Monday, April 9, 2018

Into the future: What will happen with all those radios?

I was just thinking. Today most radioamateurs are grey old men. I consider myself as one of the
younger ones amongst them. If I look around the average age of a radioamateur is between 50-70 years old. Despite of doing our best to interest young people in a antique hobby I don't think it will see the numbers of radio operators we have seen now and in the past. At my job we have some young people just getting into a working life. When I practise some CW at lunchbreak they ask me what game I'm playing. When I ask them if they ever heard about morsecode they really don't know what it is and I have to explain it over and over again. Really....those are young people aged 17-18 years! So, what was I thinking about? Well, I just read some posts from "Top Band Chordal Hopper" KY6R. About looking around for another rig, the IC-7610 or the Flexradio system. There are so many OM with money that buy rigs like that and have big towers with big antennas. What will happen with all this stuff within 10-20 even 30 years when most radioamateurs are at the end of their lifetime? The towers and antennas will get recycled. But what will happen with all those "state of" technology radios? Perhaps a museum?
I remember when legal CB radio just got started here in the Netherlands in the early eigthies of last century, that's about 35 years ago. All those nice CB radio's cost a lot of money at that time, and what did you get? A 22 channel box with only 500mW output....the price about 599 dutch guilders (equivalent 200 euro now approx.) You can still buy these radios second hand or even new in a box if you're lucky. Prices between 20 and 50 euro. The really nice ones end up in a museum or in a private collection like the picture above...