Ham radio for youths

Bluenarf

Hi all,
iv been a licensed amateur for about a year now. When i first started out i could never find anyone of my age (under 30 when it comes to ham radio) to talk to, or whatever. So i went and started myself a forum for young radio enthusiasts to meet up and share ideas and all the rest. And i decided i need to start plugging it to make it a bit more successful. Of course, being youth orientated don't mean we are all against "wise" folks. And welcome the guiding hands of experienced radiomen as well!

Hope you can take the time to check us out. Any comments good or bad are greatly apprieciated!
Heres the ling (almost forgot)
Http://hamradioteens.org/

Regards,
Paul, EI5GTB

watty

They are doing a lot of good stuff in UK /RSGB, but definately the irish scene is a bit Grey Haired. IMO too much emphasis on talking (no different to CB) or Competitions rather than technology and experimenting.

Psychobiker

I'm soon to be 20. And getting my license (all going well) in a few weeks. The youth are slow to take up here alrite

telecinesk

Well done, hope you get loads of support. Good on you.

Ham radio is for oldies for what I have observed, and i also got the vibe that it needs a dose of youth in there or it will die off into oblivion like a V neck jumper and 8tracks.

If you ever read Bob Geldofs book title " Is that it?" , I felt the same after getting the licence. Like what now?

Bluenarf

watty:

I can understand what you are saying. I have never been on the CB, so i cant really speak fully for it. But i do know a few people that are on the cb and of the people i know, all of them are active experimenters, not licenced amatuers yet tho. You are correct, a lot of people do use ham radio just for talking. But i enjoy writing programs to produce digital signals, and i experiment alot with the radio in that regards. I think there is alot of talking, but there is a fair whack of experimenting in there too! you just have to look to find it.


Psychobiker:
Good to hear, are you sitting the exam in dublin in the coming month?

When you get your licence you would be most welcome to our forum. Indeed even while you dont have your licence youre most welcome

telecinesk:

I know, i don't know many people my age in the hobby at all.

I hear what you are saying.. what now?

Well, there are a lot of interesting things to do. Apart from the abvious antenna construction, you could play with microwave frequencies. On 2m you can play with APRS. I personally enjoy going out into the middle of nowhere and setting up a station, and seeing who you can contact.
You can do foxhunting days, where a hidden transmitter is placed, and you can get a few friends together and see who finds it first.

I have been getting into satellite radio recently, trying to make contacts through the voice repeater on then international space station. And other dedicated satellites. You can also contact people via data over the international space station, that was quite interesting to me.

Another thing which im planning on doing soon is launching a high altitude balloon, which will have a still camera, a wireless video camera and some tracking equipment, it will be launched, and travel up to 30km above the earths surface, where the lower air pressure causes the balloon to burst, and it comes floating back to earth on a parachute.

An endless number of home brew projects can be taken on. building everything from simple am receivers, to fully fledged all mode radios!

That's just a small selection of what can be done on the vast amateur bands. We own more bandwidth then any other organization in the world. And we should make the most of it!

lithiumoxide

I'm 23 and doing the exam in a couple of weeks. I wonder how many people are doing it this time around?

Bluenarf

i would be surprised if there was less than 20 sitting the exam in Dublin this time round. Not a whole pile, but its allot by Ireland standards!!

I'm 17 btw.

lithiumoxide

Bluenarf: I've been thinking about high-altitude ballooning myself for a bit, both from radio and near-space research perspectives (I'm an astronomer). Would be interesting to give it a shot! I also like your idea of foxhunting; I know people who do wavehunting, where a wireless signal is set up and people run around town with laptops trying to find it.

What I'd like to do once I get licensed is some DX testing: I'd love to get distant hearing reports from a very simple transmitter, basically see how far I can send a signal with the minimum amount of technology!

PauloMN

telecinesk wrote: »

If you ever read Bob Geldofs book title " Is that it?" , I felt the same after getting the licence. Like what now?

Know the feeling, have hardly used my license since I got it.

Age is an issue alright, but attitude is the biggest barrier I think. Switched on the VHF for the first time in months, and heard a guy on the repeater talking about contests. He was clearly not a fan of them.

Instead of just saying he didn't like them clogging up the bands etc., he went on to refer to them as "nonsense" and basically completely ridiculed them as a "waste of time". Now I'm no fan of contests, but a lot of operators like them and I accept them as a part of the overall hobby. Just like I accept packet, SSTV, the IRLP stuff, CW, sat, QRP etc. etc. as part of it. There's a huge range of facets to this hobby - that's a good thing - but the "only CW with 5 watts is real radio" brigade insist on spouting off at every given opportunity and from what I can see, they are pretty much soley responsible for killing off our hobby. Maybe I should just not listen to the repeaters, because after months of not using the radio, I just turned it off again after hearing what I did.

Fair play to you for trying to do something about it Bluenarf. Hope you can breathe some new life into the hobby.

Bluenarf

hi PauloMN,

I agree 100% with what you are saying. I spend my days listening to people giving out about CB radio. I personally have nothing against CB, its a way into the hobby. If you weren't sure if you liked...lets take for instance knitting, (that's a fairly popular hobby), but to hold a knitting needle you first had to pass an exam, how many knitting granny would we have? Not many if you ask me. Cb is a way into the hobby. Ok, i disagree with people illegally transmitting too much power and all that, but lets face it, it has become common place today.

But lets not get caught up on the CB issue, there are many arguments for and against. Our hobby is riddled with snobs, that's the only way i can describe them. There are a lot of helpful people out there, and allot of well educated people, willing to share their vast knowledge. But those who complain about removing Morse requirement for HF and all that are holding out hobby back. Its not like the HF bands have become over ridden with pirates and bad operators because of it. In fact, according to figures released by the arrl it has INCREASED the number of people using Morse.

Basically, its late, and I'm not in the mood for writing an elongated post.
These people are holding the hobby back, the world is becoming modern, and the hobby needs to keep up with it. Face it, the internet is a far easier hobby to get into than radio nowadays! And if certain people continue to spend their days giving out about other aspects of the hobby, aspects that most of them have probably never tried then were going nowhere!


I'm no contestor, as you also said, but i entered the 80m counties contest in January, and had a great time, a nice laid back contest with a few good chats in the middle of it.

But once the moaning is taken out of the hobby, it might improve, but until then, I'm going to continue to raise awareness on what is a truly unique, and wonderful hobby! After all, its the youth of today who are gonna be the old hams of tomorrow, and unless we get them interested there's gonna be no hams of tomorrow.

g'night.

Psychobiker

Every hobby is riddled with snobs, of all ages! Personally, I think it's a great idea to have a license, even while the net is still there, there's still a lot to be said picking out some faint CW from the ether, sitting out in the middle of Clifden boglands in driving rain.

There's something cool and eerie about that lol

L

telecinesk

Oh CQ Contest. Yes, thats a headache and a pest on weekends.like a thing posessed I avoid radio around that time. Its v hard to find a clear freq just to chat with friends or simply listen, without some Cq contest nut hammering you out of it for his Log mainly from G or OE land being my neighbour country. They hear the english with an unusual callsign or accent and ur swamped for `something you didnt do` etc.

stylers

Hi Paul,

that website and forum, was it set up by yourself ?. If so, good stuff. it seems to be gathering pace, with quite a few from across the pond. Is there much interest in the radio from young people up your end of the country ?.

Bluenarf

lithiumoxide:
mabye we could join forces and give it a shot, id love to do it, buut its not somthing that can be done on ones own.




Psychobiker:
is that where your from? i know some guys down there. nothing beats seting up a station in bad weather!! i love it.


telecinesk:
those days i just turn the radio off!

stylers:
yup, i forked out the $30 for the domain name. There was another guy helping me for a while, but i havnt heard from him in ages. We were going to have content and all on the site, but we realised it would be better to just concentrate on the forum.

Not much intest in the youth community up here closest guy i know is in derry, hes just 1 year older than me.

Psychobiker

I'm in Craughwell, but went out with the college for a root around the Marconi site roundabout the centenary celebrations, and a gent belting out CW like there was no tomorrow

Bluenarf

i would hazard a guess that that gent was a certain Brendan?

Psychobiker

Nay, Tom I think it was.

Bluenarf

i see. you weren't in Clifton? in the bog, at the celebrations?

Psychobiker

Not at the actual thing, but the preceeding day yeah