Speaker 1: It's twenty twenty six, and is it hard to get
Speaker 1: started in amateur radio? Is it hard to get plugged
Speaker 1: into amateur radio? Why does it seem hard to get
Speaker 1: started in amateur radio? This is a Reddit article that
Speaker 1: I found that I thought was intriguing and I would
Speaker 1: like your thoughts about it today. Today's video is sponsored
Speaker 1: by bioinopower dot com. Bioinopower makes batteries of all sizes
Speaker 1: for the amateur radio market and beyond. They're sponsoring this video.
Speaker 1: Definitely check out the link in the description below and
Speaker 1: thank you bioino for the support of this channel. So
Speaker 1: once again, this is a Reddit article, okay, And I
Speaker 1: know some of you say, well, Reddit is a dumpster fire,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, okay, well that's fine, but so is
Speaker 1: qr zed and we're all on there, so what are
Speaker 1: you gonna do? The title of this article caught my attention, okay,
Speaker 1: but it's kind of misleading. The title I think is misleading.
Speaker 1: Why does it seem so hard to get into amateur
Speaker 1: ham radio? He says right here now. When I read that,
Speaker 1: I thought he was going to talk about studying for it,
Speaker 1: buying equipment. Why is amateur radio equipment more expensive than
Speaker 1: some people think it should be. No, that's not what
Speaker 1: he's talking about at all. He's talking about why is
Speaker 1: it so hard to find a club that's decent? So
Speaker 1: right here, he says, please hear me out. I'm a
Speaker 1: fifty something year old guy, so am I who probably
Speaker 1: wears the label tech nerd. I've been intrigued by amateur
Speaker 1: radio and have been watched associated cost and equipment drop
Speaker 1: over the years. But in my local community, the existing
Speaker 1: ham radio groups, many members seem nearly hostile, to quote outsiders.
Speaker 1: When I've tried to ask some beginners questions about where
Speaker 1: to get started, they seem hostile. The online resources for
Speaker 1: beginners seem equally unwelcoming. Question mark Okay, So I read that,
Speaker 1: and he says it seems unwelcoming on an online resource.
Speaker 1: Where are you looking When you say online resource, are
Speaker 1: you talking about the QRS forums? You're talking about the
Speaker 1: amateur radio subreddit on Reddit, which I think is really
Speaker 1: good for the most part. I think people on the
Speaker 1: amateur radio subreddit are helpful. Okay. Sometimes people come in
Speaker 1: there and you can tell their obvious trolls okay, And
Speaker 1: sometimes people ask legit questions and trolls come by to
Speaker 1: tease them or respond to them, who you can tell
Speaker 1: they're not serious, but they think they're serious, but they're
Speaker 1: not because they're idiots. But for the most part, I
Speaker 1: have found the amateur radio subreddit on reddit dot com
Speaker 1: to be pretty helpful. So what do you talk about
Speaker 1: online resources? Okay, how about YouTube? YouTube is a fantastic elder.
Speaker 1: If you want to talk in a more intimate environment,
Speaker 1: a more direct one on one environment, join us on
Speaker 1: Discord hand radio two dot com, forward slash Discord. I
Speaker 1: have my own Discord server. There's a lot of other
Speaker 1: YouTube guys out there that have their own Discord server.
Speaker 1: There are several hemorrhttal clubs I know of that have
Speaker 1: their own Discord server. Join a Discord server. You can
Speaker 1: get one on one attention. There's a lot of really
Speaker 1: helpful people on my server. Second paragraph, he says, I
Speaker 1: know it's a particular skill set that requires study, training
Speaker 1: and testing, and I know it's way beyond a hobby.
Speaker 1: It all has vital public safety value beyond just novelty.
Speaker 1: It seems that the current body of amateur radio hobbyists
Speaker 1: would want to do everything they can to make amateur
Speaker 1: radios attracted to the younger crowd, if for no other reason,
Speaker 1: to protect the spectrum itself as our generation ages out
Speaker 1: and passes on the opposite seems to be the case
Speaker 1: in my experience. I'm not expecting to be spoon fed,
Speaker 1: and thank you for letting me vent a bit. I
Speaker 1: just think there's a tremendous opportunity to open the craft
Speaker 1: hobby up to people who could help protect it as
Speaker 1: a defined part of our culture and culture in Americana. Okay,
Speaker 1: And the first comment here says agreed. I'm forty four.
Speaker 1: Both my parents were ham radar operators. None of the
Speaker 1: clubs near me I got licensed during the pandemic offered
Speaker 1: classes and were hostile to me asking about tests. I
Speaker 1: had to take my tech in general online, which was
Speaker 1: fine as I had mobility issues. Still have no Elmer,
Speaker 1: so have almost no equipment and absolutely no idea how
Speaker 1: to actually do anything. But it is what it is, Okay.
Speaker 1: So another comment here. When I started hand radio, my
Speaker 1: husband and I attended one of the local annual events.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty outgoing and make conversation friendly easy, but nobody
Speaker 1: was interested in talking to us, so I must admit
Speaker 1: I'm really kind of embarrassed. Maybe not embarrassed, Okay, I'm
Speaker 1: really kind of appalled that clubs like that exist. Okay.
Speaker 1: I've been a hand radio operator in North Texas for
Speaker 1: thirty years. Okay, it'll be this coming July. Recording this
Speaker 1: video in January of twenty twenty six. This coming July,
Speaker 1: I will have been licensed for thirty two years. Got
Speaker 1: my first license in July of nineteen ninety four. Okay,
Speaker 1: I have been to a dozen different clubs in this area.
Speaker 1: This was long before I was on YouTube. No one
Speaker 1: knew who I was. I would go to six or eight,
Speaker 1: ten different clubs, not on a regular basis, but there
Speaker 1: was a lot of clubs in this area. I've never
Speaker 1: been treated that way. I've never been treated like an outsider.
Speaker 1: There were probably a couple times I could name a
Speaker 1: club or two where I just kind of felt ignored,
Speaker 1: like no one came up and talked to me. But
Speaker 1: I didn't feel unwelcomed. It's just like no one was
Speaker 1: interested in welcoming a new person or a new face. Okay,
Speaker 1: So I've experienced that a little bit, but I've never
Speaker 1: experienced hostility or unwelcomness in a club in this area.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry that you've experienced that. I'm not questioning that
Speaker 1: at all. I'm absolutely certain that you experienced that in
Speaker 1: your area. Just no, it's not like that in every area.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of really good clubs out there, and
Speaker 1: with the advent of online clubs. Ham Radio Clubhouse right
Speaker 1: here is an actual club. They have a Discord server.
Speaker 1: You can join their club, you can talk to them,
Speaker 1: you can go cut up with them on Tuesday nights
Speaker 1: in their live stream. But they're a welcoming club. The
Speaker 1: Toad's Club, KT zero Ads Club is a good club.
Speaker 1: The Ham Radio Adventures Club is a good club club.
Speaker 1: And several of us around this area are working on
Speaker 1: forming a new club. It's not a new club where
Speaker 1: rediscovering a club that used to be around. So there's
Speaker 1: a lot of online clubs you could join if you
Speaker 1: don't have anything available to you locally. This is a
Speaker 1: good comment right here, for what it's worth. I never
Speaker 1: really understood things until I got in the air, started
Speaker 1: operating and then building antennas. Don't feel like you need
Speaker 1: to be one hundred percent proficient before you get your license.
Speaker 1: This is so true. Passing the test is important, but
Speaker 1: I've done most learning since being on the air. Yes,
Speaker 1: I agree with that right there. People who want to
Speaker 1: memorize the questions and answers and just get the license
Speaker 1: and then get on the air, that's when you start learning.
Speaker 1: Everyone learns differently. There's nothing wrong with just memorizing the
Speaker 1: answers and taking the test and getting your license. There's
Speaker 1: nothing wrong with deep diving into it and really gaining
Speaker 1: an understanding of the test either. There's nothing wrong with
Speaker 1: either one of those solutions. You got your license, get
Speaker 1: on the air, you're going to learn even more right
Speaker 1: down here, Doc Holliday nine nine eight nine. My elmers
Speaker 1: were YouTube channels. Exclamation Point also joined a few clubs
Speaker 1: and made a little extra effort to socialize with knowledgeable
Speaker 1: guys who like to discuss many topics. At least ask
Speaker 1: anything you want to know about here. Yeah, I'm sure
Speaker 1: there'll be a lot of help and info offered. You
Speaker 1: can check out Claire's dot ca a English for that
Speaker 1: Canadian club right there. So I think it's very dependent.
Speaker 1: I agree with what you're saying about the club. I
Speaker 1: agree that there's a lot of clubs out there that
Speaker 1: aren't welcoming they're kind of clickish, they're kind of unwelcoming. Okay,
Speaker 1: but there is YouTube, and I can speak for most
Speaker 1: of the YouTubers. If you've ever seen any of the
Speaker 1: people on any of my live streams. I invite people
Speaker 1: onto Zoom. We live stream, we do happy hours, we'll
Speaker 1: do discussions. Coming up next month is a really big
Speaker 1: hand radier show in Orlando. We'll get together on my
Speaker 1: channel and live stream a week or two before that
Speaker 1: to talk about plans for that Pamfest. And any of
Speaker 1: those people that have come onto my channel, they are
Speaker 1: welcoming on their channels as well. If there's someone who's
Speaker 1: off putting or someone who's rude to people who come
Speaker 1: by their channel in the comments, I don't invite those
Speaker 1: people onto my channel. They're out there, there's people out
Speaker 1: there like that on YouTube, sure, but I don't invite
Speaker 1: those people onto my channel. So I think that if
Speaker 1: you can't find anything locally, look online, join us on
Speaker 1: discord ham Radio two, dot com, forward slash Discord. I'll
Speaker 1: put links in the description to a couple of Hamm
Speaker 1: Radio Club Discord servers as well. But don't let it
Speaker 1: get you down. Don't let it frustrate you too much,
Speaker 1: Go get your amateur radio license. You were talking about.
Speaker 1: None of the clubs near you have online or have classes.
Speaker 1: I just put up a brand new class for the
Speaker 1: general exam on this channel. I've had technician class. I
Speaker 1: have two different technician classes. One is a no nonsense
Speaker 1: class that's like six seven hours long, that's the whole thing.
Speaker 1: The other one is like three sessions and it's more
Speaker 1: of a deep dive into the questions and answers. Both
Speaker 1: of them are available on this channel. They're free for
Speaker 1: you to watch as many times as you want to.
Speaker 1: Both of them are done well. The longer one was
Speaker 1: done by local club here next to me, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna do another class when that question pool updates as well.
Speaker 1: The general class I just put up on this channel
Speaker 1: is from Gigaparts. If you're anywhere near Huntsville, Alabama. Gigabarts
Speaker 1: offers classes for technician, general and extro. You can go
Speaker 1: into their studio and sit down. They have a classroom
Speaker 1: inside of the store where you can go sit down
Speaker 1: in a classroom environment if you want to. So there's
Speaker 1: multiple ways to get licensed to, multiple ways to learn.
Speaker 1: Don't get frustrated. I feel I'm sorry you had to
Speaker 1: go through that. I don't discount it at all. I
Speaker 1: don't question your perspective at all. I know you went
Speaker 1: through that, but don't let it get you down, because
Speaker 1: there's a lot of people out here that actually want
Speaker 1: to help you. So thank you for putting up this
Speaker 1: Reddit post. I've talked about clubs and licensing numerous times
Speaker 1: in the past, but this is kind of like a
Speaker 1: refresher of a topic that I haven't talked about in
Speaker 1: a while. So I appreciate you putting this up here
Speaker 1: and let me comment on it. Maybe I'll put a
Speaker 1: link to this video as a reply to the Reddit article.
Speaker 1: So thanks for watching today, guys. I would like to
Speaker 1: know your comments in the video. Blow. I had talked
Speaker 1: a while back about putting together a list of welcoming clubs.
Speaker 1: If you are a member of a club, and I
Speaker 1: have that list somewhere, my web developer went mia on me.
Speaker 1: That's why I never put up that page. I've got
Speaker 1: all this in an email somewhere, so I might want
Speaker 1: to revisit that. Maybe that should be a task for
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six. I might want to revisit the whole Hey,
Speaker 1: we need to put up a web page and categorize
Speaker 1: clubs by state and say, Okay in Texas, in Oklahoma
Speaker 1: and Mississippi, and do all the states. And if you
Speaker 1: are a member of a welcoming and thriving club, I
Speaker 1: want to know the name of the club, where it's located,
Speaker 1: email address, best contact info probably email address. Okay, how
Speaker 1: people can get involved in that club around here? And
Speaker 1: I want to put together a list of viable and
Speaker 1: vibrant and welcoming clubs in the United States for people
Speaker 1: who would write such an article like this, So put
Speaker 1: a comment in the video below. I'd love to hear
Speaker 1: your thoughts about that. And if you like this video,
Speaker 1: check these out over here because YouTube thinks you want
Speaker 1: to watch those next seventy three