Promoting amateur radio

Amateur radio is far from an archaic technology. Kids are geniunely interested in communicating with their peers and if amateur radio is an option available to them, they will embrace it.

I never said that we should be teaching morse code or even amateur radios. But kids definetly need constructive activities these days. The No Code Tech is the perfect way to get them started. Instead of looking at kids to fill the HF spectrum, we should look upwards towards the future of amateur radio. VHF, UHF, EHF and up are all available to Tech class license holders. SSTV, ATV, and the vast array of digital modes work great in these bands.

Cell phones may be free with service, but what does the service cost? $20.00 - $50.00 A MONTH. Whats the cost of a simple HT: $99.00. That HT will get you all around town with a good repeater and you can talk for free (or at the most a nominal cost to join the repeater group).

You're right in saying that we don't need amateur radio taught in the schools. We don't need computers in the schools either. Kids can learn on their own at home. You don't need a computer to teach math, science, history, english. The way computers are used in many schools today is terrible. At best they're teaching typing skills and at worst nothing more than a babysitter. You don't need the internet to do research, that's what a library is for. Oh yeah, i forgot, schools stopped funding their libraries so that they could put computers in the classrooms.

Kids with radios would probably be the best thing to happen to amateur radio as it would force the closed minded individuals out of the service.

Michael