Hmm... The trouble with doing a Blog is, as much as I do like writing my ramblings, it's one of those things where you have to be 1) in the right frame of mind to write and 2) have the time to write ... And of course both criterion have to be synchronised to happen at the same time!
So, a feeble excuse for not keeping the Blog up to date and flowing... I'll try harder!
The provocation for putting finger to computer key tonight comes from the impetus of our wonderful Rochdale Traditional Radio Rally which was held last Saturday (12th) down at a local church hall. The radio club, of which I am a member... RADARS...(Rochdale and District Amateur Radio Society)... Has been going for around twenty years and I have to take the blame for getting it off the ground way back then with Brian (Where are you Brian??).
I admit that I don't attend Club meetings that regularly these days but I'm still pretty active within the Club in terms of organising the said Rally each year and also by raising much needed funds via donations of equipment to the Club on eBay and such like. Often people approach us and donate equipment as a sad result of the death of a fellow radio ham.. A 'Silent Key'... We then dispose of the stuff either for the family concerned or for Club funds.
This year we seem to have had a spate of Silent Key disposals, a sorry state of affairs perhaps implying the truth that none of us old hams are getting any younger.... The average age of the hobby is pretty old and, according to the Radio Society of Great Britain, membership is dwindling. So, a dying hobby? In the face of the Internet, satellite communications and mobile phones, its probably no wonder that youngsters have turned to other perhaps more exciting means of communication and seem to have lost the joys that I think can be found within a scientific and experimental hobby???
The above comments brings me back to the Rally last Saturday and perhaps the real reason why Ham Radio isn't seen as an attractive proposition in the 21st century.... I've mentioned it before in an earlier Blog but, basically, the average Radio Ham is just a little bit wierd, probably on the autistic spectrum somewhere, talks in technobabble and wears odd clothes and maybe doesn't wash as often as most people...... Yes, we brought to the world geeks and nerds! Marconi was a geek!! Baird was a nerd!!
The pictures featured on this Blog are snapshots of the Rally on Saturday which visually convey what we all looked like. Sadly they don't convey the smell... You'll have to imagine that. The characters I mentioned before, the short sighted guy with the magnifying glass, the chap with long silver hair wearing shorts and with a dog in tow, the very very urine smelling git from St Helen's.... They were all there! (Except the short wearing guy had long trousers and no dog... I hope the dog's okay and not now a late dog, a gone to The Choir Eternal dog??? We had a new one too. A chap who came up from London by train carrying a large, heavy ham radio to sell on the Bring and Buy! Actually I do admire his effort and he did sell it! (To a very keen new young recruit... Yes, We FOUND ONE!.... Well done Eamonn!! That rig will last you years!!)
Today I have voted in favour of the attempt by the RSGB to try and take a bit of time out from the normal constitutional organisation of the governing body to enable a new approach in the running and effectiveness of the society and hence to try and bring it up into the 21st Century and shake off its 'old farts' image. I sincerely hope it works out but I do have my doubts. The new managing group (supposing they are elected) whilst being willing to give things a try, are still mainly old blokes who are 60+ and have also been around for a few years already. Leopards and spots springs to mind??? The jury is out and I wish them well.... Only time will tell, but an article in this months RSGB RADCOM magazine which described the recent RSGB Convention as a 'success' whilst at the same time talking of the shopping trip organised for the ladies (the 'XYL's in ham radio speak) to occupy them whilst their hubby's got to grips with radio stuff, just highlights how out of touch with the modern world the RSGB is!! I won't mention the call for the evening meal dress code as 'lounge suits' (I think I just did!!) which also portrays an out of date very conservative, with a small C, outlook. Constant talk in RADCOM of things like working with the Guides and Scouts (interesting organisations but in my experience very middle class and out of touch with modern youth), the endless debates about morse or no morse, the ramblings about poor operating practice but with no real solution proffered with any bite which would snuff it out, the constant debate about the licencing structure and the merits or not of having such 'easy' access to the airwaves, etc. etc., just point to an outdated and 'unreal world' approach.... I took a look at some of my old RADCOMs from the last 20 years or so (Yes, I keep them. It's a nerd trait!) and if you look at the Letters page at the back of the magazine, the topics covered are remarkably similar year in year out... We are stuck in a time warp! It's as if the world of ham radio was still in the 1940's and 50's, which of course it is!!
So, now I've got all that off my chest.... I promised some time back to spend a little time describing some of my early traumatic experiences as a small child and teenager back at No 42 and what now I can describe as a pretty unhappy childhood. A bit Dark Side but it needs recording. I will do this in my next blog and also continue with the family saga which has caused some interest with the present family who didn't know about a lot of the things I'd mentioned and explained. This has been useful in that it kind of sets out a family history which will hopefully be of use in the future when distant recollections might get lost in the fog of time.... And I really must mention my time with C.A. Sothers (Electrical) Ltd where I spent nearly 15 months working (not in one go!) as a 'Sparky's Mate' and survived!
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