Ham clubs should become more maker-friendly, to broaden the hobby's appeal.

[djacobow]

You might have unrealistic explanations for your local ham radio club just because there may not be that many technically oriented hams in your area. I can assure you that if you go to a Palo Alto Radio Association meeting (that's Palo Alto, California) you will be treated to some technical discussions. But that's about the highest density of EE nerds in the USA.

Personally, I am an EE and got into radio in large part because it was a big glaring hole in my EE knowledge (wasn't a big part of my undergrad curriculum) and it was not part of my career at all. So I've been all-in on building radios, antennas, digital mode decoders, etc. I've also put a fair amount of effort into setting up a remote station, in large part so I can occasionally experiment while at work. I do interact with a "community", but it's mostly virtual, and that's fine.

I'll say this, though: I suspect that many a radio club fan would not find *me* very interesting because at the end of the day, I just don't operate very much. The building and testing interests me a lot more than racking up contacts. I get on the radio occasionally and will log a few, but mostly, it's the getting there I enjoy!

[piranha32]

Amateur radio is not just a a hobby, but big bag of sub-hobbies. There are people who are interested in building things. There are people who got their licenses because it will help them to serve society better (e.g. in US many fire fighters, police officers are licensed). There are also people who are interested in hunting exotic stations, or collect points in contests. In the end there are appliance operators who just want to discuss with their buddies about prostate problems and politics.
What happens during club meeting depends mainly on what the members are interested in, and how active the directors are. Having technical talks during each meeting requires a lot of work. On the organizer's side (finding a speaker for each meeting is not an easy task), and on the speaker's side, to prepare a lecture. There are plenty of clubs whose meetings are limited to communicating administrative stuff and attract members with cookies, but there are also many clubs which go beyond that. As an example I can give my local club: during each meeting first there is a session with short lectures on various technical topics, interleaved with "CW forum" every other meeting, and there is the main part, with administrative part in the beginning, and an hour long lecture (topic depends on the speaker).
The lectures are recorded, and the club posts them on their web site, for everybody to enjoy: http://viennawireless.net/wp/meetings/presentations/

[mgberry]

It is an interesting topic for sure. My experience was almost identical to syntax_error's, so much so we might have been at the same meeting In fairness, all of the people that I have met a various club meetings have been incredibly nice. As others have said, it is a hobby that has many sub-components to it. I get the feeling the hobby has evolved a fair amount since the greatest generation.

I have never really been active in the "talking on the radio" group but I would like to think Ill check that box later on in life. Right now, Im focused on the design side and Im finding there are people out there, but you have to dig harder than attending the local club meeting. In our market, there have been other clubs pop up to address the very idea of discussing deeper technical aspects.

Matt
KE5BNZ

[cdev]

Nowadays its not at all hard to do this - it would be great if more clubs had a camera going to record presentations, and then posted them, along with copies of any handouts or files associated with the event in PDF format.


Quote from: piranha32 on 2017-06-28, 23:51:50

Amateur radio is not just a a hobby, but big bag of sub-hobbies. There are people who are interested in building things. There are people who got their licenses because it will help them to serve society better (e.g. in US many fire fighters, police officers are licensed). There are also people who are interested in hunting exotic stations, or collect points in contests. In the end there are appliance operators who just want to discuss with their buddies about prostate problems and politics.

....

The lectures are recorded, and the club posts them on their web site, for everybody to enjoy:

http://viennawireless.net/wp/meetings/presentations/

[piranha32]

Nowadays its not at all hard to do this - it would be great if more clubs had a camera going to record presentations, and then posted them, along with copies of any handouts or files associated with the event in PDF format.

Posting recordings is easy. In case of my club it started with one guy who recorded a presentations on a phone.
Finding presenters is a whole different story.