Amateur radio is popular with young and old alike
“The reports of my death,” Mark Twain once famously quipped, “are greatly exaggerated.”
If you listen and read the comments offered in recent years, you’d swear that ham radio is on life support, or worse. Kids just aren’t interested in becoming ham radio operators the story goes, and why should they be? With the Internet, smart phones, and computer games, young people have too many other “fun” things to do and can communicate with just about anyone in the world instantaneously. Where in the world does amateur radio fit anymore?
Good question. True, the hobby has gone through great changes in recent years. The advent of sophisticated amateur radio equipment has eliminated the need for building one’s own station. Plug and play is the norm today. (Although many amateur radio operators—“hams” to us—still build their own mini radios, antennas, and other equipment.)
No, the days when a young boy—and it often was a boy back then—built his simple Morse code radio, tossed a wire into the nearby tree, and sent his dits and dashes all over the country are pretty much over. But amazingly many young people, boys and girls, are getting a ham radio license. Sure, they still tinker at home, but these spirited young people also contribute to their communities, and in the process derive as much or more satisfaction as before. (Shown is some of my ham radio equipment.)