So when is a newbie no longer a newbie? Like to be or not to be, that is the question and one that to me at least is rather interesting. You see, a few days back someone remarked to me that I am still a newbie. My initial thought was O’REALLY!, no, a newbie is not what I am, what I am is not soon to be deceased so to the old guys I just seem like a newbie.
For a start, I have been involved with ham radio since 2014. That’s 7 years. Think of your favorite sport, you have your rookie year then you become one of the regular players and after about 5th year you are considered a veteran and by the 10th year you are looking at retiring after hopefully a distinguished career and a whole slew of awards and accomplishments.
With ham radio, I think its more an US and THEM mentality being shown by some, and yes its some, not all, where you are always a newbie unless you are one of them and a 30 year veteran. Where as for me, I do not give to craps about how long you have been a ham. To borrow from Martin Luther King, i do not judge by how long they have been a ham, but by the content of their character. There are 30 year newbies out there and 1 year veterans, what matters is what one brings to the table, not the duration they have been sat there.
While I am no newbie, i am also no veteran either though my list of accomplishments is growing. I have worked DXCC, placed well in some big contests, scratch build a few transceivers and used them to make contacts, partaken in awards schemes like WWFF and received multiple awards, was DXér of the year in 2016 as an Fcall and have even turned my hand to elmering a few people in electronics until they found their feet and no longer needed my help. That is certainly not all of the things I have done and its certainly not the resume of a newbie and its a lot more than some veterans out there.
There is always someone to learn from out there, even those real newbies can have a perspective that might just change your world view, if only you are open minded enough to actually listen to them, rather than jump to conclusions that newbies are all dumb.
Baxter Out.
