A Vision of the Future of Amateur Radio

ARRL Education and Learning Manager Steve Goodgame, K5ATA, gave the keynote speech at the 2023 ARRL Pacific Division Ham Radio Convention Pacificon.

Steve's passion and vision for promoting youth involvement in the hobby shines in his speech as he discusses STEM education and the importance of INSPIRING youth and teachers to engage in amateur radio and wireless technology.

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[adrianpetrescu]

Thank you! We can and will make tomorrow happen/grow best for every future inventor and scientist and passionate creative innovator or artist by nurturing curiosity from as early as we can in every child, from day one. Altogether now. 73, KF0OHS.

[TheFarmFlyer]

Well Said! Thanks for all you do. I promote your dept at every hamfest and meeting I attend. The Learning Center and Teachers Institute is one of the best programs from ARRL in a long time. I am a volunteer ARRL TN ACC and proud to represent ARRL.

[carlalmo]

I was inspired at the age of 9. When shared with my parents and visited a radio store on 2nd Ave that sold Heathkits do it yourself assemble your own Ham radio the Store Manager took my father to the corner afterward he left the store. My mother was Cofused and no one explained to me what this store manager said. I never forget that moment in my life.
1967. As a newcomer would seek your help and support. New York City. Thank you for your very important video on inspiration. I appreciate your talk on this issue. My vision help outreach in schools.

[KIASK]

Great job Steve. I appreciate all you’re doing to further the hobby and education. 73, KI4ASK

[pasixty]

I totally agree. Our hobby gives us infinite opportunities of operating and communicating. If you haven’t got a vision of what you can/could do, your license is just another exam instead of a life long hobby.

[ricdonato]

Wonderful explanation. Bravo!

9:01 You as a teacher I am surprised you used the word utilize. Rather than using the correct word use, using utilize comes across as pompous and self-ingratiating. Utilize has a different meaning and usages than use, thus utilize is not a fancy way to say use. Use means to consume from a limited supply or take something to achieve a result. Utilize means to use something beyond its intended purpose. Example, we use a chair to sit upon, we utilize a chair as a step stool. See the difference? Hope this helps you and others as well.

[Dreadlk]

To get kids interested it has to be cool and interesting. Ham radio use to be cutting edge and cool up to about 25 years ago, but now with an emphasis on the internet and phones we need to find something that can bring back the cool factor, not something like FT8 which is just a unreliable version of texting a repetitive canned reply.
You want to make Ham Radio cool again then you need to present it in a way that is interesting. We could engage with schools in other countries like Africa and setup systems that allow students in American high schools to to talk to high school students in Africa and start friendships that could eventually lead to the most interested students having a chance to fly to places and actually visit these schools and communicate back with their classmates in America using ham radio.
Kids today love diversity and exploration.
We need to tap into the idea of people making friends with like minded souls in other countries.

[davidl.]

Spreading the word about ham radio is important. Another important task that needs to be done more is to support the new hams and keep them active. Most new hams, especially the young, start out on the air using a $100 handheld radio, and most of the time the repeaters in our area are silent. The experienced hams always congratulate the new hams, and then head off the HF world, leaving the new hams to listen to the silent repeaters. I think that we all need to make an effort to keep the VHF and UHF repeater and bands active, to encourage new hams to become active.

[gogeorge]

Thank you for your time and interesting presentation. My neighbor had a ham radio when I was 10. Got me hooked. Good luck to implementing this important endeavor. ARRL is lucky to have you at the helm. Your years with kids is a big plus. 73 KM7Y George

[DKONV]

HAM Radio is the Best Hobby in the World. 73 de Uncle Günter 💯👌🙋‍♂

[billfreeland]

How would I join? Just a listener at present (R390), would love to grow and help continue the clubs goals which I agree with.

[noteshpku]

Current technology Ham radio lagging beyond commercial GSM ETSI Technology. Why ham radio did not change format modulation from FM to PM Phase quadrant to 256 position in order to create 256 bit digital transmission. Today using SDR technology CPU chip able to running Clock in extreme very high Clock counting, so the phase modulation is enable just like ETSI GSM technology was available today... Don't use voice over FM, dont use HDB3 over FM, Just jump over using Quadro Phase Modulation technology just like GSM ETSI Standard... working on ham radio like 1.2 GHz or smaller 128 bit over lower band on 440 MHz ham band... Come move on forward from current technology... Go... go...

[DerekMurawsky]

A lot of lofty talk, but little concrete, actionable thoughts. When some of the "coolest" things that Amateur Radio offers is texting, digital audio, and talking to people on the other side of the world, it just doesn't resinate with kids who have a cell phone in their pocket, or a tablet at home. We need to relate to things that interest kids and are unique and engaging. I agree that Amateur Radio is an excellent core/foundational element of a STEM program, but how are we going to build such a program?

[totallyfrozen]

All those years teaching and all those years on the air, and we get the most stiff, passionless, robotic speech imaginable.
You literally READ the speech to us. You couldn’t memorize and practice your speech?
You literally sound like you don’t mean it and don’t believe a word of it. 👎🏻
We deserve better.