Welcome to Handiham World!
It is decision time if you are still interested in Handiham Radio Camp 2009. The registration deadline is this coming Monday, August 3. After that, you will have to take your chances on whether or not you would be accepted for the session. Here we are at the end of July already, with radio camp coming up on August 16. There is a lot going on at handiham headquarters as we prepare for the Minnesota radio camp session. This upcoming camp will be a most unusual one in that most of our campers are planning to study operating skills rather than participate in the licensing classes. While there is nothing wrong with this, it does worry me a little bit that we have only one camper signed up to take the Technician course. The Technician represents the entry point into amateur radio, and it is the way we get "new blood". Without bringing in new people, amateur radio will eventually fade away. I'm not sure exactly what the reason for this phenomenon is, because in past years we have had a relatively healthy interest in Technician. We are still committed to providing radios to our campers who pass Technician at Camp, a program started by Gary Gordon, K6KV.
Of course there are other things going on this year. The most obvious is that we are in the throes of a deep economic recession, and financial concerns can cause people to decide not to come to radio camp. Once our handiham members attend a radio camp, they usually want to come back again. It is the new campers, the ones who would be in Technician, who are the hardest to recruit. After all, they don't know what they are getting into. They have no idea how modern and comfortable the camp experience is at Courage North. Perhaps they have not traveled far from home before and are uncomfortable taking that first step toward greater independence. Whatever the reason, we need to do something to get these numbers up next year. I would really like to see at least a half dozen new campers going for their Technician licenses. What can we do to make this happen? I would like to hear from you.
Patrick Tice, WA0TDA
wa0tda@arrl.net
Handiham Manager
