I was not misleading anyone. I think you misinterpreted what I said to mean that all you need is a walkie talkie and you’re an expert ham. That isn’t what I’m saying at all and that isn’t what I was taught to understand what amateur radio is about.
What I am saying is that all the technical training is great, but it is only one part of what amateur radio is. You can pass all the exams and know all the answers (no one knows all the answers and anyone who thinks they do is only an expert at narcissism) but none of it does any good if you don’t get out there and experience it.
Starting off with an HT is an inexpensive and effective way to get your feet wet learning the etiquette, protocols and the rules of operating on the air. If you’re new at it all, it’s much better to break the ice, make the mistakes and learn from them with the local hams than to start transmitting mistakes half way around the world on your first contacts.
As far as the technical end goes, I would much rather fry a $40 handheld experimenting with antennas and feed lines than burn out the finals on an expensive HF rig. I definitely couldn’t afford to do that, and I doubt there are many others who could.
You said it yourself:
I think that back when the people had the attitude that you had to operate in order to keep your license, we had more hams.
When the equipment was more expensive, it lead to more people experimenting and learning by doing.
The problem is, the equipment - that is, what some seasoned hams consider “real” radios - is still expensive, and with today’s inflation, even more expensive than it used to be. I think most new hams you talk to today will tell you that if they had the choice, they would rather ragchew on some of those radios than on a little “disposable” chinese radio, but it simply isn’t in the budget. Does that mean they shouldn’t be practicing on the air? Of course not! Is there some rule that requires one to own a high-end multi-band radio to be considered a “legitimate” amateur operator? Ridiculous. That is nothing more than elitism.
Now, do I believe that one should just get a license and starting connecting feed lines to homemade antennas to trees in their back yards and start pumping out the wattage without understanding the basics and without consulting with an Elmer first? No, but then I’ll ask this:
How many amateurs eighty years ago even had an Elmer? How many of them knew what we know today about antennas? How many of them fully understood the proper way to use them and feed lines?
Not very many, because they were still experimenting.
I’ll bet not very many of them even knew all their Q Codes, since amateurs were still in the process of adopting them at that point.
After all, this is amateur radio, not amateur walkie talkie.
And this is the real issue. It isn’t really about what you can do with the hobby, or what you can learn from it in the long term, or even what your potential contribution to ham radio can be, if it is encouraged properly. It’s all about sizing up who is a “real” ham and who should and shouldn’t be on the air based on what type of radio they do or do not have.
It’s all about attitude.
No, I will tell you from personal experience why hams come and go and why the ham population and experience (or lack of it) is what it is today. The reality is there is a perception of hams that discourages many from getting into the hobby or sticking with it - and it is a certain minority of the hams themselves that are the root cause of it.
I didn’t jump into ham radio when I was younger for two basic reasons: One was the perceived financial barrier to entry, the idea that I had to invest hundreds or even thousands into a “real” radio that I couldn’t afford. The other reason? My rig is better than your little homemade breadboard - a walkie talkie isn’t a real radio - some things never change.
Most of the amateurs I’ve met since then are very nice, very helpful and welcomed my son and me into the hobby with open arms. According to the ARRL and the amateur radio community as a whole, that’s what the hobby is all about.
Unfortunately, there are a few hams who don’t agree with that philosophy. They have a very poor attitude towards new hams and anyone else who doesn’t “know it all” as they do. They talk condescendingly to those who ask questions and put down anyone who isn’t already “experienced” with preconceived labels and insults, with their noses in the air. They are not the majority of hams I know, but I have met a few. They are out there and it is this negative attitude that has turned more than one aspiring amateur or new ham away and gives all amateurs a bad name.
My son and I were fortunate. We found that most of the hams in our area are the nicest, most helpful and unassuming group of people we’ve ever met and they all help us and encourage us to go as far as we can or want to go with the hobby. No more Elmers? On the contrary, there are still a lot of Elmers around. My son has one and so do I. We’re learning a lot from them, and believe it or not, they are also learning from us, because nobody knows it all.
Most of these folks have been in radio for decades, some for half a century or more. And guess what? A lot of them carry around the little chinese handhelds. Why? Because they use their radios outside their shacks as well as inside. They are light, inexpensive, and they work. Stuff happens to radios in the field. If they lose or break it, no big deal. They aren’t out a $200-$300 radio that will do the same thing.
In the case of your Eagle Scout friend, it proves my point about the negative attitude of elitism among some old hams. You can’t blame it on a “walkie talkie”. It’s just a device. The problem has nothing to do with his equipment or lack of it. The real problem is attitude, and the blame lies squarely on one or more individuals in a group with poor attitudes and a bias against what limited resources your friend had available, which is exactly what I am talking about. It is this sort of snooty, materialistic attitude that discourages more people from getting into amateur radio and encourages others to quit.
Some of these old hams have completely forgotten what it was like to be a new ham, or that they also had to learn as they went along. A few of them act like they were born with the knowledge or that there was a time when they, too, had only the bare necessities to Get On The Air. Tubes, basic solid state circuits, they used whatever they had at the time. Today we have transceivers on chips. Technology has moved forward, but the process is the same. No doubt if this technology existed fifty years ago, most hams would have used it instead, because it would be what was available. Most, if not all of them would, at least to get started. Anyone who says otherwise would only be kidding themselves.
Ham radio isn’t just about what you know or what you don’t. It’s about how you use it. There are so many directions you can go with it. Some use it for DXing. I have no interest in DXing. My interest is primarily in short range communications and local emergency weather preparedness. My son wants to do it for fun and the overall experience. Does that make my son or me any less an amateur radio operator than anyone else? Of course not. After all, amateur radio is a hobby. Why would anyone want to have a hobby if it isn’t fun?
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