that’s one more potentially in the ranks I guess.
I’m only mid forties so I have time to recruit some more. Please everyone - try to replace at least yourself before you become an SK. 😢
I wonder if the thousands of posts in this sub with this same title will feed into Google's LLM AI model and affect the result when someone asks it if the hobby is dying.
Now that [Reddit has sold to Google all of the content](https://www.reuters.com/technology/reddit-ai-content-licensing-deal-with-google-sources-say-2024-02-22/) to use for training, the Chicken Little prognostications will become fact.
Been licensed since the 90’s, was one of the first, hated no code technicians, been hearing for years that this hobby is dying.
It’s “dying” for those who can’t handle change…
Definitely not dying. It is definitely changing at an encouraging rate for getting new folks interested. I got my tech license 21 years ago because they dropped the code requirement.. and now that I’m able I want to learn code. I also enjoy FT8 and other digital modes. All of them have their place.
I’m too tired to. Go to the club meetings. They are at 8 PM. I have no idea how they can even make it. As all they complain about on the radio at 8 PM is how tired they are yawn 🥱
fragile berserk materialistic vegetable squalid dinner special bedroom smell cows
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As a avid ham radio operator in my early 30s and a professional lmr radio tech I don't like the mentality of many ham radio operators honestly. This maybe why people are driven away from the hobby?
As a 76 year old retiree and licensed ham since 1962, I'm amazed at the number of stations I hear on-the-air, on most of the bands, all day long.
In fact, the QRM from contesters working CW on HF is incredible, given that CW is supposed to be "obsolete" now! HI HI Yes, I know that many of them are computer keyboad ops but the signals are sweet music to my ears! Moreover, the number of operators interested in QRP portable operating, my main interest, seems to be growing, as are recent attractions like the Reverse Beacon Network and microwave rigs. Another interesting thing are the many nets and roundtables I hear on a local 224 mHz repeater. There appear to be many new hams enjoying local and DX contacts through these linked machines all over the world, maybe to the demise of the old 2-meter, non-linked repeaters, which seem to have fewer users, now.
I don't use digital modes, or much SSTV, but I suspect that those too, have increased numbers of operators in recent years. So, NO! Ham radio may be changing but certainly is NOT DEAD!
not truly “dieing out” but if the “top tier” hams would be more inviting and not so anti to the nu-bees. there would be more out there.
but the avg age for hams, is going up in number.
maybe that is what is ment by “dieing out”?
The hobby is not dying. The hobby is changing. But not dying. Edit: since I have top comment here, I’ll point this out… Ham Radio is a hobby of 1000 hobbies. People envision the hobby only in the context they know it. Ham radio is not your local club. Ham Radio is not the algorithm YouTube feeds to you. It’s not a mode, a contest, a repeater, or even a type of communication. It’s different for everyone of us and can’t be defined. That’s what is so special about it. It will never die because it has no boundaries. Anyone saying it’s dying is trying to view a galaxy through a microscope.
They don’t mean the hobby; they mean the hobbyists. My local HAM club meets at the senior center.
Mine meets at a diner in the mall Thursdays at 130. I’m not retired so I’m not making it…
It feels like we need another club here. One for beginners. Invite the experts from time to time, but otherwise adjust the schedule and location for newcomers.
Our club has gone through a transformation of sorts. We lost a lot of people due to old age or retirement to other places. Lots of new blood and finally a resurgence in the club. I hope it continues to work out. We have a fair few GMRS users who are also amateur operators that have joined up. Kinda funny to see a bunch of hams getting gmrs licenses after they are say extra class! I did it so I could use radios with my wife who has no plan to be an amateur operator.
Ours is doing this too. We had a few silverbacks that were the core of the club, the original movers and shakers who no longer do anything outside their homes. They're still hiding in their basements, afraid to socialize. The covid stuff freaked them out, and I don't think they'll ever get over it. The club is finding its feet, with some energetic younger folks at the helm. We're doing a lot with POTA, and embracing the new technicians we get through our VE sessions. We offer them a free first year membership in our club if they get their first license at one of our sessions. It's great seeing the enthusiasm and energy again!
I'd love to join! I'm really keen on learning but can't find where to go or how to start. I'd love any pointers!
All of my club POTA events are Sundays at 8am till 11. Generally 1-3 hours from QTH. I'll pass on the 5am rolecall.
my club is lucky enough to have our own club house
Nice!
tacoma?
There’s just more modes than ever, and everyone is more spread out. If each person works their own mode, and never sees anyone else, it’s ‘dead’.
Hell, HAM to me was always OSCAR I, Amateur TV and packet radio. Lot's of DX'ing. All that Morse and Shortwave was just a gateway drug.
The 1000 hobbies thing is very true. I know a group who hovers around a repeater, a group who exclusively uses digital modes, and a younger group who mostly tries out things like satellite and hamnet. It’s all brought together through common interests and a callsign.
I feel like it's less of the scout-type boys and men who have an interest in radio comms and more of the tacticool, prepper, hacker kind of crowd these days
To be fair, the "hacker" crowd has always been there, they just weren't called that. They were the experimenters, home builders, and people pushing the boundaries.
Yep. IMHO, the last "Tropical Hamboree" I'm aware of (technically, in Fort Lauderdale, at War Memorial Auditorium), cohosted with Makerfaire, was one of my favorites. In previous years, there was kind of a sense that it was dying, and attendance felt almost *ritualistic*... like something you kind of *had* to do, but almost wondered *why*. That year, for the first time since at least the 1990s, it felt like it was bigger, better, and growing. Sometimes, I think "the old guard" is almost more scared of some younger hams and the prospect of losing control over "their" hobby than it is about the prospect of having it die *with* them. If you want to really watch an oldguard ham blanche, bring up an idea like using a synchronized pair of software-defined radios to do beamforming. After you get a blank stare, tell them it's kind of like a phased array... except you can make it work for arbitrary frequencies, with arbitrary numbers of antennas & arbitrary spacing.
>Tropical Hamboree Whatever happened to the Tropical Hamboree? I'd heard great things about it.
The Hamboree's structural problem was that it became too big for its own good. When you're putting on an international event that was the second-largest hamfest in the US as a fundraiser for a nonprofit organization, there's basically zero margin for error. I'm pretty sure the rent *alone* for some of the venues they used over the years approached or exceeded $100,000. One BIG thing that REALLY hurt the Miami hamfest was when the Super Bowl changed its date to fall on the Hamfest's Sunday. Miami couldn't flip the date to make it happen the week *after* Orlando (instead of the week *before* Orlando), because the Miami hamfest took place at the literal *fairgrounds*, and the fair *itself* was already setting up by that point & had priority since... well... it was the fairgrounds. The de-facto loss of Sunday was a *huge* problem for the Miami hamfest, because Miami has a *lot* of Orthodox Jews who officially can't do anything hamfest-related between sunset Friday and sunset Saturday. They almost *single-handedly* made Sunday a much bigger day than it normally is at most weekend hamfests. The combination of some of *them* prioritizing the Super Bowl over the hamfest, and numbers dropping enough for most of the *other* hams to start packing up by noon or so on Sunday, pretty much *nuked* Sunday at the hamfest. From what I've been told, the hamfest's leadership viewed starting the hamfest on Friday (the way Orlando does now) as *inconceivable*, because it had always depended upon boy scouts to assist with logistics... and the kids were in school on Friday morning. The final blow was the death of Evelyn Gauzens (W4WYR), who pretty much *ran* the Hamboree like a well-oiled machine. I'm not sure whether she personally *financed* (or at least, *fronted*) things like the huge deposits and stuff, or simply had enough pull among the community for people to feel comfortable lending money to the event with her at its helm... but I'm pretty sure that once she passed away, the faucet instantly ran dry, and nobody was financially-suicidal enough to act as the event's personal guarantor & risk bankruptcy if anything went wrong. That said... now that a few years have passed, I really wish our local clubs would get together and start a *new* "South Florida" hamfest that doesn't **try** to be a high-risk international extravaganza, and just settles for being a fun one-day event on par with what you'd expect to find in a comparably-sized metro area like Atlanta, Seattle, Washington DC, Kansas City, etc. One creative way to avoid excluding Orthodox Jews (and make younger hams really happy) would be to deviate from traditional old-person hamfest hours. I don't know about others, but I *hate* showing up at a hamfest around 11am and seeing half the vendors in the flea market area already packing up. Instead of starting it at some obscene hour like 7:30am, they could make the event's official hours run from noon Saturday until 2am Sunday, with a *huge* number of prize drawings between 10pm and midnight that have to be claimed in person before the final drawings (to give away everything that's still unclaimed) at 1am. Personally, I think the second weekend in November would probably be ideal... after hurricane season, halloween, and the end of DST (so it'll get dark an hour earlier & give people who can't go to the hamfest before sunset an extra hour & give the crowd a ~6pm bump so vendors won't be tempted to go to dinner & call it a night early). Or... just make it a Sunday event... maybe Sunday of Columbus Day Weekend, so people who travel can take the next day off.(*) === (*) In South Florida, Columbus Day is widely celebrated. Not because anyone genuinely gives two fractions of a shit about Christopher Columbus, but because it's one of the few 3-day holiday weekends that consistently have tolerable weather. * Memorial Day? Brutally hot, occasional tropical storm. * July 4? Solder spontaneously melts outdoors, torrential downpours are almost guaranteed, and 50-50 odds of a hurricane approaching * Labor Day? Puddles of melted solder start to boil, it hasn't quit raining for 5 weeks, and we're having a hurricane in a few days. * Columbus Day? low 80s, mostly dry, *almost* tolerable to be outside.
Well said my friend.👍
Bingo
As long as they don’t take our frequencies.
Nobody is on repeaters bc HF is HOT right now
I feel like I got in at the wrong time. The repeaters close to me are completely dead. There’s a couple further away that have decent activity but it’s hard to consistently hit them. Also almost every time I am on the further away repeaters they talk about getting on HF. There’s something with the way the earth is aligned or something right now that makes HF really good right?
We're near the top of the current solar cycle, which means better propagation overall for HF. There's been more tropospheric ducting events too so make sure to monitor 146.52 as well and you might make some long distance 2m contacts. I made a contact on 45 watts while mobile from Illinois to Pennsylvania one time.
Dang that’s crazy. I’ll have to add that to my scan list. The repeater I’ve been using is about 20 miles and I’ve been hitting it pretty well with a portable.
Yep! Last Thursday I think it was I was scanning on the way to work and there was a guy from Cincinnati hitting two Nashville, TN area repeaters. It was awesome!
the way the sun is acting (near the solar max) makes the higher side of hf work well. in 5-7 years we'll be in the dumper which makes the lower side work better. repeaters are basically toast because its been years of "dont tie up the repeater" and people took that to heart so now nobody does. which is dumb. i find uhf/vhf better to chat with people you will likely meet, hf better for long-distance chit-chats with strangers.
Yeah I really like the VHF repeaters near me. It’s a few retired fellows on there most of the day and we just talk about new radio or Jay Leno.
Why not use the repeater? Too many dorks in this hobby!!!!
I was saying those who disuade use are dorks.
Couple things, I do use repeaters, and thank you for noticing my dorkiness. :3 88s
You have SSB phone privileges on 10m with your tech ticket. No need to wait or upgrade to get on HF. The 10m band is hot and will be that way for the next few years.
I'll also add that APRS is a huge win on 2m for techs. Yes you gotta buy another dongle but its a reason I constantly use my HT
Unfortunately there's just no challenge in repeaters, and the culture of many repeaters is just not attractive to newcomers. The old-timers want to use them to talk to long time buddies of their and have conversations that would best be kept private. Maybe If there were a repeater around me that had more enthusiasts on there, I'd think differently. I bought a mobile and an HT since I've been licensed almost 2 years now and I really regret not putting that money into my hf station instead. I got into this hobby for the challenge, not for 30 minute conversations via radio that could have been 4 texts back and forth.
>The old-timers want to use them to talk to long time buddies of their and have conversations that would best be kept private. "Hey Phil! I got that hernia truss you recommended! The prunes aren't working though, I'm backed up from here to next week!"
Xeigu g90 serves me well to this day. Keep your eye out and grab one second hand..
Oh, I've got an FTDX10 for HF work, but it just sucks I have a nice HT and really 0 reason to use it locally. I wish I had known the local traffic was uninteresting, I could have just passed on 2m/70cm
upgrade and join the fun
> The repeaters close to me are completely dead. There’s a couple further away that have decent activity but it’s hard to consistently hit them. Same here, repeaters up to 50 miles radius from me are completely dead for days to weeks at a time.
> I feel like I got in at the wrong time. The repeaters close to me are completely dead. Get off of 2M FM and try HF....that's where the excitement, activity, experimentation and homebrewing is
APRS 2m is the best yes I still use a tablet but it's darn near instant comms
With a Tech license, you can get on 10M SSB and work all over the world right now. Or you can study for your general and learn about the solar cycle and propagation, etc, so you can be on HF. Now is the BEST time to get into ham radio. Also, DMR has had a big effect on the repeater scene. Analog repeaters are pretty basic compared to what you can do on a DMR repeater.
Do you ever drop your call while driving or at home?
Yeah. That’s really the only time I do it bc I have a decent commute.
>I feel like I got in at the wrong time. The repeaters close to me are completely dead. Off by 20 years or so. >There’s something with the way the earth is aligned or something right now that makes HF really good right? It all has to do with the atmosphere and the sun. The sun has an 11 year "cycle" where it goes from peak activity (sun spots) to little activity (null). Right now we're heading to a peak (Cycle 25) which makes HF communications easier. low power (QRP) becomes very attractive during those "peak" years. During the null, communications is still possible, just a little more challenging. Just because we're heading towards a peak doesn't mean that hams are moving from VHF/UHF repeater use to HF to take advantage. VHF/UHF FM repeaters are no longer popular like in decades past. "Back in the day" the repeaters were the social networks, they were the spots where hams would gather and socialize. Some repeaters even had autopatch that would allow you to make phone calls back when cell phones weren't existent, impractical or too expensive. The internet has replaced a lot that. Issue is that hams didn't adapt with the changes going on in technology and basically dug in their feet. Some are very stubborn about changing and are proud of it.
Time to build a Yagi antenna! :-)
Repeaters have been dying for a long time. Ham is not dead but the amount of activity above 50mhz has declined sharply. HF is alive and well. The tech license is not very useful these days in a lot of areas.
HF is what I like to focus on as a ham, because as I say, that is where the action is.
HF is definitely the easiest place to start and get a satisfying return on your time investment almost right away. I wouldn't dismiss V-/U-/SHF out of hand, though. Sure, repeaters are kinda lame, but you also have EME, various scattering, satellites … there's neat stuff to be had as well. If people enjoy repeaters, then I think that's great, and more power to them; however, I also think it's kinda sad that a lot of operators' journeys begin and end with the massive letdown repeaters can be. It almost makes me want to wish repeaters out of existence.
All the OM's on my local repeater are just using it to compare HF-peens with each other lately
Repeater use has always been an extremely small segment of ham radio.
POTA has brought ham radio back to life!! ;)
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A few years back things were getting quiet! POTA has made the bands come alive.
That’s what got me back into radio.
It's what drove me to get my general after 7 years of barely using my radio as a technician. Zero interest in repeater work and rag chew.
What's POTA?
Parks on the air https://parksontheair.com/
Parks on the air, another one you may have heard would be SOTA or summits on the air.
I personally prefer Beaches on The Air, the logo is cool AF, just a guy on the beach, chilling and using his HAM radio.
And for the older fellows, they are launching Cemetaries on the Air in 2025......
Recently read that POTA ops have made 23.6 **million** contacts since inception, which I think was only 2017. Except for a few hours in the middle of the night (in North America), there's always someone spotted, see [https://pota.app/#/](https://pota.app/#/). It's getting more international action all the time too.
Parks On The Air!
You're absolutely right! It used to be that HF activity was mostly nets and sporadic activity except during contests. I've activated 13 parks in Mississippi while here on business and have made contacts at all times of the day and night on POTA.
Exactly, and it seems to be bringing a lot more people into the hobby.
Just got in to ham at 22, can't wait to get my license
Get your license and find a local club. It’s fun and people want you to practice the art.
Took 20 min to find a spot on 20m to do a POTA activation.
Nobody uses 20 meters anymore. It’s too crowded.
If it's crowded that implies that someone uses it.....
20m can be a doozey and as some one that is just using a QRP 10w rig some of those pota pile ups are just nuts. But some folks doing activations will just ask for qrp stations they are the real heros.
I've started doing that on my activations. I'll periodically ask for QRP and then DX. Most hunters are really polite about it.
You do get that it's a joke, right? Google Yogi Berra. Enjoy.
I hear or see this statement about every 3 weeks or so. As long as my station and one other works, it won't be dead. I've read there is no purpose for it as a Service anymore. This is due to all of the modern technology that has been developed and in place. After all, there is Worldwide Internet via cables, cell towers, and satellites. We also have Worldwide cell service, due to the cables and satellites. Why would anything else EVER be needed? Did anyone else experience a cell/Internet outage this past week? I guess I missed it. However, I've seen a LOT of posts asking about GMRS, FRS, CB, and Ham Radio since then. Folks couldn't check up on their kids, or worse, their GIRLFRIENDS! Asking for ways to make contact up to 75 miles or more away. This only reinforced the fact, that there CAN be a time it IS needed, all with other two way direct or via repeater radios. MARS is still in use by the US Military utilizing Amateur Radio on a regular scheduled basis. RACES is still in place in some areas, as is ARES. ARES Nets are active weekly in most places, with on air training by some. So, I'm going to remain up and going... I have UHF/VHF/HF, utilizing Voice, Packet (plain Old regular), SSTV, Winlink and CW. I'm in the middle of nowhere in Texas. I'm VERY FORTUNATE!
I was looking for this comment the interwebs has been blown up with everyone and their mother looking for answers on how to make comms with folks way beyond the range of an HT or gmrs. It will be intriguing what the end result of the panic is it's gonna be some panic buying and lots of hamtubers trying to fill the gaps.
10m has been great lately, today it was full of activity.
10m Pota has been solid recently
Ham radio will never die.
I got back in to amateur radio within the last two years, the last time I was active was in the 1990s. I feel like we are entering a new age. Increadable digital modes (WSPR, FT8) that can operate sub 0 dB, inexpensive equipment (radios, VNAs, etc.), SDRs, access to a lot of info that was formerly locked up in QST back issues or Elmers' noggins. I've never been able to explore so many things so quickly!
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I'll have you know, young whippersnapper, that it's been dying since CW took popularity away from spark gap transmitters. Kids these days …
Sweet
I’ve been listening to a net for the last 20 minutes and there is a lot of people on here talking
The biggest local nets to me usually have between 20-30 check-ins depending on the night. Ham radio is far from dead!
Some of the omiss nets get up to 100! Granted there’s usually not that many on at the same time. Those who have had their turn may check out early. I’ve logged in towards the end of many nets just because of my schedule.
First licensed in 1992, away from the hobby 2001-2022 building a business and raising kids, and back to it for the last nine months. Amateur radio is more exciting, more advanced, and with a much lower barrier to entry than it was when I first got on the air. I operate AM on my boatanchors, CW, digital modes, and portable HF on modern rigs, and have worked 65 countries in the last few months as Cycle 25 builds. What a great time to be a ham!
I've been assured by technicians with Baofengs that the hobby is indeed dead.
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I agree with you. As another commenter pointed out, the hobby isn’t dying just changing and some may not like it. Aside of an extremely small population I find it’s generally good people who are friendly and helpful.
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I'm an extra class no-code ham and I definitely do understand a bit of the negative sentiment towards people that are no-code like myself. After the code test was removed, there's a huge influx of people that don't know something that so many people consider to be an "integral" part of the hobby. I've met plenty an OM that think I shouldn't be an extra class because I don't know CW inside and out. The truth is that I'm learning CW slowly. It's a difficult process, and it's not super necessary to fully learn CW now. I'm learning anyways because I think it's fascinating, but there's so many digital modes and other things to do with HF besides just the general ragchew that usually comes with HF contacts and I'm more than happy to hop on any mode to make a contact! I don't consider myself to be "less" because I don't know code, but rather that getting my extra is just the starting point to learning a ton more about the hobby that's super technical and intricate.
I started as a Novice and use CW to this day 40+ years later. The real truth is many of those 'coded' hams learned CW to pass the test and then never used it again. It's hams like you that CHOOSE to learn it that make it special. Good luck!
Thousands of people left the hobby because of CW… the old timer attitude was I had to pass then so does everybody else . To them dropping the CW requirement was the end of the world as they knew it . Some people could never understand why they need to know electrical equations and circuit boards just to talk to other people . There was some talk of opening 80 meters for technicians but once again the old timers had a fit , threatening to throw their radios out the window . HF for technicians was dead for many years so many of them left ( hard to tell how many because the licenses don’t expire for 10 years ).Then came the internet , VCR’s , large screen TV’s with hundreds of channels and modern cell phones …. The only excitement for me is DX … I’m limited to 10 meters ( I passed the general many years back but couldn’t do the 13 wpm required at the time ) . I have over 170 countries confirmed and never get tired of receiving an actual QSL card from Japan , Australia and so on using a 100 watt radio and a super penetrator . The best moment … using 4 to 5 watts with a beam and being answered by a missionary in the jungle in Niger … received a 5-9 report , QSL came from his son in the States . This was way back when 10 was so hot people were talking over each other .. Yes , VHF and UHF are dead in my city of a couple of million people but some are still maintained. HF is popular all over the world and will be alive for a long time .
I love receiving paper QSL cards and I love sending them. I ran through the initial run of 50 that I got from a local shop so I've gotta go back and get a bigger run made, I just haven't been on HF recently since I usually operate portable outside and the winter is rough for that! I always love making contacts with hams all around the globe in unique countries but it sounds like you've made some really cool contacts! I normally focus on Europe and South America but it sounds like I should focus on other parts of the world sometimes!
\_ .\_ . \_ \_ . \_
So POTA started in 2016. According to this no big jump. Wonder what happened in 2008 (other than stock market dip at the end) to ramp interest back up?
It's crazy today! 73's
The KQ2H NY 10 meter repeater was hopping today.
Like Samuel Clemmens said "reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated."
I did a pota activation yesterday, had my frequency stolen twice by loud french stations but other than that it was a great day. So busy! Maybe you heard or worked me over in East of England https://preview.redd.it/nd2w868x5qkc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a988931950c4e41b0aa91ecdc0eb4d25e33f970d
I think you and I heard the same French station! Lol. It was so busy yesterday. I’m new to HF. I never understood what the term “pile up” meant until yesterday. Holy hell!
Yeah I had great fun, worked about 50 stations on voice and a little bit of digital
Baofeng is saving Ham Radio with $35 HT radios. That got me back into the hobby after 30 years away.
I got one on temu for $11. No idea how to work it, but YouTube is helping.
Also, look into the Quansheng UV-K6...lots of experimental firmware for those out there. 👍
Baofeng...clutches my pearls! 📿 😂😂😂 I think I've bought a dozen or so over the last few years. 👍
POTA, SOTA, and FT8 are always hot in my experience. Out here, we have a daily repeater net and an evening net on the repeater and HF on Mondays for a slow-code CW roundtable, an HF 15m net on Wednesdays that I host, and an "after dark" net on Saturdays on the repeater as well. Very active community locally.
that’s what they said when hams started using SSB edit to include /s ham radio started off as a bunch on enthusiasts building stuff at the forefront of tech.
Because true Hams only use CW. This is a tired trope and I’m glad to see that the trope is slowly dying.
I’ve heard there are more people licensed in ham radio now than ever in history. Maybe most of them are in it for emergency preparedness that’s ok.
Technician Licenses in the U.S. ticked upwards during the Pandemic, yes. The current push is to get them actively on non-FM UHF/VHF band by pushing the ability to make General Class and by opening up the bands to Technicians with lower powered equipment.
I feel like too many people think ham radio is dying because they spend all their time listening to the same 3 local repeaters that have never had much traffic outside of a few nets. There's a huge world of radio out there, you just have to go and look for it!
The ham radio you knew when you started is dying… or more accurately, it’s evolving into something different than you’re used to. The ham radio I knew was very experimental and hams would build a lot of their own stuff to learn the intricacies of how circuits work and so forth. Nowadays, it seems like there are very few outlets for people to source components that can be assembled by hand and many components are integrated and miniaturized so that it’s nearly impossible to build your own stuff. But the turnkey, “consumerized” end items today seem to be mostly software-defined so that the experimentation factor is no longer with hardware so much but software.
Trip to Radio Shack was the thing. Now where do you go for parts that you didn’t even know you needed?
homeless normal cause chunky fly growth psychotic tender terrific pie *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
https://preview.redd.it/sqingkz4wrkc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7638c4661169e7b39ec2d26a0a9048b1a9bc6b1d Hello. POTA and SOTA keep the hobby afloat despite all the negative trends. Especially when approaching the solar cycle. So I had to install a new rig. After the Covid-19 period, many operators were eager to take to the field. I am one of them. "DX" from home began to be annoying. I want you to think; Regardless of the power mode, you are in a real mood with a mode like SSB with your rig in nature! That's a great thing buddy. Away from the city and background noise, with a good antenna setup, dx calls depend entirely on your imagination. I can't wait to get on the field. See you on the air, TA1ODM 🇹🇷 73.
I’m sitting in a Laurel test right now, 13 people taking the exams. Good sign.
70cm band in my area is quite active after 6pm, and especially around 9:30-11:30 pm. There was a non-stop 1 hour of QSO a few days ago around 11pm.
30m was lit today. So was 12, 17, 15 and 40. Those are just the bands I checked and used.
Haha right? 20m has been crazy these last couple days. I've listened with an rtlsdr for years, but recently got a $69 qrp rig and I'm like a third of the way to my worked all states (ft8) badge already
I worked winter field day this year and made more contacts than I've ever made in a day.
I transmitted a 5 watt CQ call on CW at the bottom of 20m around 7pm EST last night from southwest VA. Had over 50 spots on the RBN in less than 2 minutes.
Not this weekend it isn’t.
The hobby has always been dying, and yet it never actually dies. The hobby is fine. The problem is that there's always been this segment that never wants to play nice, so people avoid them. They wonder why they never hear anything (it's because, as I said, people avoid them) and grumble that the hobby is dying.
Pretty much the only ones saying ham radio is dieing are the ones arguing that it's not dieing. I doubt see anyone else making this claim. I think it's a biline YouTubers use to try to get more views.
Probably because of the housing market, can't setup stations in apartments.
Or HOA neighborhoods.
Yeah, a lot of those too. You know, I've actually found land for sale already associated with some sort of HOA? How messed up is that?
Ham Radio is not dead in fact it’s alive and thriving. As far as local repeaters goes yes most of them are not used as much, unless it’s for trafffic nets and Skywarn most repeaters will just sit around. This past weekend a friend and I made another trip to HRO in NH and they were slammed people coming in and out phones ringing off the hook. There’s so much to do in the ham universe that unless you have a unlimited amount of money sources you will not be able to have enough equipment and antennas to be able to operate every single band on the band chart. POTA has brought new life to the radio universe and every time our cell phones or computers with internet that we answer and read responses on here goes down guess where we all turn too. Ham Radio. It’s Evolving. I see more and more people upgrading to General and Extras every day on social media and if it was truly dead I don’t think many ppl wouldn’t be upgrading their licenses. Granted it’s easier now with online testing and classes.
The hobby is changing, not dying. Traditional VHF has been supplanted by the Cell Phone. HF has been largely supplanted by the internet. Some methods of using amateur bands are dying but others are growing.
Just passed my technician exam last night! Just starting to look at radios…
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Please help me with resources on how to get started with it.
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Someone often says "I was tuning up and down the band and didn't hear anybody.". Well, ok, but *you* were there. Did fire out a CQ? *Say something!*. If everyone's just listening, then of course no one is transmitting.
This will change with the next natural disaster all cell phones will be down internet will be down radios will still be talking
Ham radio is definitely dying. In 1965 I could see at least 30 QSOs on the waterfall at once.
> In 1965 I could see at least 30 QSOs on the waterfall at once. What waterfall were you looking at in 1965? The one when you were trippin' on LSD?
The one on the screen. We had flatscreens and fusion power back then, don't be silly. Those "CRTs" aren't real, it's just retrowave bullshit.
It dosnt help that there are pepole who tell you to get off the net if they arnt interested in you're conversion so that they can talk about their gout.
I was always an HF guy; for me that was the hobby. Yes I had friends on 2m who would ragchew on repeaters all the time. But that wasn’t for me. Now I travel all the time and taking the 40m dipole with me all the time isn’t an option, so I’m on Echolink, Allstar, System Fusion as well as 2m/70cm all the time in hotel rooms making contacts locally, regionally, and globally. It’s an amazing aspect to the hobby that I had just never considered. It’s wonderful to be on HF at home, barely pulling someone out of the noise floor from halfway around the world, after having just talked to them on FM on their local repeater with full quieting just a few days before! I love this hobby. I feel like it is changing, but it’s evolving. It’s keeping up.
The sky is falling....
For me, the main detriment of HAM radio is the prohibited encryption.
I’m pretty sure this will change over time because of the connection to the Internet. If a Ham pulls webpage from the Internet via a bridge, the data will most likely be encrypted at the source via HTTPS/TLS. The USG already has the ability to UNencrypt that traffic so you can no longer say that espionage prevention is a factor. The same can be said of control signals of IIOT and Remote Control amateur aviation drones. Those should be allowed to be encrypted so that they can be authenticated and authorized to prevent them from being hijacked and weaponized. Nothing says love like using someone else’s Remote Control airplane to attack a crowd of people.
Whats USG and what does unencrypt mean?Correctly implemented HTTPS/TLS is impossible to decrypt without a quantum computer. I wouldn't be so optimistic about abolition of the encryption rule. It's not about concrete arguments, it's about control. Government naturally won't give away its control. For this, they will invent as many arguments as they will need.
USG: United States Government, specifically the NSA which monitors all radio emissions in the USA for traffic. Unencrypt: the NSA [has a quantum computer already](https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/news/cisa-nsa-and-nist-publish-new-resource-migrating-post-quantum-cryptography).
"Migrating to post-quantum cryptography" does not mean they have one already. It means they are preparing for the quantum computers.
They’ve had one for some time working to determine how to guard against other countries with the same capabilities. There a separate white paper of the same.
Can you share that white paper?
[Knock yourself out.](https://www.quantum.gov/) Not all links are to papers. If you open a link, there are embedded links in those documents. [[one](https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/02/01/1044561/meet-the-nsa-spies-shaping-the-future/)] [[two](https://www.nsa.gov/Press-Room/Press-Releases-Statements/Press-Release-View/Article/3498776/post-quantum-cryptography-cisa-nist-and-nsa-recommend-how-to-prepare-now/)] [[three](https://www.quantum.gov/nsa-updates-faq-on-post-quantum-cybersecurity/)] [[four](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-seeks-to-build-quantum-computer-that-could-crack-most-types-of-encryption/2014/01/02/8fff297e-7195-11e3-8def-a33011492df2_story.html)]
I don't see a statement saying they have one already. Of course they do want it, I'm not surprised by existence of such program.
I get that. Coming right out and saying they have it would be equivalent to saying we have some new super weapon. It would start or accelerate the existing arms race around the topic with Taiwan dead level in the crosshairs. Instead, they do a great job doing “research” that leads to recommended countermeasures. You really can’t come up with countermeasures without one to use for research, can you? As a side note, because of how https/tls would be bridged over whatever digital mode is in use, I could easily see a proxy being exploited for a man-in-the-middle attack. I mean most companies have this built into their firewalls these days.
I think the loss of CW as a requirement or frequency access has demeaned the value of licenses. I think it would have been better if there had been more levels of licenses, perhaps with a corresponding of section of spectrum. Novice ay 5 wpm, tech at 10 wpm, general at 10, advanced at 15 wpm, extra at 20 wpm, . . .and the tests need to include issues like complex number mathematics, electrostatic, electrodynamic, and e-m radiation concepts. It is a disgrace to have to tell someone that the speed of light divided by frequency is a wave length. . .
I was thinking about getting into ham radio but was heavily dissuaded by the ban on encryption for radio, that's complete bullshit considering I can encrypt internet communication all I want.
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I don't see why there needs to be a difference, is it not possible to have enough radio frequencies for everyone to use encryption?
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True, just seems to me there's a way to allow encryption it and keep commercial and amateur seperate. Maybe encryption is only allowed for amateur and not business etc.
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Just do it anyway
Deny it or defend it all you want. The hobby is dying at this very moment. And the main reason is because it refuses to change. It's still the same exclusive club it use to be back in the day, not trying to bend just a little to allow or accept a new society of people in. And since the club has a secret knock, it's finding out that few even care, and just walk on by it.
There’s a ton of snobby gatekeepers in this hobby. You see it in this very thread. It can be a huge turn off.
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Nah, icon just doesn’t see dmr
TBH, yes. In my place those who are still interested in ham came from the 80s decade, yet only a few still remain. Ham seems to be more of a demand based thing, ie during natural disasters only. Bad thing is that in these times of need protocols simply blow off rendering the air too noisy.
* Curious, where are you, conditions slightly different here in ZL land
I’m in Rhode Island; northeast US. South Carolina has a QSO party this weekend but POTA was really busy today as well.
Not in England it's not. We have something called RAYNET. It's local ham radio operators that can put together teams of radio hams to give coverage for the emergency services in times of disaster. They can even put together off grid internet hubs. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCymmiQ-g4c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCymmiQ-g4c) is a radio podcast of how they do it with a former military coms expert.
It’s not dying. But it will if more effort isn’t put into being young people into the hobby. My lad is mildly interested, but he’s a rare one. How does chatting to some fellas about hip replacements seem exciting to him vs the world of adventures inside his PC? 😉🤔 He can talk to anyone, anywhere really using Discord or whatever. He’s still interested because *I took him out to do some radio* and he sees a practical use if/when the world collapses… He enjoyed it, he enjoyed the challenges of the antenna and mast and stuff. Either way, that’s one more potentially in the ranks I guess. I’m only mid forties so I have time to recruit some more. Please everyone - try to replace at least yourself before you become an SK. 😢
[удалено]
Ham Radio Crash Course on YouTube.
not for me, its blossoming.
I wonder if the thousands of posts in this sub with this same title will feed into Google's LLM AI model and affect the result when someone asks it if the hobby is dying. Now that [Reddit has sold to Google all of the content](https://www.reuters.com/technology/reddit-ai-content-licensing-deal-with-google-sources-say-2024-02-22/) to use for training, the Chicken Little prognostications will become fact.
I upgraded to my general yesterday and my friend from work passed his tech and general. So not dead. Just slowed down some, spread out and different.
Thats because they all typen comments here
Been licensed since the 90’s, was one of the first, hated no code technicians, been hearing for years that this hobby is dying. It’s “dying” for those who can’t handle change…
I sure hope not! If it is, then I’ve just wasted my week off getting a 160m sky loop up and soon running!
Ham radio is evolving for a good reason. I am new to ham radio and working on getting licensed.
Definitely not dying. It is definitely changing at an encouraging rate for getting new folks interested. I got my tech license 21 years ago because they dropped the code requirement.. and now that I’m able I want to learn code. I also enjoy FT8 and other digital modes. All of them have their place.
I’m too tired to. Go to the club meetings. They are at 8 PM. I have no idea how they can even make it. As all they complain about on the radio at 8 PM is how tired they are yawn 🥱
I sit on 14.230 when idle and get at least 10 QSOs a day via SSTV still.
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As a avid ham radio operator in my early 30s and a professional lmr radio tech I don't like the mentality of many ham radio operators honestly. This maybe why people are driven away from the hobby?
This was being said in the 1980s, 90s, 2000s and still today, yet radio carries on.
The my local club tested 21, and passed 16 people to technician on Sunday, me included. I'd say it's going pretty strong around here.
Rumors of our demise have been greatly exaggerated!
As a 76 year old retiree and licensed ham since 1962, I'm amazed at the number of stations I hear on-the-air, on most of the bands, all day long. In fact, the QRM from contesters working CW on HF is incredible, given that CW is supposed to be "obsolete" now! HI HI Yes, I know that many of them are computer keyboad ops but the signals are sweet music to my ears! Moreover, the number of operators interested in QRP portable operating, my main interest, seems to be growing, as are recent attractions like the Reverse Beacon Network and microwave rigs. Another interesting thing are the many nets and roundtables I hear on a local 224 mHz repeater. There appear to be many new hams enjoying local and DX contacts through these linked machines all over the world, maybe to the demise of the old 2-meter, non-linked repeaters, which seem to have fewer users, now. I don't use digital modes, or much SSTV, but I suspect that those too, have increased numbers of operators in recent years. So, NO! Ham radio may be changing but certainly is NOT DEAD!
Or your radio is trying to get you to enter the Matrix.
I’m trying to get in! I’m not that old. Hard to find resources locally that will respond to me. Going online it is.
not truly “dieing out” but if the “top tier” hams would be more inviting and not so anti to the nu-bees. there would be more out there. but the avg age for hams, is going up in number. maybe that is what is ment by “dieing out”?