Are US Radio Amateurs Smart?
A provocative title to be certain; forgive me, but I’ve renamed this post four different times and this one just keeps bubbling to the top…
The nearly infinite number of things with which you can busy yourself within amateur radio is really the secret ingredient that keeps this old steam engine chugging along decades after personal communication became ubiquitous without the need for a federal license.
Some of us enjoy making contacts using something as simple as Morse code and home-built gear while others in the hobby, are busy trolling for super high frequency radio reflections off the surface of the Moon.
It’s a hobby with a lot of different things to enjoy.
Now, I realize the risk of drawing wrath for declaring one facet of the hobby more technically sophisticated than another, but in my own head, I figure that some things, like EME and meteor scatter, for example, exist in different technical strata than, say, rag chewing, contesting or chasing DX.
It isn’t that one specific activity is more valuable than another, but I think it reasonable to assume that some aspects of the hobby require a higher degree of engineering acumen than others. Building sophisticated electronic equipment from scratch, for instance, requires more technical skill than simply buying a new transceiver and plugging it in.
The appliance operator is no less a radio ham than the workbench raconteur, but there is a distinction in skill.
My recent curiosity with WSPR has led me to read a number of articles about this unique digital mode, as well as to join a few mailing lists related to this particular activity.
Interestingly enough, as I scan through the mailing list archives, it’s pretty obvious that this facet of the hobby is dominated by participants outside the United States.
The exact same can be said of the Moon bounce mailing list.
This makes me wonder if the American radio amateur is capable, or even interested in keeping up with the forward technical progress being made by amateur enthusiasts around the world; or perhaps we are content to rest on our laurels, chew the rag and have fun, leaving the work of pioneering the electromagnetic spectrum to others?
This is admittedly a fairly broad generalization, and of course there are many US radio amateurs who are at the "head of the class" when it comes to crafting new methods of communication. I’ve said it before; Joe Taylor, K1JT is an example of one US radio amateur whose IQ lifts our average significantly – and there are of course many other US amateurs doing similarly amazing work.
But I find it odd that while much of the software and communication methodologies that underpin these esoteric propagation modes is crafted in America, its being primarily explored by enthusiasts outside these United States.
There could of course be all kinds of statistical reasons why the snapshot I get by simply looking at the activity on a handful of mailing lists doesn’t accurately reflect reality, and I’m more than willing to concede that point.
But perhaps there is another reason…
A recent Forbes Magazine article, The Next’s President’s Homework Assignment offers some sobering data about education in America – and mostly what’s wrong with education in America.
According to a recent National Academy of Sciences study, 93% of American science teachers have little or no training in science. This should (and does) concern the American Electronics Association (AEA) and other trade groups who are determined to keep the spotlight on education.
The AEA released a new analysis of government data that concludes that less than one-third of American eighth graders are proficient in math and science skills. That’s despite landmark educational reforms like the No Child Left Behind Act that encourage curricula geared to testing. Nationwide, 39% of fourth graders tested at or above proficient in math, up from 31% in 2003.
Progress? A little. But in science, fourth graders improved only one percentage point in the same period.
Josh James, AEA’s director of research and industry analysis, calls the latest results "unacceptably low" and suggests that this continued poor performance is a threat to the competitiveness of the domestic workforce. In a technology-driven world, he notes, math and science skills "are going to continue to be in high demand."
Out of 30 industrialized countries, America’s 15 year olds rank 25th in math and 21st in science, according to a 2007 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development study. Years of underperforming U.S. classrooms are taking a toll, as "evidence of a decline in the number of highly skilled workers is surfacing," the AEA report asserts.
The AEA report coincides with news from the College Board that SAT scores for 2008 high school graduates showed no gains. One casualty of poor math and science skills is a shrinking pool of qualified engineering students.
That’s caught the attention of the aerospace business.
The Aerospace Industries Association, whose members include Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, is working with a federal task force charged with developing a government plan for a competitively skilled workforce. AIA has funded a national rocketry competition and apprentice programs with member companies, and has begun distributing to school guidance counselors a recruitment video promoting young engineers.
It seems plausible that the "dumbing down" of amateur radio that has been decried by the curmudgeons since the beginning of time, is actually in play here - but not because amateur radio testing is easier now than it used to be or because Morse code testing has been eliminated as a licensing requirement – the most commonly cited reasons from the critics.
If science and math education has been on the wane in the US for decades, then it seems much more likely that radio amateurs, who spring from all walks of life and not just from engineering schools, would reflect those deficiencies in education by shying away from some of the more technical aspects of the hobby – and I think we can see clear evidence of that happening.
While the old guard has a legitimate point that amateur testing fifty years ago included a higher degree of technical difficulty, the skills gained by that generation are practically useless in this age of software defined radio – which means that older hams are no better prepared to explore the new world of amateur radio than the new hams.
It can be said that when it comes to education, if the United States is not keeping up with the rest of the world in areas like science and mathematics, the results will be evident in areas other than just industry.
A technical hobby, like amateur radio, is a bit like a canary in the mine shaft.
If most older radio amateurs have little interest in discovering or participating in new technologies, and younger hams don’t have the necessary educational background to understand the fundamentals of math and science, then it seems rather obvious that whatever future amateur radio has in the United States, it won’t be predominately a technical endeavor – and it certainly won’t be something in which we lead the world.
Jeff,
Couldn’t agree more. You’ve hit the nail on the head.
Always look forward to your commentary.
73,
Howard
Howard St. John W8HSJ
28 Sep 08 at 2:14 pm
Hey Jeff:
I must admit, I’m finding your blog a real pleasure to read. If I could summon enough brain cells to write this eloquently, perhaps my own blog would get more traffic
I’m just a guy in my mid-forties, who grew up during the Space Race and the Cold War. When I was growing up, science and math education seemed to be taken seriously, because it was part of how we were going to ultimately beat the Russians to the moon and eradicate communism. We had cartoons like Johnny Quest, a young boy scientist and his friend Hajii who travelled the world with his scientist dad in a jet airplane. We played with Lego and erector sets. We built crystal radios. Radio shacks carried electronics experimenting kits. Microcomputers were new and exciting.
It’s a different world now. The technology is more sophisticated, and therefore less accessible. Most of the gadgets you have are pretty difficult to understand. Their innards are pretty close to magic, and nobody is surprised when you can’t explain how it works. We also tend to watch and buy our experiences, rather than build or create them.
How did we get here?
It’s tough to tease apart. Certainly, I think math and science education has really declined. It seems impossible to understand why, given the tools that people have at their fingertips. In some sense, we are living in a verifiable golden age: with so much information available via the internet, a person can self train himself in a wide variety of subjects, and reach communities of people who are similarly motivated. But most people don’t seem to get beyond Facebook and Myspace.
My recent foray into QRSS led me to the same conclusion: that most American hams don’t seem to be innovating. I’ve been contacted by hams in Germany, Japan, Brazil, and Finland, all interested in beacon operations. If you look at the various aggregators for QRSS, you don’t see very many North American stations. I see more innovation in VHF and in QRP occurring over seas. It’s not like even things like WSPR really require _genius_ level understanding. WSPR is pretty straightforward actually. It could have been invented by anyone who was reading Phil Karn’s writings a decade ago. And now that the Internet and computing power is so ubiquitous, we have the opportunity of really doing some science and analyzing propagation on HF at a global scale.
I’m teaching myself about DSP by engaging in a number of simple projects that I build from the ground up: in essence, software homebrew. I am somewhat baffled that more of this doesn’t happen, or if it does happen, how little we actually seem to talk about it.
Mark VandeWettering (KF6KYI)
28 Sep 08 at 4:56 pm
I’m part of the generation that grew up with black and white television. When the set wouldn’t work, the old man would give the cabinet a couple of good whaps and things would clear up.
If that didn’t do the trick he’d look inside for a dead tube. If that failed, he pulled all the tube and it was off to the store to use the tube checker.
If things went well, the old man would buy a tube, cart everything home and Voila! the tv was fixed.
As a young boy my father amazed me. He was an amateur and he loved the hobby. In his shack everything had tubes and when the lights were low you could see the glow from inside the rigs. His teletype was a mechanical monster and he always used a straight key.
Things were a little slower back then and electronics were more approachable. Rather than have everything on a chip, troubleshooting was possible. I remember more than once the curses coming from my father’s shack as he got “zapped” by having his fingers in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Then there were Heathkits some of the best training tools on Earth. Opening up a Heathkit was one of life’s little pleasures. Sorting and counting out the parts, the smell of solder, seeing your creation growing every day until you plugged it in and flipped the switch. By the time you were done, you had a pretty good idea of what you had learned.
I think there was almost a bond between a ham and his rig, a partnership that would last for years. Ask any ham about his first rig and it’s almost like talking about the grandkids.
When I was at the Dayton Convention it was a wonderful opportunity to see not only how strong the amateur community is, but it was encouraging to see how manufacturers are committed to the continual advancement of the art of amateur radio.
I know this veered pretty far from the original question of are US hams smart(er) than others…
I think that if the curiousity is there, the knowledge will follow. Do we need to innovate, invent and lead the way? Not necessarily.
THe only thing I really hope for is great success for all of today’s young people because they’re the ones who will be paying my social security!
Phil
Phil
28 Sep 08 at 8:06 pm
There’s nothing new here Jeff. In addition to the observations you made with respect to math and science, The majority of American adults don’t read books for pleasure.
To your larger point. (And the answer is yes, there are many smart hams.) But they are people who live meaningless lives. Most have little interest in the world or technology. And even fewer are capable of creative use of the mediums we are licensed to use.
What evidence do I offer to support this assertion? The same one I always do. Tune the bands. Find a single discussion of Web 2.0 technologies. Social networking. Bio Fuels. A best selling book. A film of note. The Hadron Collider. A period in history.
Many Hams are smart Jeff. But their personalities and interests are extremely shallow. It’s always been this way.
mike/wa4d
mike/wa4d
29 Sep 08 at 8:39 am
Having lived overseas I’m left wondering if this phenomena isn’t wider spread - greater than just an American thing?
We would be well rewarded as a society if we encourage our youth to engage technologically. On a small, personal scale, I told each of my son’s I would not satisfy their teenage desires by buying them stereos, but I would buy them kits to build. Two of them built their own K502 tube amps, and the youngest is holding out thinking he can borrow the eldest’s amp while he away at University (not!).
It is worrying how few people know how to build things, fix things, service things - we are becoming dependents of those who can do these things.
Perhaps lifestyle issues contribute - long hours, long commutes, distractions and unstructured leisure - but have we all lost the sense of what these skills are “worth?”
Have we lost the need to wonder, imagine & learn?
Time will tell,
73
Steve
K9ZW
Steve K9ZW
29 Sep 08 at 11:20 am
mike/wa4d said:
“There’s nothing new here Jeff. Tune the bands. Find a single discussion of Web 2.0 technologies. Social networking. Bio Fuels. A best selling book. A film of note. The Hadron Collider. A period in history.”
I think there is a difference. What you describe is the inability to be witty and charming in an over the air conversation. I’m not certain that Einstein would have made an interesting dinner companion so to that point, there could be many brilliant hams who are simply poor conversationalists.
In this particular case, my thoughts run to the more progressive activities in the hobby.
For instance, why is it that Moon bounce activity seems to be dominated by European radio amateurs?
73 de Jeff
Jeff, KE9V
29 Sep 08 at 11:34 am
Good message here. I’ll try (as a net control op on the club repeater) to spur on this “intelligent conversation” on our nets.
73
Scott
KD5NJR
Scott Haley
29 Sep 08 at 12:41 pm
Jeff no where did I say “witty” or “charming” — I listed a dearth substantive contemporary subjects that are NOT discussed or any like them on the Ham Bands.
Yet, I take your point. Hams are also not witty or charming as a group. Indeed they are bland and charmless.
I stand by my comments. There are smart hams. But as a group they exhibit no interest in new technology or books or culture in their on air discourse. Please show me evidence of widespread on air substantive discourse for refutation.
mike/wa4d
mike/wa4d
29 Sep 08 at 2:00 pm
Yes! I think you’re spot on. I can’t help but feel that the Governments in many (most?) countries can’t think past their current elected term. Nobody seems to want to think in terms of large spans of time, say, 20 and 50 and 100 years ahead.
Gordon / VK2DJG
30 Sep 08 at 4:55 am
The field of electronic science and engineering is so vast and complex that we, individually, cannot master more than a tiny percentage of it.
Don’t feel bad about that.
A good approach is to pick out one topic at a time that is interesting to “you as an individual” and try to learn more about it, from a practical and also a scientific (and hopefully mathematical) perspective. That would be an excellent accomplishment for any “amateur”.
Bill Sabin W0IYH
18 Oct 08 at 8:37 am
Jeff,
Over here in the UK we tend to think that the US has a “push” towards technical education and industry.
Certainly within the EU; Germany, the Scandanavians and the East Europeans have a very technical mindset -both in education and general outlook. Even Italy is the 5th most industrialised country in the world! This must influence their Radio Amateur populations!
In the UK our public school system has buckled down to “the lowest common denominator” as a standard. We are only concerned in ’statistical returns’ that show every student has a “qualification” - albeit a totally meaningless one! A vast majority of our young are virtually illiterate, lack numeracy skills and consider that degrees in media studies, leisure centre management, graphic art, history of geography and other non-technical (i.e. hard!) subjects are desirable qualifications. Foreign languages and mathamatics are no longer ‘core subjects’ in the general educational system.
Socially; an “engineer” has always been someone with dirty fingernails who should only come into a house by the back entrance! Anything technical is not a “real career”. (Unless you want to be in the computer software industry - not hardware or design, of course). Most of our technical and heavy industries no longer exist and we are a financial and service based economy - any decent technical graduates are frequently picked-off by foreign employers.
Amateur Radio is seen here by most of our youth (If seen at all?) as a hobby for ‘technical nerds’ - that is a product of two things; social outlook and lack of technical education! Two things that will not change soon.
Sadly, the Radio Society of Great Britain has never seriously publicised the hobby at any public level - it’s still very insular and inward looking! We have what is called the “Tony Hancock” image (Do’nt ask!).
Hopefully; it will get better! I’m sure it will! Yes!
Richard Perzyna, G8ITB
24 Oct 08 at 4:48 am