What I Did To Get My Kids Interested in the Hobby!

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[BigJohnsHamShack]

My interest began back in 1988. I researched and discovered a dipole antenna for my truck that was tuned for an FM stations that was hard to get. My shop teacher, retired Navy man, recognized what I was doing and invited me to see his ham setup, with my dad of course. He talked to Brazil that night. I was hooked but could never get Morse. So I was out until the dropped the Morse requirement.

[chuckrann]

Off air since 1996. Retired now with a renewed interest. Had Lithium backup battery replaced on TS 440. Repaired Cushcraft MA 5V and placed on a 20 foot aluminum pole, bungee’d to backyard arch over path. Also attached an L shaped plant hanger to pole and hung a 40 meter dipole. Looks and works great. This was all to inspire my 12 and 10 year old grandsons into Ham Radio. This is a step down from my 50 foot tower and Triband antenna blown up by lightening in ‘96 but that’s ok. If I inspire my grand-boys into Ham radio, I’ve done ok. Setting up Coleman 4 person tent for temp ham shack. Added bonus. 73 from GA.

[summerwindcharters]

Got involved with radio in the late 60s with CB radio. And teen was I hooked. Much to my dad's dismay, I put a stick and a beam antenna up on our 3 family house. I could talk for miles on my Radio Shack 23 channel 4 watt base station! I just got my first GMRS radio UV-5G and am just as impressed! It has exceeded my expectations for the price. I may even join a local GMRS club.

[WECB]

Steve, I started my radio journey exactly the same way. I got a pair of Radio Shack 100mw walkies for Christmas one year. Used them a few times with my friends (not my parents), but as soon as the snow melted, I was on my bike and seeing how far the signal would go. I hooked up a cassette recorder to the walkie at home, and just announced my location as I rode around the neighborhood. When I got home, I played the tape back and plotted the points on a map along with how well my signal was heard. Next experiment was to put more power into the transmitting walkie and using various lengths of wire from each location point. You get the idea. Anyway, that's how I got bit by the bug and I've had this nasty rash ever since. "And now you know...the REST of the story!" 73 OM

[dnel]

I did something very similar, took some kid friendly pmr446 radios on holiday to the Netherlands this year and gave one to my 6yo and let him visit the park nearby on his own on the provisio he could stay in touch by radio. It gave him his first taste of freedom and he loved that.

[HamRadioDX]

There are more kids interested in ham radio than we think. Especially with programs like POTA etc. good stuff TO

[lavenderlilacproductions]

Thanks for this, Steve. I was just thinking about this the other day (algorithm be praised...)

[robertmeyer]

great show. I got started in 1970's mostly because of Radio shack . still have my 2 pack of Talk about 14 Ch FRS radios and the radio shack ones as well. FRS started out 14 Ch. I still have the Radio shack CB ones. and 49MHz ones as well. take 9V battery. me and my girlfriend don't have kids but we have a couple of kitty's that are like kids. they got on FRS using VOX mode. Martha talks to them gets them going. The old FRS radios has CTCSS codes only. no DTS but the new ones do. now we have MURS VHF radios as well as GMRS. still some FRS radios take AA/AAA battery. we took MURS radios to talk to each outher at the state fair and some kids found us. now we use DTS codes. and FRS Ch 7 to 14 are not much used. 73's

[thomasflorence]

Inclusion and respect of kid's intelligence motivates involvement.

[DeLorean]

I built a tape measure antenna today for satcom. My oldest showed interest once I showed her that I bounced an APRS beacon off the space station. Tonight I found out Emily Calandrelli is also a ham and that perked her up. We already have our GMRS license taken care of. Hopefully it only goes up from here to get them into it.

[cornbread-KORN]

You want get lost in the woods if you don’t go in the woods 😂

[kathiethompson]

Chuck KK6USY had great fun hamming with your girls!!!

[angelscomputers]

Do you have a link for that Etsy solder kit for the ears/head thing you said? I only have 2 daughters so never thought about get them in ham radio but I know they will have a blast soldering and building something as they love building things. Gosh, can’t believe you are a grand dad. I started quite late lol