Newbies, Sound advice and Ancient Attitudes.

Recently on a Foundation support group, a newcomer was asking around for sub $1k HF setups. 

I mentioned in passing that my first was a Xiegu G90. It presented good value at the time and was quite simply providing a lot more for my money than the nearest "name brand" competitor - the IC718. 

I was effectively attacked by a single amateur, asking why on Earth I'd consider giving that kind of advice to a Foundation member - pointing out that no one will service these Chinese radios and that they'd be wasting their money. 

I commented - and I'm yet to see a reply that I didn't actually offer it as advice. I merely commented on what I'd done. I acknowledge that yes there is some risk involved in buying a Chinese radio. I also pointed out that Tecsun are based in Australia, are dealers for the radio and are obligated to provide support for it. In fact they even provide an extended warranty option for it. 

I didn't buy from them, but it's not the point. 

I further suggested that perhaps we should not recommend secondhand gear either - prices are fairly steep on used radio gear, and if they're not, there's probably a problem. Buying those is also a risk. 

I then suggested that this posters options are largely the Icom IC-718. I'm not knocking it, but it hardly looks like a great comparison next to the G90. Monochrome screen, bare basics but quite simply, it's old. You also still need an ATU.  The G90 isn't that old and has an ATU that will tune a piece of wet spaghetti.  It has a lot of modern features that you start to see in $1500 radios for $850. The other options of course are keep saving (if that's actually an option for them) or forget HF for now.

This attack got me thinking though, that there is sound advice wrapped around experience wrapped around some cranky old elitism. 

There was a time in various industries - think automotive as an obvious example - no one in countries like Australia or the US wanted Asian cars once upon a time. All kinds of concerns about support, servicing and parts were used as arguments. Some were even kind of right. Reality however is that over time they started making better product that started being better supported and often wound up priced competitively (and even dominated the bottom end of the market - hello Daewoo and Hyundai)  and now no one blinks an eyelid.  Hyundai now make some pretty impressive cars. I owned one 20 years ago - it was the only $13,000 new car I could buy with a 5 year warranty. I prefer my Fords, but I wanted a car that would be cheap to keep given I had no budget. Other than a set of tyres and a couple of services, I didn't put much into it beyond paying for it, and I still got a good trade in at half its value 5 years later. 

So the point that there is risk involved in buying Chinese radios because no one supports them is valid. It's also a paradox. If few people buy them, there's little need for anyone to service them, so the support is limited. 

Extend that train of thought further - the bulk of HAMs are seniors. Most have been at it a long time, and most of them tend to be in the Icom, Yaesu or Kenwood camps. Everything else is inferior. Every market has similar things. I like Fords, Gibson guitars but Fender basses. I also prefer AMD CPUs in PCs, but Intel in servers. Like any long termer, they've put in a lot of money over the years, invested in good gear and probably had it serviced a time or two. 

Their attitudes come off as a bit elitist to the newer folk - and that's coming from experience, but it's not necessarily considerate of reality now. 

The vast majority of HAMs appear to be in the heading toward or already in the comfortably retired age group. They may not have a lot of cash to splash, but they're probably pretty savvy with it. 

What they don't have to deal with though is what a lot of younger people are dealing with. 

Few now need to save $100K just to put deposits down on houses that are now nearing $750,000 in suburban areas. The awesome low interest rates are completely offset by the insane amounts of money they now need to pay on their deposits, their mortgages, their insurances, rates and the million dollars plus they'll wind up paying back. Of course, depending on their family unit, they may have to do all of this whilst trying to pay high rents on a property with an inflated value thanks to the current housing market.

Then of course there's the other problems that the average young family is now dealing with - the $40K SVUs, the hours long commutes every day, the $50K University debts that will plague them for years at the start of their careers only to find in many industries that they'll need to keep up with postgraduate qualifications and certifications - all of which continue to add to that debt. The few hundred a month for their basic health insurance that doesn't actually cover much but needs to be there to avoid being screwed by the ATO. Then of course there is the cost of childcare - which can easily run into quite a few hundred per week for a few years. 

If the kids have any kind of developmental dramas, then there's the endless costs of all the appointments that services like NDIS doesn't cover. Those appointments are in the hundreds for a few minutes. Good luck if your kids need braces.

Time becomes fairly precious. Jobs start to encroach on home life, especially as professionals start climbing the ladder. The higher income usually vanishes in increased taxes and recommendations from accountants to start pushing more into super to reduce said taxes. 

Then of course there is the complexity of modern relationships - younger folks tend to bounce around a lot between jobs and travel and don't settle down to later in life, making them less established than the generations before them.

Add divorces into that mix and there's a whole new set of financial pressures. 

The reality of all this is quite simply that someone coming into amateur radio as a hobby may not have the capacity to throw a lot of money at it. It's not a 40 year part of their lives yet that is worthy of serious investment. They may very well be happy to take some risks just to make a start and see how they go.

We need to be mindful of the "old school" attitudes as these are presented to the younger generations; your life long passion is likely just a starting curiosity to them. The wisdom and experience needs to be tempered with consideration that their priorities are different and their situation may dictate some less than ideal choices be made to get started. HF is a pretty big commitment regardless. Newbies are far better served being given options and the pros and cons of both based on experience rather than merely just suggesting they need more money and attacking anyone else who makes an alternate suggestion.

Being too aggressive though may very well scare them off - and that's not something that this hobby can afford. In 30 years from now there are likely to be a less HAMs than there are now. If attitudes don't change though, we'll be lucky if the entire hobby will still exist by then.