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By Dan Romanchik, KB6NU<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I recently received an email from someone who reads my blog that struck a chord with me. He wrote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been a ham for decades, operate all modes (but mostly CW), and do a lot of Parks on the Air (POTA). I also spend a lot of time recruiting people into the ham radio hobby and mentoring new hams. It\u2019s that last focus that prompts this question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor a variety of reasons that I can\u2019t put on my finger on, it seems like more and more hams don\u2019t really care about how radios or antennas work, and don\u2019t want to invest much time or effort into learning such things. They just want to turn it on and use it. How it works, and what\u2019s going on inside of the box, aren\u2019t important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor example, I know of one guy\u2014a General-class licensee\u2014who decided his top-of-the-line Yaesu HT was \u2018defective\u2019 because whenever he pressed the push-to-talk switch on one of the repeater frequencies, the radio transmitted on a different frequency. Ugh. Another guy I know thought that his hamstick wouldn\u2019t tune because the wire coil was installed upside down. As you\u2019d guess, the hamstick tuned and worked just fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSome people say that we should get hung up on this. Get new hams into the hobby and they\u2019ll learn as they go on. Except that doesn\u2019t seem to be happening, at least not consistently. Even very experienced, highly educated hams can be clueless on very simple, fundamental radio concepts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo, here\u2019s the question: does any of this matter? I don\u2019t know how my microwave oven works, and I don\u2019t\u2019 need to, and I don\u2019t want to. All I want to do is push a button. So maybe it\u2019s perfectly fine that hams don\u2019t know about radio technology and we should stop pretending that any of this matters. Put \u2018em through a \u2018ham cram’ and get them on the air. Or maybe amateur radio transceivers are different than microwave ovens and it does matter. I don\u2019t know. I go back and forth on this and don\u2019t really have a clear assessment in my mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnyway, since this seems like the kind of thing you\u2019ve already thought about, I wonderwhat you make of all this. If you\u2019re sitting around with nothing to do, I\u2019d be curious to know what you think.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes, learning about radio does matter<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This struck a chord with me because I teach \u2018ham cram\u2019 classes, and I often encounter people who think this way. They just want to push buttons and talk on the radio. They say, \u201cI\u2019m only going to use it when I go off-roading with friends,\u201d or \u201cI\u2019m only going to use it when my CERT team is activated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I always ask them what they\u2019re going to do when something goes wrong (and we know that at some point, something is going to wrong). I tell them that without some basic knowledge of how radios and antennas work, they aren\u2019t going to be able to fix problems or work around them, and if they can\u2019t do that, they\u2019re not going to be very effective communicators and their experience is going to be very frustrating. Not only that, I explain that they\u2019ll have a lot more fun with ham radio if they understand how the technology works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, the question is how to get these people to be more curious about radio technology and how to encourage them to learn more. Being insulting or negative isn\u2019t the way to do it. I hope, for example, that when the guy complained about his Yaesu HT, that someone patiently explained how repeaters work. Sure, he should have known that already, but belittling him for not knowing this would only do more harm than good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don\u2019t think that you can fault people for not knowing things, but you can fault them for not wanting to learn things. There\u2019s a lot to learn in ham radio, and you can\u2019t learn it all before you get a license. In fact, I\u2019d argue that most things you can only learn after you get a license and start doing things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having said all that, our challenge is to make ham radio a place where those that want to learn things can thrive. I think that we\u2019re doing better at that. Look at all the YouTube channels where you can learn about just about anything that ham radio has to offer. The ARRL is getting in on this as well, with its \u201cLearning Center.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019d say not to worry about those who don\u2019t want to invest the time and effort. They\u2019re not going to be hams for very long. They\u2019re going to get frustrated when they can\u2019t get things to work and drift off to something else. Let\u2019s concentrate those who are curious and able and willing to invest the time and effort and make good hams out of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dan Romanchik, KB6NU, is the author of the KB6NU amateur radio blog (KB6NU.Com), the “No Nonsense” amateur radio license study guides (https:\/\/KB6NU.Com\/study-guides\/), and often appears on the ICQPodcast (https:\/\/icqpodcast.com). When he\u2019s not writing about amateur radio, he tinkers with electronics projects and operates POTA and works CW on the HF bands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Dan Romanchik, KB6NU I recently received an email from someone who reads my blog that struck a chord with me. He wrote: \u201cI\u2019ve been a ham for decades, operate all modes (but mostly CW), and do a lot of Parks on the …<\/p>\n