Essex Ham Chat Forum

Well , very interesting thread/ topic , good reading , and sad at the same time, it's all so true and I hear it often from people, M6's get their licence and no where to turn for help and advice, people returning to the hobby and not sure where to go next , what to try , seen the stuck in the mud groups do the same things all the time , being stagnant not wanting change , and I've even had , been told when I enquired about some merchandise for one of the four clubs ( including Essex ham, but it wasn't them) that I belong to , that they don't cater for women sizes or styles as it tends to be a male dominated hobby . I try as much as I can to attend and operate at the special event days some of the clubs have as I really enjoy them, they are all run differently , some better than others , some I get frustrated with their running procedures , but it's their way and I have to put up with it , I always ask if any public would like to have a guest message to try and encourage people , one club seems horrified with the idea when I try , maybe it's my imagination, . Joys of radio I guess, it would be nice if more newcomers could have more help or to feel it's available , don't think many clubs seem to promote after passing care as it were, I too have been off radio for a few weeks , bit dissolutions in one or two places lately, but had some contacts today and feel a buzz again and feeling better , anyway enough from me , best wishes all keep playing radio and HAPPY HAMMING , 73 and 88 M0LMR ..oh licenced only since February 2014 xx

Ah yes the plan to start a online club is still in the pipe line and is planned for 2017. Got a few bits planned for it and linked with some other bits ^^

The problem is most groups do not actually seem to want to open their arms to new members and accept them.

Since returning back a year ago I have noticed with newcomers that they are left to get on with it and guess how things are done ever since i got licenced there has always been politics in the hobby suppose that will never change what i do see is this new idea of why should i try to understand some of the technical side when i can buy radio's and antennas off the shelf well the very nature of the hobby is self training in radio but we don't all have the abilities the courses and exams are designed to give you the core tools of how radio works and how to use them to set up a good clean station free of interference so you can be let loose on the bands HI what i do see is a lack of help to newcomers & when they ask for help are shot down in flames I just want to say anything i can help with I am only to glad to give over information to help them don't know it all but what i do know i'm willing to help with so just ask if i can help i will

There are many issues that clubs face which lead them to bury their heads in dark places, and eventually that may be the first reaction to any change in ideas or attitudes. It is so easy to be comfortable in the rut and then view the rut as the best way to survive (or evade) change and challenges. It is complacency, which is the flip side of self-congratulation, and together they erode the ability of the club to relate to people who are not also rut-bound or even many others who are in a different but parallel rut.

I belong to a climbing club which has had the same Chairman (and a rotating committee) for the past 10 years. It hasn't progressed in its ideas over that time: the attitudes displayed are even older: it is self-congratulatory about past glories, but scared to get involved in anything new. Old Fartiness is the prevailing mind-set; it cannot see the wood for the trees, and cannot see the trees for the forest . . even the forest it too big for them to visualise, so they pretend it does not exist.

The same is happening in many hobbies. So it is a widespread social condition which is endemic in moribund organisations where individuals have power without responsibility, poor awareness of the present circumstances around them, lousy forward vision and a lack of up-to-date skills needed to justify their position and move on. In other words - they are out of their depth!

They should have the sense to make way for people who are keen to re-invent the committee-designed square wheels prevalent in amateur radio and who may even fail in the process - In climbing terms it's better to fail ultimately to reach the summit of a mountain despite one's best efforts than to fail to even reach the bottom because the armchair is just so comfy.

Move over . . . let the young people in . . your days are numbered- wake up.

RadioBuster