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Re:Millennials Are Killing Ham Radio by imgabe on Sunday July 12, 2020 @01:32AM (#23809101)
It's a hobby. There's no need to throw away hobbies just because they're obsolete. Plenty of people enjoy blacksmithing and knitting even though nobody has a need to do these things themselves. We don't have to push people to do it if they don't want to, but at the same time if someone enjoys it, who cares?

It also does provide a societal benefit of having backup knowledge that might work when newer technologies fail.

Re:Millennials Are Killing Ham Radio by voidfunc on Sunday July 12, 2020 @01:50AM (#23809185)
We don't need to throw obsolete hobbies under the bus, but the people that are passionate about an obsolete hobby need to realize it is dying for a reason. You'll still get the odd-ball young person, but it is going to be increasingly rare.
Re:Millennials Are Killing Ham Radio by Apocryphon on Sunday July 12, 2020 @02:06AM (#23809244)
Obsolete hobbies could potentially have a resurgence, from all kinds of subcultures whether paleo (paleo diets), hipster (vinyls and typewriters), geek (Ren Faires, historical reenactments), or even survivalist/prepper. Millennials are stereotypically known for seeking older, "authentic" things, with perhaps a level of exclusivity, so there can be ways to spin ham radio into something fitting their aesthetics of cool.
Re:Millennials Are Killing Ham Radio by dalke on Sunday July 12, 2020 @09:16AM (#23811098)
Radio hobbyists used to use spark-gap transmitters. These were cheap to make and popular. They also produced a lot of radio noise.

This caused them to be effectively banned by the 1930s, outside of marine use, in favor of continuous wave transmitters.

So that particular obsolete hobby will not have a resurgence.

I can see a similar argument with ham radio. If it "dies", that is, if there are many-fold fewer people using it, then that frees up RF spectrum. There will be pressure to reallocate those frequencies to, eg, commercial use.

When the 2090s subculture rediscovers ham radio, there won't be the spectrum for them all, and the spectrum assignments will be hard to change for what is likely a fad.

Maybe CB radio will be popular again? "Ah, breaker one-nine, this here's the rubber duck. you gotta copy on me, pig pen, c'mon?"

Re:Millennials Are Killing Ham Radio by taddevries on Sunday July 12, 2020 @10:12AM (#23811403)
That CW McCall line from Convoy brings back some serious memories.

Talk about old hobbies. When I was about 9 I found an 8-track of his and fell in love with that song. I spent much of that summer buying stereo equipment at garage sales to get a working 8-track player setup in my bedroom just so I could listen to that song on repeat.

"There's a road-block up on the cloverleaf and them Bears was wall to wall. I said Pig Pen this hear's a Rubber Duck, we justa ain'ta gonna pay no toll. So we crash the gate doing 98 I says let them truckers role 10-4."

Re:Millennials Are Killing Ham Radio by Nextgrid on Sunday July 12, 2020 @02:07AM (#23809247)
I agree, there's nothing wrong with having a hobby and playing with whatever tools/equipment that you like.

However, the difference between let's say blacksmithing/knitting and ham radio is that the latter is a social hobby and relies on having enough hams out there so that there's actually some people to talk to on the air, and the problem they're facing right now is that the amount of those people seems to be on the decline.