All Ages in Ham Radio

Here’s a quote from one of the online ham radio chat groups this morning:

The sad thing is when you run a contest with your age or year first licensed as the exchange.  You see ham radio is in trouble.

That’s a valid concern. However, this is only a single data point, albeit reinforced with every QSO in the contest.

Let’s look at a few other data points before we further consider whether ham radio is in trouble.

More Data Points

This is from Howard Michel, WB2ITX, ARRL CEO in his Second Century editorial in QST May 2019:

• Average ARRL Member is 68 years old. 54% are Extra Class, 31% General Class.
• Average Nonmember is 52 years old. 75% are Technician Class, 18% General, 7% Extra.

Let me say that I appreciate Howard’s work to dig deep into mission, audience, and so much more to truly revitalize ARRL for the second century of amateur radio – which will be very different from our first century.

Here’s another data point from http://www.arrl.org/fcc-license-counts, as of November 1, 2019:

762,006 Total licensed amateur operators — 20% Extra, 24% General, 51% Technician. There are still some Advanced (5% 38,598) and Novice (1% 7,933)

From this it’s clear that there are lots of licensed amateur radio operators. It also appears that it is the older members who are not only engaged and active in the hobby but represent the majority, or at least the average.

Life Passages

My own exchange number for such contests is 1973. I was 23 years old and probably a late entrant to the hobby at the time. But you wouldn’t have caught me on ham radio at all from 1980 to 2007 and no contests until 2009 when I was 59 years old. See the story of my wake-up call at Rip Van Winkle Meets 21st Century Amateur Radio.

Instead, as the graphic above shows, I would have been thoroughly engaged in the career and family building phases of my life. For most that includes several years of college and early jobs leading to managerial positions – all of which take lots of time in the office and on the road. In the few off hours you have you’re with your family, nurturing children and savoring a marriage.

Then as your career plateaus and your children have launched into the world, you have some time and money for yourself, including the pursuit of hobbies. That’s when we see people coming back into the hobby or finding it – often based on previous exposure.

My Experience with Youth in Amateur Radio

Over the years, I’ve worked with a number of Scouts and Scout leaders at Jamborees, during the annual Jamboree on the Air, and with the Radio Merit Badge. In those roles we see a pattern. Some Scouts are initially intrigued by ham radio, some are not interested at all, and a few catch on fire and can’t get enough of it. However, even those who actually get their license are rarely engaged with amateur radio during college and their early careers.

For all those groups, I use the Biblical metaphor of “sowing or planting seeds.” Some grow right away while some take root much, much later. Many will never engage with the hobby. But even a few of those might just encounter amateur radio when a neighbor is raising an antenna and, hopefully, be favorably disposed to provide encouragement or at least not active opposition.

I will also note that there are a lot of youth currently engaged in electronics, radio, robotics, and more who are not often visible to amateur radio operators. As one example, one of our NA1WJ staff members at the World Scout Jamboree, Tobias, didn’t have a license but was actively working with SDRs to receive weather satellites, all on his own, at 17.

The success story here is that he passed his license exam, age 18, at the World Scout Jamboree FCC testing session after studying for a couple of days using online resources found on his phone – and a bit of help from 30+ ham radio operators in the station. Now he’s back home in Liechtenstein. He plans to get his license there as well. But will he be active over the next few decades as he finds and pursues his career and family?  I wonder.

I will also point out that youth are interested in technology and amateur radio. At the 2019 World Scout Jamboree we had 3,000+ Scouts through the station, all getting on the air. Highlights were a contact with an astronaut on the International Space Station, lots of satellite contacts, and a few balloon launches. See the article in QST December 2019 which is available online for free including nonmembers.

Welcome Everyone to Amateur Radio

In summary, I feel we may be missing the heart and soul of amateur radio through what is present in all aspects of our society — ageism. Yes, it would be great if there were lots of youngsters engaged in amateur radio. And those youth who do engage should be celebrated, as they are a bright sign. But the true growth is coming from aging Baby Boomers looking for activities to occupy their later years. And this is a natural phenomenon that has been happening for decades and hopefully well in to the future.

I applaud ARRL’s efforts in engaging newcomers to amateur radio. That includes the So Now What Podcast, the developing Maxim Learning Lab, and the soon to be published On the Air magazine.

There are new people coming into the hobby as the overall numbers above indicate. But few of them are teenagers or college students. They look a lot like us and we need to welcome them into our midst, rather than lamenting that they aren’t younger.

Additional information and thoughts — October 2020

I see in the October 2020 issue of CQ Magazine from editor Rich Moseson, W2VU, these interesting looks into the past:

Amateur radio needs new blood and too many youngsters never even heard of ham radio… What we need is lots more teenagers raising the roof at hamfests and … shuttling around all the bands. CQ Magazine August 1948.

Amateur radio is growing older, more mature. It has long been more that just a hobby for the youngsters: it has now gotten well beyond their reach (in terms of cost and complexity). QST Magazine May 1938.

It appears that the foretelling of the doom of ham radio has been with us for quite some time. BTW — his editorial is titled “The ‘Young Hams Crisis’ is Getting Old.”

As to means, cost, etc. I’m reminded of one of our 2019 World Jamboree staff members at the amateur radio station, as noted above. He was 17 years old. He didn’t have a ham license but had set up an SDR and received weather satellites at home in his spare time. During the Jamboree he passed the Technician License exam after studying for a while using his phone and the help of ham radio operators on our staff.

The young are entering our hobby and they are making things happen that we can’t even imagine in our cloistered little world. And they are doing it in far different ways than we experienced. Be of good cheer.

Update 3-March-2021

Frank Howell, K4FMH, has written in the National Contest Journal about amateur radio operators demographics (July/August and September/October 2020 issues). He’s added to that a blog post at Lemmings Over a Demographic Cliff?

I recommend the article first for it’s sound insight and second for its humility in demurring from describing a fix.

His current article compares the limited information we have about amateur radio operator demographics with the American Time Use Survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They both point out that people drop leisure pursuits between the ages of 25 or so until they reach 55 and over. See my notes about this above.

Frank does go on to discuss ARRL organizational issues, among them entrenched interests and limited perspective, that greatly impedes any attempts at real innovation.

It’s a good review of the current situation — well worth reading and contemplating.