Foundations of Amateur Radio

The Amateurs Code, originally written in 1928 has been quoted for almost a century. A Radio Amateur is Considerate, Loyal, Progressive, Friendly, Balanced and Patriotic. There is something almost romantic about that, but in my short life as an Amateur I've been exposed to much that leaves that as just a sentiment, rather than a social code. I'm not alone in that. I have numerous emails from Amateurs around the planet who share their negative experiences, often being bullied by self-proclaimed experts with an axe to grind.

Our 1928 Amateur Code brings with it a sense of decorum, etiquette, but other than some true Gentlemen I've had the pleasure to meet, there are aspects about our community that just don't translate into today, even if the Amateur Code could lead the way.

Our community of Radio Amateurs represents an opportunity to engage with society, to attract new blood, to include new ideas and to lead the way in community engagement. As one path towards growth of our hobby we have started talking about STEM, Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths as one way to relate to a wider community. That's a great sentiment, but I think we need to do some housekeeping before we embark on that journey.

Amateur Radio is steeped in tradition. We use quaint terms such as OM, Old Man to describe each-other, YL, Young Lady to describe women in general and XYL for wives of Amateurs. We have a thing called a "Gentleman's Agreement" and we generally refer to Amateurs as He and Him.

By doing that we've essentially limited our audience to 50% of the global population. We alienate women before we even start to engage them and when we do have female participation we get Facebook posts full of sexual innuendo, or outright sexist comments, not to mention the girlie pictures spread around the globe, sniggeringly exchanged as contact QSL cards. On air we alienate women, make disparaging or sexual comments or express our amazement that a mere female could achieve a license.

What are we, pubescent boys? Is that the best we can do? The irony is that we as a community rarely discuss politics or religion. It's just not the done thing.

In general day-to-day exchanges we use inclusive language. In our workplace we are sensitive to people who are different and in our laws and rules we champion equal rights for all humans, be they men, women, gay, straight, yellow, black, purple or intersex.

Why is our Amateur language not inclusive in a hobby that is based around communication, where Amateurs clamour to work a pile-up on a rare DX station in some war-torn part of the globe, where science and rational thought are expected and where an Amateur Code written in 1928 encourages us to be Considerate, Loyal, Progressive, Friendly, Balanced and Patriotic?

I think we need to take a long hard look at ourselves before we start going into schools and sharing what our amazing hobby is about.

I'm Onno VK6FLAB