Where do we go from here?

Where do we go from here?

Admittedly, the last decade has not been kind to amateur radio clubs or traditional clubs in any capacity for that matter.

So where does that leave us all that still have an interest in the hobby?

What is the future look like and more importantly, and probably the only question worth pondering is where do we go from here?

With the rise of mobile Internet devices and online presences and clubs the traditional club model has started to dwindle and historically all things have a time. So where are we in our time? Where does ham radio and the everyday tinker fit in this brave New World? I’ll be completely in blatantly honest I don’t have an answer for that question. But I think holistically the answer lies in the embrace of new technology and encouraging someone younger, who doesn’t quite grasp what we think we grasp to try that thing that we “know“ won’t work and see them either fail spectacularly or have success in a way that we never thought possible.

In a way this is always been the spirit of ham radio.

Where along the line did we lose this?

When did we become the “2M eating society“ with endless meals and business meetings and seemingly pointless weekly check-ins on the favorite 2M repeater.When did ham radio go from being on the cutting edge to afraid of the next thing?

The reality is we’re living in a new and exciting era of ham radio. The rise of the Internet has brought new and interesting usability cases and technologies to ham radio that we would never thought possible.

With VARA and the WinLink system coming to maturity we’ve seen ham radio go from a hobby to something concrete, usable and reliable enough that governments rely on it for communication in disaster areas, sailors at sea rely on it for their health and safety traffic and missionaries in foreign countries rely on it as a way to keep in touch with Friends family and their anchor points back home.

But we’ve been unable to adapt. We have not been able to wrap our minds around newer things or the interest of the younger generation or the idea of an online community.

And well geographically located clubs of interest do have their use many people even in the same areas are no longer meeting regularly in person preferring instead the comfort of their own home and the convenience of an online meeting.

So what do we do to jumpstart the horse so to speak?

The reality is we need to embrace technologies possibly even gasp services outside of the ham radio spear.

Things like Meshtastic and MeshCore are up-and-coming, low barrier to entry and places for people with an interest in technology to get their feet wet. Something along the same lines as GMRS which has become very popular recently, and is starting to become important to the local preparedness communities having a lower barrier to entry and different rules than how much radio makes it easier for a family to justify the purchase of equipment to use on local repeaters for weekend trips if only even for entertainment. All of these things serve as a gateway drug so to speak to the greater technological depth that is amateur radio.

Again that begs the question where do we go from here?

I do believe that gamifying certain aspects of the hobby as we have attempted to do here with the weekly Winlink with KE7ADD, this is a unique opportunity for people to try different aspects of the ham radio hobby and sort of intersect with other interests in the hobby at the same time.

As far as a community component goes, I don’t know and honestly, I look forward to your replies.

In in-service,

Chip

KE7ADD

WRFK333