There is discussion on CQ Magazine's Facebook page concerning the incorporation of other electronic fields into the world of amateur radio.  The conversation can be found here.  Some people feel that amateur radio is a hobby that should almost solely be focused on radio.  Others feel there is plenty of room for other interests, and if nothing else, new enthusiasts might be drawn into the radio hobby through those interests.

I've touched on this topic a bit in some of the posts on my regular blog.

Here's how I see things.

First, ham radios numbers have changed.  Most people will tell you that the number of licensed amateur radio operators had decreased over the years.  I am having trouble finding those statistics.  Sometimes I wonder if people notice the number of active operators has decreased, while the actual number of operators hasn't changed to match perception.  As operators pass on, licenses forfeited from disuse, and new operators come into the hobby, the number of hams in the US will always change.  Right now, there are 58,800 more hams in 2010 then there were about the same time in 2004.

The biggest change seems to be in age.  It's hard to find actual age numbers, but the average age of amateur radio operators appear to be in their 40s.  CQ Magazine recently did a survey of their "fans" on Facebook and found the average age was 45.  Granted, this is Facebook we're talking about, but still, amateur radio operators are not the major demographic of Facebook, and yet of 3500 hams connected to CQ Magazine on Facebook, the average age is about 20-30 years older than the average Facebook user's age.  As the older generations shrink in population, the hams who joined the hobby within the last 20 years are now between their 30s and 50s.  This makes for a younger mix of people.

Technology has changed.  I can't give you actual "figures" on how things have changed, but 20 years ago some of the radio technologies we use today were cutting edge.  Digital modes are commonplace now.  Computer integration is still in it's early stages, but worlds apart from how lightly computers were used in the radio hobby in the 1990s.

With everything changing, and a lot of change with similar technologies outside of amateur radio, you would imagine radio on the cutting edge of discovery more now than ever.

But it's not.

Amateur radio has it's cutting edge, for sure.  But compared to the rest of the electronic world, cutting edge in amateur radio often seems like child's play.

The things that the commercial wireless telecommunications world are wolds apart from amateur radio, even though both utilize some of the same basic practices of radio technology.  Amateur radio doesn't influence commercial cell phones - cell phones influence and change radio, instead.

For instance, who really needs a radio phone patch these days, given the dominance of the cell phone industry?  I recall using radios that seem archaic to today's standards, which often feel more like phone components than radio rigs.  A new radio today is much more user-friendly, consumer-friendly, and feature-rich - all due to changes in electronics, which are primarily led by the cell phone industry.

With all this in mind, one might wonder what robotics, computers, and other electronics have to do with amateur radio.  Some will even tell you they have no part in the world of radio.  I feel otherwise.

I believe that radio communications will always be the primary function of the radio hobby.  But excluding other technologies because they are not inherently radio-related is a very short-sighted mistake.

Where would modern digital radio communications be without the computer?  It would barely exist.

Who's to say there's no room in radio for robotics, especially when they're using radio technologies to communicate?  Who's to say that you can't use the Internet to make a radio connection, when it does such a wonderful job of supplementing the radio hobby in so many ways?  Why can't radio be supplemented by various technologies, instead of dwindling in disuse from exclusion from the rest of the technological hobbies?

It seems to me that amateur radio could use some new "methods" of communication.  And they could certainly use the people brought in by inclusion of other hobbies.  I, myself, was brought in by an extensive computing and BBSing hobby.  At some point, amateur radio was a logical addition to what I was already interested in.

Here's the biggest reason, as I see it, to include other technologies: innovation.

I was inactive in amateur radio for about ten years.  And in those ten years, I've seen a lot of change.  But I've also seen how the hobby has lagged behind the technological edge.  This week I've been playing with APRS - a cutting-edge technology now as it was ten years ago.  However, you would imagine that dozens of new APRS and generic mapping software would have become available.  You would expect to see a pretty modern system being used as the technology has progressed.  In reality, the software used is archaic.  The hardware used is even more ancient.  How many computers still have serial connections on them since the advent of USB ten years ago?  Despite this, most ham radio hardware, if it even has a computer connection, use really old RS-232 serial cable technology rather than the now old standard of USB connectivity.

Perhaps a little infusion of new technology will bring us more capable radios, more integration with computers, and new formats to try our hands at.  I'm shocked that we're many, many years behind the world of cell phones when all that's inside the cell phone is a more sophisticated radio device and a miniature computing system.  Like ham radio, a cell phone has telephony, digital services, and station-to-station relay.  And yet, your average amateur radio isn't much more advanced than they were a decade ago.

So, in my opinion, the more we can bring to the hobby, the better off it will be.  Don't be so worried about losing sight of radio communications, and be more cognizant of the possibilities with an infusion of new tech.

If you want to regain that cutting edge technology, and if you'd like to see new operators on the air, give other technologies a chance to show how they can fit in with amateur radio.

Remember, we are a hobby of inclusion, nor exclusion.