Speaker 1: Poor ham radio operators, people who don't take ham radio seriously,
Speaker 1: or maybe just curmudgeons in general, are making the hobby
Speaker 1: not fun anymore. I'd like to know what you guys
Speaker 1: think about this article. I found. A couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 1: I made a video about how TAM radio clubs can
Speaker 1: be unwelcoming and kind of clickish, and this is a
Speaker 1: subject I've talked about several times in the past. I've
Speaker 1: been on YouTube for over ten years. If you're just
Speaker 1: joining me, welcome. My name's Jason. I'm kcfive HWE and
Speaker 1: on this channel we talk about ham radio and all
Speaker 1: kinds of off grid communications tools, things that do not
Speaker 1: require an infrastructure or a cell tower to operate. But
Speaker 1: I've talked a lot about ham radio clubs in the past,
Speaker 1: some good, some bad, just kind of raising awareness for clubs.
Speaker 1: And that video got a lot of really really good comments.
Speaker 1: That video that I put up a week or so
Speaker 1: ago got a lot of really good comments. So when
Speaker 1: I saw this article it's shared on Medium. The title
Speaker 1: of the article caught my eye, of course, so I
Speaker 1: decided to grab it and share it with you guys.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a public article it's not a private thing.
Speaker 1: It was shared to me via one of my email
Speaker 1: lists that I subscribe to, and the title of the
Speaker 1: email was a hard hitting but very necessary article. Okay,
Speaker 1: so this is written by Tom Buchanan, and down here
Speaker 1: he identifies his call sign as Victor Echo six Alpha
Speaker 1: Romeo Golf. Okay, so we start out here. He says
Speaker 1: he's been a ham radio operator for fifty five years.
Speaker 1: He's seen it change over that time, sometimes for the better,
Speaker 1: sometimes not. This message is going to perhaps rankle some
Speaker 1: and joggle the mind of others, but it is being
Speaker 1: written to identify a time on our traditions that the
Speaker 1: hobby has had and a way to allow us to
Speaker 1: enjoy it. Ham radio operators today are often identified as older,
Speaker 1: somewhat conservative, white males who have usually retired to their
Speaker 1: hobby and enjoy chatting amongst themselves on the air. Traditionally,
Speaker 1: I would say that's true. I'm not so sure that's
Speaker 1: true today, but traditionally yes, Often in the past they
Speaker 1: have built their own equipment, which, WHI is a testament
Speaker 1: to their ingenuity and technical prowess. They love to talk
Speaker 1: about things they have developed and their love of experimenting
Speaker 1: and trying something that they have crafted to become their own.
Speaker 1: They love to check in the nets and have rag
Speaker 1: chewing sessions, roundtable discussions with other people of like kind. Now,
Speaker 1: I will say this real quick. Sometimes I've gotten the
Speaker 1: comment more than once. I've gotten the comment that says,
Speaker 1: all you guys on the radio talk about is your
Speaker 1: radios and your antennas. And I'm like, well, you know what,
Speaker 1: go to a bass fishing tournament and see how many
Speaker 1: people are talking about their fishing gear or their bass boats.
Speaker 1: Go to a gun range and see how many people
Speaker 1: are talking about their handguns their pistols. Okay, I mean
Speaker 1: that's not unusual. We like inside of amateur radio. We
Speaker 1: like radios, we like the equipment, we like the technology.
Speaker 1: Of course we're going to talk about it. Why wouldn't we. Now,
Speaker 1: some people might just kind of not be interested in
Speaker 1: that or get tired of hearing it all the time.
Speaker 1: And that's okay, that's okay, there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1: But the reason we talk about our hobby and about
Speaker 1: the equipment we use is the same reason that every
Speaker 1: other hobby does the same exact thing. He goes on
Speaker 1: to say, however, that demographic is in my experience, changing
Speaker 1: and we are seeing more and more young people, both
Speaker 1: male and female, join the ranks. And I think a
Speaker 1: testament to that is a good testament to that is
Speaker 1: Steve Goodgame and his ablel Teachers Institute, which we supported
Speaker 1: last year during my thirty Days of Ham Radio, very
Speaker 1: good efforts to teach the teacher and have teachers take
Speaker 1: amateur radio back to their classrooms. Because of that, it
Speaker 1: makes this message more important. These people are interested in
Speaker 1: serving the community and in technical innovation. They want to
Speaker 1: enjoy the hobby as much as the older group. They
Speaker 1: are the future of the hobby and we need to
Speaker 1: give them a good feeling about belonging and encouraging them
Speaker 1: to remain loyal and supporters of the craft. I've heard,
Speaker 1: you know, there's a joke that goes around that says
Speaker 1: DMR's ruining Ham Radio, the Internet's ruining Ham Radio, cell
Speaker 1: phone's ruining Ham Radio. FT eight's ruining Ham Radio. Some
Speaker 1: people say that, Okay, all right, none of that's true,
Speaker 1: but it's fun to laugh about and joke about. Some
Speaker 1: people are really serious when they say those words, and
Speaker 1: I don't get it. I'll tell you what's ruining hand radio.
Speaker 1: First of all, nothing is Ham radio. Numbers have been
Speaker 1: climbing since two thousand and six. I did a video
Speaker 1: on this not too long ago, and the numbers speak
Speaker 1: for themselves. I'm not talking about that today though, But
Speaker 1: if anything ruins SAM radio, it's going to be poor
Speaker 1: attitudes from people like you and I that have been
Speaker 1: in the hobby a long long time and are unwelcoming
Speaker 1: to outsiders or newcomers. If anything ruins the hobby, it's
Speaker 1: going to be that long before it's some technology or
Speaker 1: internet connected something, something that you don't agree with. Ham
Speaker 1: radio has always been known for its ability to police
Speaker 1: itself in terms of basic agreed upon rules to follow
Speaker 1: to keep the participant's ability to enjoy the hobby while
Speaker 1: on the air. This has changed over the last decade,
Speaker 1: and I don't recognize much of what has been happening
Speaker 1: anymore because of it. Now, that's another topic that I'll
Speaker 1: touch on because some people will refer to this as gatekeeping. Okay,
Speaker 1: some people refer to this as oh, well, Ham Radio,
Speaker 1: you all are a bunch of just gatekeepers who don't
Speaker 1: want anybody else to have fun. Well, let me put
Speaker 1: it to you this way. So someone's going to police
Speaker 1: amateur radio, whether it be the FCC, which I'm not
Speaker 1: in huge favor of, or whether it be ourselves. I
Speaker 1: would much rather be self policed than have a government
Speaker 1: overreach agency policing my airwaves. Okay, Well, self policing comes
Speaker 1: with gatekeeping, depending on how you define it. Okay, when
Speaker 1: someone gets on the air and tells you you're doing
Speaker 1: something wrong, now, hopefully they're doing it in a polite way,
Speaker 1: and hopefully they're trying to educate you. Okay, And there's
Speaker 1: people that do it that way, and there's people that
Speaker 1: do it the wrong way. Also. I don't discount that.
Speaker 1: I'm not arguing against that, but I think overall of
Speaker 1: amateur radio is a very good thing. Someone comes onto
Speaker 1: the air and says, oh, we're doing this and this
Speaker 1: and this way. You can't do that because you're oh,
Speaker 1: there's a taxi service, we're using this for business purposes.
Speaker 1: You're not really supposed to use amateur radio for business purposes.
Speaker 1: Go over to GMRS because it's fine there. It's allowed there.
Speaker 1: So self policing and gatekeeping, as it gets called sometimes,
Speaker 1: is not necessarily a bad thing. We just need to
Speaker 1: make sure we're doing it in the proper manner, with
Speaker 1: the proper attitude. Now, I have been an amateur radio
Speaker 1: operator for just over thirty years, okay, And he writes
Speaker 1: right here, He says, when I was a young man
Speaker 1: at the time of the licensing, over fifty years ago,
Speaker 1: I remember reading the amateur's code written by Paul M. Siegel.
Speaker 1: Here it is as a reminder, I have never heard
Speaker 1: this before. I've been a hammer radio operator for thirty
Speaker 1: one years. Never heard this before, But I think I
Speaker 1: agree with just about ninety nine percent of it. Okay. One,
Speaker 1: The amateur is considerate. He never knowingly uses the air
Speaker 1: in such a way to lessen the pleasure of others.
Speaker 1: That's right. Nobody owns the airwaves. I could name you
Speaker 1: a couple of nets, a couple of net control operators,
Speaker 1: and a couple of net supporters that do not practice this,
Speaker 1: never knowingly uses the air in such a way to
Speaker 1: lessen the pleasure of others. No one owns the frequency.
Speaker 1: Get used to it. I don't care if your net's
Speaker 1: been going for fifty years, you don't own the frequency.
Speaker 1: Period number two, He says. The amateur is loyal. He
Speaker 1: offers his loyalty encouragement and support to his fellow radio amateurs,
Speaker 1: his local club, and the American Radio Relay League through
Speaker 1: which the Amateur radio is represented. Now, I know a
Speaker 1: lot of you don't care for that. A DOABLEL is
Speaker 1: Sometimes they do some things that I don't agree with,
Speaker 1: and it's not really a matter of agreeing with them
Speaker 1: one hundred percent of the time. It's agreeing with their
Speaker 1: efforts and having a voice in what they do. And
Speaker 1: if you are a member, then you have a voice
Speaker 1: and you have a vote in what they do. So
Speaker 1: I encourage everyone to become members of the ada L,
Speaker 1: whether you like what they're doing or not. Number three,
Speaker 1: the amateur is progressive. He keeps his station abreast of science.
Speaker 1: It is well built and efficient. His operating practice is
Speaker 1: above reproach. Operating practice is good. I know a lot
Speaker 1: of guys who have their station that's in pieces and
Speaker 1: shambles because they keep changing it. And that's okay. Innovation
Speaker 1: and experimentation is a good thing. So having coming out
Speaker 1: and polishing your radio every morning and dusting it off
Speaker 1: not necessarily what I think he means here, but okay,
Speaker 1: we'll move on. Amateur radio is friendly. This is a
Speaker 1: good one, slow and patient sending when requested, sending CW
Speaker 1: morse code's talking about friendly advice and counsel to the beginner,
Speaker 1: kindly assistance, cooperation, and consideration for the interests of others.
Speaker 1: These are the marks of the amateur radio spirit. So,
Speaker 1: in other words, if someone walks into your club meeting
Speaker 1: sometime next week and you guys are talking about CW,
Speaker 1: morse code with the latest to a key of God
Speaker 1: is or what DX station you worked last week? Okay,
Speaker 1: and someone comes in and starts asking you about DMR
Speaker 1: or system Fusion or FT eight, you don't need to
Speaker 1: scoff at him. Don't scoff at them, don't say all
Speaker 1: learn CW and come back later. No, because CW is
Speaker 1: not innovation. I love CW, I'm learning CW. I want
Speaker 1: to get more proficient at it myself. And the numbers
Speaker 1: show that once they remove the CW requirements in two
Speaker 1: thousand and six, the numbers of people learning CW and
Speaker 1: getting license both have all continued to go up. So
Speaker 1: CW is great, but it is not new. CW has
Speaker 1: been around for longer than amateur radio has been around.
Speaker 1: It's not cutting edg. It's tried and true. It works
Speaker 1: in low power situations, it works in off grid situations.
Speaker 1: It works with a small antenna oftentimes works with very
Speaker 1: you know, with QRP stations. Great, it's very efficient, but
Speaker 1: it's not the latest and greatest. So when someone comes
Speaker 1: into your club or your group and asks you about
Speaker 1: something that's latest and greatest in amateur radio, don't scoff
Speaker 1: at him. Don't tell them that they need to learn
Speaker 1: something and come back. Encourage their involvement in the hobby,
Speaker 1: and encourage their willingness to learn and participate in whatever
Speaker 1: you're doing. The amateur operator is balanced. Radio is a hobby.
Speaker 1: He never allows it to interfere with any of his duties.
Speaker 1: He owes to his home, his job, or his school
Speaker 1: for community. There's that old joke that goes around that says,
Speaker 1: my job keeps getting in the way of my hobby. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: it's fun to joke about it. It's a funny saying.
Speaker 1: But you know, don't stay at home and playing on
Speaker 1: the radio when you've got responsibilities to do. The amateur
Speaker 1: is patriotic. His knowledge and his station are always ready
Speaker 1: for the service of his country and his community. Any
Speaker 1: of you who participate in income, emergency communications skyworn races areas.
Speaker 1: You guys fit that bill right there, because you are
Speaker 1: assisting your maybe not your whole country, but at least
Speaker 1: your area and your community. Now, if you are set
Speaker 1: up at home assisting in times of storms, power outages, whatnot,
Speaker 1: I highly recommend setting up your shack. You want to
Speaker 1: keep your shack pristine and up to date. I recommend
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Speaker 1: I will share in the description blow Mezzi employees made
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Speaker 1: market right now, great co acts. I've been using it
Speaker 1: for a long long time. I've got in mind all
Speaker 1: of my stations here set up in the shack with
Speaker 1: Mezsi and Plony, and I've got MESI Andploony running in
Speaker 1: my vehicle at this time as well. So check out
Speaker 1: the link in the description. Low thank you Mezzimploony for
Speaker 1: supporting the channel, and you guys save a ten percent
Speaker 1: discount with that code. Just like many other maxims of
Speaker 1: social interaction, there are subjects that should be avoided. In
Speaker 1: keeping with the first rule above, it's always wise to
Speaker 1: avoid the following. Do not use foul language on the air,
Speaker 1: or language that will offend someone that you would not
Speaker 1: use in a polite company or in front of children.
Speaker 1: I think that's good practice. Do not discuss politics on
Speaker 1: amateur radio. There's simply thousands of other subjects that can
Speaker 1: be talked about while communicating with others. I think that's
Speaker 1: good practice as well. Do not discuss religion, and I
Speaker 1: like what he says here, unless you are part of
Speaker 1: a group that has a theme they use as a religion.
Speaker 1: Some people are offended by particular religious views, and amateur
Speaker 1: radio is not the place to preach those views. Once again,
Speaker 1: look at the rule for guidance and think through it.
Speaker 1: I know of some nets that they talk about religious views,
Speaker 1: and they talk about maybe they'll read the Bible, maybe
Speaker 1: they'll prey on the air, and they've got permissions from
Speaker 1: repeater owners or maybe net controllers to do this. If
Speaker 1: you don't like that, just avoid it, Just spin the
Speaker 1: dial and go somewhere else. You know, I wouldn't have
Speaker 1: a huge problem with some sort of political net going
Speaker 1: on as long as people remain civil which is hard
Speaker 1: to do in this day and age. Right, everybody gets
Speaker 1: pissed off about the other side's political views. But yeah,
Speaker 1: if you don't like if it's a structured thing that's
Speaker 1: talking about religion, leave it alone. Let those guys do
Speaker 1: their thing and move on. If you don't like it.
Speaker 1: Avoid discussing other people's sexual preferences. That's always a good idea.
Speaker 1: Avoid arguing about things on the air. If you wish
Speaker 1: to express your views on things that are controversial, do
Speaker 1: so in private. Okay. I've been here teaching amateur radio
Speaker 1: for years and always made it a habit of passing
Speaker 1: on the rules we have adopted to keep our hobby
Speaker 1: clean during those classes. However, listening to the on the
Speaker 1: airwaves lately has been an eye opener to me in
Speaker 1: terms of how things have deteriorated over the years and
Speaker 1: make it challenge to listen to. I've heard outrageous language,
Speaker 1: terrible operating procedures, people expounding on how the opposite political
Speaker 1: sector is stupid, diluted and trying to destroy the country.
Speaker 1: I've heard people deliberately and interfering with others and trying
Speaker 1: to go to others into reaching and reacting to their
Speaker 1: bad behavior. Bad behavior is deliberate interference is one of
Speaker 1: my pet peeves. You're using some foul language, it's not
Speaker 1: going to bother me that much. If you don't understand
Speaker 1: how to use the radio, that's one thing. If you
Speaker 1: have bad operating practices because you don't understand, then okay,
Speaker 1: be teachable. But if you understand how to use the
Speaker 1: radio and you choose to use it in a bad
Speaker 1: practice way, that's when I have a problem. I've been
Speaker 1: out on poto a lot of times and someone keys
Speaker 1: up on top of me. They either tune up. I
Speaker 1: had one guy one time say something like I want
Speaker 1: to know about my beau fang from the famous YouTuber.
Speaker 1: He never id'ed himself. I just ignored him. I kept
Speaker 1: calling CQ poda. It took like a minute and a
Speaker 1: half and he went away because he thought I couldn't
Speaker 1: hear him. So I just kept calling CQ poda. Coming
Speaker 1: back to stay, I was working a pilot, I would
Speaker 1: recognize the station. Just ignore people like that. Their intention
Speaker 1: spans are like this. Long ignore them long enough, they'll
Speaker 1: go away because they have nothing that they'll go bug
Speaker 1: someone else because they apparently they have nothing better to do.
Speaker 1: Towards the bottom of the paragraph, he says, let's return
Speaker 1: amateur radio to the hobby it was and intended to
Speaker 1: be a hobby that allows everyone to enjoy common interests
Speaker 1: that are absent of controversy. We all got into it
Speaker 1: to share the hobby and interests of others to increase
Speaker 1: our understanding of the wonderful world of radio communication. Since
Speaker 1: that time, many innovations have happened. Yes, many innovations have happened,
Speaker 1: and it's good to recognize them all. And it has
Speaker 1: become even more fun to experiment and enjoy the hobby,
Speaker 1: whether it is designed and build new equipment or antennas,
Speaker 1: or join nets or share ideas with those the whole
Speaker 1: community to become part of it. Whether you are a
Speaker 1: builder a communicator, there's something for everyone. Let's keep it
Speaker 1: clean and see if we have the moxie to follow
Speaker 1: the rules and stop lessening the enjoyment of others with
Speaker 1: self centered performance. Yeah, self certained performance is certainly a
Speaker 1: thing for those of you who like to go out
Speaker 1: there and just interfere with people because you have nothing
Speaker 1: better to do. I guess maybe your mom didn't bring
Speaker 1: you your breakfast on time. This morning. Where you're living
Speaker 1: in the basement, I don't know, but you know, get
Speaker 1: a life for crying out loud. It's a lot harder
Speaker 1: to do that as a true sign of a good
Speaker 1: amateur radio operator than it is for someone who dedicates
Speaker 1: themselves to doing it right. Others are called lids, and
Speaker 1: rightfully so. So there's a couple more paragraphs that at
Speaker 1: the end it just kind of repeats what it's saying.
Speaker 1: But I will be happy to share this link of
Speaker 1: this article. Tom V six arg good article. Some of
Speaker 1: the stuff in here I haven't heard before. Some of
Speaker 1: the stuff is like yeah, yeah, okay, I'm good with that.
Speaker 1: I don't mind some of the stuff that you're talking against.
Speaker 1: But overall, ninety eight percent of what you said I
Speaker 1: completely agree with. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I
Speaker 1: think this is a good thing. We need to be
Speaker 1: more welcoming to new people. We need to be more
Speaker 1: welcoming to people with new and innovative ideas and people
Speaker 1: that are interested in aspects of the hobby that maybe
Speaker 1: you and I don't share interests in. That's okay. There's
Speaker 1: a lot inside of amateur radio. It's a hobby. It's
Speaker 1: hobby is a multiple hobbies within a hobby, and don't
Speaker 1: discourage someone just because they're interested in something that you are.
Speaker 1: I like to know y'all's thoughts about this. Have you
Speaker 1: ever heard these amateur radio practices? These rules of conduct
Speaker 1: as it were. I've never heard those before, but I
Speaker 1: think they're good rules of context. I will put a
Speaker 1: link to this article in the description blow put a
Speaker 1: comment in the video. Let me know what you think
Speaker 1: about this. And if you enjoyed this video, check these
Speaker 1: out over here. New video if you enjoyed this one,
Speaker 1: because YouTube thinks you want to watch those next seventy
Speaker 1: three guys and we'll catch you next time.