Youtube and ham radio

[W7XF]

BTW if yall would like to know how to make a logbook in under 5 min here you go: http://youtu.be/haKUKtRKn2s

I already know how to log xD

log.jpg

[NQ6U]

What the fuck were you doing making local deliveries in my neck of the woods? I thought you were driving for Swift.

[KA9MOT]

A couple of things that apply to SWIFT:

1609596_223790771152833_1323323629423066970_n.jpg1533717_753257578025835_2799498880926252089_n.jpg

Y'all know, the name SWIFT does not describe the swiftness of their trucks or their service. Instead it is really an acronym. It stands for:

Sure
Wish
I had a
Fast Truck

AND

See
What
I
F#$ked up
Today :)

[KC2UGV]

So me being the quite young and youthful man I am use social media probably a bit more than some ham users. What I have come to realize is that if you search ham radio on youtube you get a few videos on the first page, some are kind of dissing ham radio, some are nutjob preppers who are telling people to go out and get a cheap radio and pretty much use it without a licence (which is as we all know illegal), some outdated videos that look like they where made in the 80's or that someone with adhd would turn off in 5 seconds, and we have the good guys who have tutorials (like n7tfp, some great videos by him for new hams) and useful information.

I'm not putting the blame on anyone but it seems almost like bad rep and definitely not attractive to introduce young people into ham radio. If I had the time and money I would try to combat this problem with a series of videos myself, but uncle sam has different plans for me (yes I'm a servicemember). I can tell you that the radio shows out there on youtube would kill interest, no young person wants to listen to a bunch of old timers yammer about technical information and jargon that a new ham probably wouldn't be able to understand. And the instructional series out there....well most all of them are by "preppers" and have a lot of bad information and misleading guidance like buying cheap radios that will probably scare more people from the hobby then get them into it considering they hype uhf and vhf to be way more popular then it actually is. One good thing to come lately is the TX factor which is a british based show and instead of a bunch of old men talking about nothing they go out to all these interesting places that show the history and origin of ham radio and show all the cool things that go on in the hobby. But there throws a barrier, I can guarantee with a certain amount of confidence that almost no one outside of the ham commuinty has heard of it, and with today's social media the rate of which they post videos would catch no young persons attention, they will go right back to call of duty.

I just hope that soon somebody can catch the attention of a younger crowd with videos about the hobby that even an older generation can enjoy. Its a very odd hobby for a person as young as my self being that right now i'm a minority, and even with more people being licenced then ever before still it seems like social media is only catering to a certian group which in turn is somewhat descering if we want to attract the attention of younger people.

The cool kids use vimeo these days for interesting content. YouTube is making a comeback, after they lifted the 10 minute cap. And, of course, the maker community is picking up the slack:

http://makezine.com/?s=ham+radio

[VE7DCW]

A couple of things that apply to SWIFT:

1609596_223790771152833_1323323629423066970_n.jpg1533717_753257578025835_2799498880926252089_n.jpg

Y'all know, the name SWIFT does not describe the swiftness of their trucks or their service. Instead it is really an acronym. It stands for:

Sure
Wish
I had a
Fast Truck

AND

See
What
I
F#$ked up
Today :)

Interesting...... I've actually seen containers with the "SWIFT" name occasionally carried around on some CP Rail stack trains .......just leave the driving to the railways.....the future in truck transport