Experienced hams who take the time to share their knowledge of our hobby with new licensees entering our radio world are looked up to and, respectfully, called an “Elmer”. Unfortunately, there are far too many experienced hams that seem to be bothered with helping grow our hobby by taking on the roll of being an Elmer. Let’s call these hams that cannot be bothered helping new hams “Tudd”.
It is not unusual for new hams to sit in the back corner of the meeting room waiting for someone to step up and introduce themselves, asking about their interests and what information they need. Sadly, I know of more than a handful of eager folks who earned their license but were so turned off by this click attitude they put their first radio in a drawer and left our hobby with a very bad taste in their mouth. How far do you have to look to see this happening where you are?
Friends, studying and passing a license test gets a new ham inside the door to our wonderful radio world. The knowledge gained from their license studies does not equipment them to move further into our world unless Elmer creates a pathway forward helping them to keep learning as they grow into another integral member of our hobby.
We were all that new license at one time. Some of us seem to forget our early days when experienced hams helped us develop our first radio station expanding our then limited knowledge and radio skills. Our hobby has prospered for over one-hundred years because veteran hams shared their knowledge and experiences with the new folks entering the hobby. Let us continue this tradition by Elmering the next generation of hams who will in turn pay us back for our efforts by doing the same in future years for another following generation of radio enthusiasts.
One ham or one web site cannot fix all the problems hams create for themselves to overcome. The solution to any problem is to first recognize it with open discussion. To this end, The Welcome Net Project is dedicated to creating a friendly environment where new hams can thrive.
