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HAM/CB operators ... how old are you?

Which age group do you belong too?


  • Total voters
    51

Klondike Mike

Sr. Member
May 31, 2010
974
961
103
Alberta, Canada
tinyurl.com
Nothing devious going on here, just curious. If its only the older age group that is buying and selling gear, what/when happens when that age group is no more? Will the younger demographic pick up the slack? How much time does the hobby have if not? The poll results indicates where we are today. If you have a dozen NIB Cobra 148's or 2000's from the nineties that you have been hoarding and watching the price escalate on eBay, when do you sell while there is still interest?
 

I was a twenty-something when I got into cb radio, thanks to my father-in-law, who never drove a truck, but was a real rag-chew on the local scene with his imax 2k, push-up pole, coax draped over the roof, going in thru a window. I thought it was strange, cb radios belonged in a truck, not inside the house on a desk.

Not long after that, I found out a friend of mine, 60 something, blind, was a ham operator with a station and 2 towers. I heard he would climb his towers in the middle of the night, so his neighbors wouldn't see him and freak out. I guess if you're blind, day or night doesn't matter. He had a nice station, got a little offended when I called it a cb radio, then, a man without sight, proceeded to open my eyes to amateur radio. Rip friend.

No, I don't see many millennials or later in this hobby, as the youngest guy in my local group, (mostly 50-80 year olds) and I find less interest in the hobby with those younger. My children could care less to talk to someone in Australia or the UK on a radio, they can do that from the game console or computer. They can interact deeper and richer than on a radio. They don't have to wait for atmospheric conditions or sun spots, I imagine that's why they don't get it, they're the "right-now, always open" generation.
 
57yrs old. In the early 70's my neighbor Richard (part time babysitter, I was friends with his kids) had a base station in his kitchen that I thought was cool. Then in 76 Daddy bought a JC Penny Pinto 23 ch CB that I would mess with. I dug it out of his closet about 1990 and have been in and out of CB since then. I still have that radio, its only had the limiter clipped, but I always got flowers on how it talked. I need to get it recapped, I misplaced the original mic to it which bugs me. And Richard would light my butt up just like I was one of his kid's when I needed it. LOL!!
 
No, I don't see many millennials or later in this hobby, as the youngest guy in my local group, (mostly 50-80 year olds) and I find less interest in the hobby with those younger. My children could care less to talk to someone in Australia or the UK on a radio, they can do that from the game console or computer. They can interact deeper and richer than on a radio. They don't have to wait for atmospheric conditions or sun spots, I imagine that's why they don't get it, they're the "right-now, always open" generation.
They better have a generator when the power goes down. That's what I tell my grand kids. I've seen it down for 4 days before and it could get worse.
 
I'm 67, started talking on the radio in the late 60's with my grandfather who was a licensed ham operator, don't know what the regulations are now, but back in the day as long as you were licensed the FCC would allow your kids or grandkids talk on the radio as long as you were there to supervise them, i'm not licensed myself but i do enjoy talking on 11 meters, your right about the younger generation not interested in radio, the youngest in my group of locals is 45.
 
I'm 59 this year and I only know one person younger than I who's active on CB or ham (they are in their mid 30's). Most people I talk to are my age or older (often 20 years or more older).
So......seeing as there is hardly anyone young in either CB or ham we can safely assume young people are not buying CB or ham radios, and that as the boomer generation continue to die off, sales of radios in general will drop sharply.

I work in FM broadcast, and there are a lot of parallels with the CB hobby in that industry. Only older people listen to FM and AM radio, and those older folks are the ONLY ones buying new radios (and rarely at that). There are hilarious videos out there showing what happens when you hand a 20 year old an FM radio and ask them to tune in a particular station. They haven't a clue.

Anybody that thinks there is a rosy future for CB or ham is delusional. Young people could care less, middle age folks are too busy trying to make ends meet, and the older folks who have money to spend on gear are dying off fast.
 
44, 23yr truck driver, 1yr base station operator, won't give it up. I'd estimate less than 5% of folks younger than myself have any desire to talk on the cb radio. if i ask young drivers about cb radio use, they could not care less, only turn it on to request tonnage from a loader. i've been thinking about this subject over the last year, as most of the people i talk to are 50+. after being on the radio for a couple solar cycles @ 14hrs/day, can usually estimate age based on voice. the young folks i hear on skip are usually talking about their icom or yayhoo rigs runnin +500w amps. they don't even want to try it with 10w. one i talk to refused to talk barefoot or use upper sideband. screen time programming has taken it's toll.
 
Last summer I got a young guy maybe in his single digits but maybe the beginning of his double digits who wanted a cb for the PA function so I give him a cheapy AM Cobra. He come back later wanting another one with PA so gave him another but took him in the garage and let him listen to skip rolling in so he could see what he was missing. He started smiling so you have to plant the seed and hope it grows ! I'm 73.75 YO
 
I am 52 and have been active in CB since about 2016. I have a GMRS license and have been working on my amateur license for way too long. I remember when I was a kid in the 70s, my dad and grandfather (my grandfather was a Ham and made his own transmitters) always had Midland radios in the vehicles. It seemed like everyone was talking on every channel and the heterodyne was so bad that I couldn't follow any ones transmission. One time when my grand parents came to visit, they brought a new Trc 30a base station radio for my dad. (My grandfather also bought one for himself and I have them both) I watched my dad and grandfather put up the antenna and route the coax inside. I will never forget the ground wire for the chimney mount was 3 strands of solid aluminum wire. My grandfather stood on the ground with the 3 strands hooked up to the antenna and wound them together chuckled up in a brace and bit. (The elbow powered hand drill from a bygone era)

We have a small group of locals and I am the youngest. My adult kids and their friends think it's neat how I can DX around the world, but not enough to want to do it themselves. We do have fun with the radios between vehicles on trips though. Hopefully when I am gone, one of the kids will take one of my many radios and continue the tradition.
 

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