Public Service Events – Next Generation of Hams

I’ve been a ham for 30-some years.

When I got into the hobby cell phones were sparse and hams were often requested to link charity events together with communication. Simultaneously, many ham groups became in integral part of the events by not only communication but offering a valuable volunteer service. Not only that, PSEs were the new ham’s learning ground for new hams.

Of course, there is always the ham who only will communicate and not participate. On the other hand, there are the great event volunteers who makes the event better and also use their ham radio.

For 30 years we have put on the Scantic Spring Splash in Enfield, CT – a charity canoe and kayak race to benefit the food shelf. Over these years we grew the ham contingency to about 30 hams over 4 nets. The services provided ranged from bus dispatching and coordination to race timing and relay of start and finish times for the race scoring folks. We used a combination of repeaters and simplex nets. Great practice in creating ad-hoc simplex nets over 5 mile distances in a river gorge. Actually pretty challenging!

The 90’s generation has mostly moved on in life by age but also moved on geographically. We have struggled and to some extent failed is grooming up the next generation of event volunteers. This is the 2nd year the Spring Splash has not used ham comm. This is mostly my failure in recruiting the next generation locally.

Now living in the Berkshires we have the same issue. The local club has during the last year made a great effort in getting people into the hobby (Kudos!) and also joining the club. Maybe the next step in learning the hobby is to encourage participation in PSEs. We must, however, provide a “safe” learning environment while providing the charity service. Let’s remember – it is a hobby!