As many of you know, I am a bit of an Amateur Radio podcast fan. Each week I listen to around a dozen as well as hosting & publishing three created by other people, myself. I'm also involved with creating or validating content for a few podcasts and in the meantime small, run by radio amateurs, (legal) short wave AM radio stations as well.

Through all of this, I hear some repeated concerns on several of the podcasts/radio shows. One of these concerns is that new amateurs who have just got their entry-level licence (whether that be Technician, Foundation or Novice depending upon which country they are in), have bought or been given a VHF/UHF Handy Talkie and then get left alone and after a while, as the level of activity on the local repeater is low, get fed up with the hobby and look for another pursuit.

I see several issues here. The first is the attitude portrayed in many circles, that you MUST get your licence before you can do anything in Amateur radio. Balderdash! Yes, the new Ham needs a licence before he or she can transmit alone but there is so, so much more to the hobby than just rag-chewing, contesting or DXing (not that's there's anything wrong with any of these), but what about the parts of the hobby that do not need transmitter operation? Obviously there's listening on the Short Waves or on VHF with a scanner but there's also construction - the "maker" part of our hobby. Whether electronics assembly or antenna building or software programming, it's all as important a part of the hobby as transmitter operation. Then there are club activities to do together - direction-finding hunts, special event stations, portable field day operations, teaching and mentoring others. All of this is what can be done without having a licence. In the days when (at least in the UK) you had to wait until you were 16 before you could take the RAE exam, radio clubs still had younger members who were an essential part of the club. Some of those members even stayed without bothering to take out a licence until they were well over 16 years old.

Those who started this way in a radio club knew that everything was possible in Amateur Radio and knew where to get guidance after they got their licence to do the many things they wanted to do and had plans for after getting their "ticket".

So in short - in my opinion - we're selling the hobby wrong. When someone wants to get involved in a radio club, invite them in with open arms but don't ram down their throat the idea that they "Must" get a licence as soon as possible - as that's not true - they can remain a very valuable member of the club, even if they chose not to sit the exams.

However, we already have the problem that there are lots of people getting their entry-level licence and then being left out on a limb with no support, so what do we do. Remember I said earlier one problem is that the level of activity on the HT new licensees have is often low, even on the local repeater. Well, why not change that? In several countries, the national ham radio representative body has their news program read or re-transmitted over many repeaters often on a Sunday. Why not expand on this?

Let’s make the local repeater the local radio station. A "Talk-station" for news not only from the national body but from podcasts - there's plenty of material out there which, as long as it doesn't contain commercial adverts and you ask permission, can be made use of.

This is one model that I think might work:

You assign a responsible PJ (that's Podcast Jockey) authorised by the club or group who run the repeater to play the Podcast material on an evening over the repeater and then at the end of the podcast he (or she) and other experienced local hams are there to take questions from anyone listening - especially looking out for new operators - so they can get things clarified from the podcast broadcast subject or indeed general "new-ham" type questions. A calendar of local radio club or group meetings and events could then be read out with encouragement given to try out a few different clubs to find one that suits.

The key point is that using the under-utilised resources that are already there can be used one or two nights a week to help people new to the hobby in a friendly question and answer type of environment. The "PJ" would also act as moderator with the ability to kill the repeater input frequency if anyone decides to be stupid or insulting. He/she also has the code to override the timeout while the podcast is running.

Perhaps this is already happening somewhere? If so please give details in the comment section below. How well does it work? How long has it been going? Any tips for someone else to do the same in their area?