False Alarm! I am not about to start a Podcast so let that be known. I also will not be a regular contributor on any podcast.
On a recent shift at the XYL's Board and Care home, as she was napping, and I was sitting beside her I thought about the substance of a starting a new podcast. Much like a new homebrewer how do you even start such an adventure
My formal training in marketing suddenly kicked in by asking what the market segment is. The classic marketing approach considers the 4P's: Product, Price, Promotion and Place.
To be successful in marketing a product, each of the 4P's needs some "beef on the bone". A Marketers pitfall is to use his personal likes to answer the 4P's -- but the marketer's personal views don't count. It's the market segment who sets the stage for the 4P's.
The first question so you can "beef up" the Product aspect, you must ask what do hams do? According to the IARU hams do operating and contests. (No mention of building stuff.) We see how close that answer is to the real world when you think of POTA, SOTA, a contest every weekend and of course FT-8. With the ARRL sponsored dumb down the license requirements the technical aspect has dried up as has the absolute need to know CW.
In looking back over the last 60 years you can see the waves where hams built their rigs and then the solid state and SSB era where store bought was the norm. Curiously there was a period during that same time when the focus shifted to building big RF Power amps -- even Doug DeMaw has a Pair of Shoes design in the ARRL Sideband Handbook. Now all of this stuff (totally solid state) is commercially available and somewhat spendy.
So, a demographic is developing that describes the target market: contests, operating, solid state, software awareness and little technical skills and maybe no CW skills but also an extra class license and possibly has $$$ to spend.
My gassing about a combo Vacuum Tube/Solid State SSB transceiver is a Pete Pet Project (P^3) and nothing more. Mention it once in a podcast to our demographic and you get a polite yawn -- keep talking about it in follow on podcasts and you lost the critical audience. I can see that in my blog readership in what gets a lot of hits and what is panned.
Tubes are of the past and even now extensive solid-state hardware is replaced by a small amount of hardware and lots of software. Hardware technical skills amongst US hams as was mentioned is the exception rather than the rule and the pure hardware rooted hams are on the decline or SK's. Yet many newer hams and brand-new hams have software skills. A definite substantial sub-set of the US hams feel right at home with programming devices and writing simple code. Afterall, many had to program their Baofeng UV-35R's.
Then there is a division by number of years licensed. If you have been licensed for 30 years or less, then LC VFO's are not on the radar. If you have been licensed for more than 45 years, then LC VFO's are a basic staple. Hams have their comfort zone and much of that is driven by the year one is licensed.
I had some first-hand experience about what a market wants, and it was purely accidental. In the November 1985 issue of Ham Radio, there was an exciting 75M SS SSB transceiver project from K1BQT. The heart of this radio was several MC1496 DBM's. A couple of years ago I found my lost bag of MC1496 DBM's and that was all it took to think about building the K1BQT transceiver. Some of the 20 or so devices in the bag obviously had been plugged into a socket (bent pins) while others were NIB.
My long experience in homebrewing said you better test those to see which ones work and which ones should be scrapped. I needed to build a device to test my bag of chips. Looking at the MC1496 datasheet I thought about a product detector test bed and using that as a DCR. I had an audio amp and a Band Pass Filter, and I had been wanting to try my hand at a PNP RF amp stage. I also had an Arduino Uno and Si5351 available. An afternoon's worth of work and I had a working test bed and the by-product a DCR. It was not just working -- it was amazing. It had a digital LO enabling the use on the higher bands all capped with a cool Blue 16X2 LCD.
It was then I thought about writing an article for the G-QRP SPRAT, which I did. The article was well received, and I had over 200 requests for the Arduino Sketch. Accidently I sold the sizzle and not the steak. Many request emails started by saying I don't know much about the Arduino, but this is my chance. Many requesters watched the videos and were hooked.
I also had a big boost from two UK hams (Tony and Nick) who built the project and validated the "how good" it was, and they created webpages to assist other builders. They also ably assisted hams in the UK who wanted to dip their toe in the Arduino Pond.
The message here is that hams licensed less than 30 years ago who want to homebrew also want to dabble with the newer technologies. Certainly, you can build a DCR without digital electronics. But adding an Arduino is a twofer and qualifies as a Double D. (DCR + Digital.)
Thus, my marketing voice says if you want to have the market segment of newer hams follow your new podcast then you need to talk Arduino or Seed Xiao RP2040 which also fits in the wheelhouse of hams who got a ticket back as far as the 1990's and want to test drive the new stuff. 1960's - 1980's technology certainly has an appeal but is somewhat dated, and realistically that market segment is certainly much smaller.
We haven't even talked about the Gorilla in the room and that is SDR. Most of the new radio appliance boxes are SDR and it is inescapable that what a ham sees and does with his store-bought rig carries over to what he may want to do at the bench. Going from an ICOM IC7300 to a Regen Receiver is likely a non-starter for the target market segment. But actually, homebrewing a simple SDR rig lights up the radar.
With a podcast (sans a Patreon Ponzi scheme) the content is free, so the Price is right. The Place is the Internet (You Tube, Zoom, SKYPE and Tik Tok) and the tricky part is Promotion and that is where X, LinkedIn and other social media platforms do the work for you.
My marketing meanderings also turned up it would be hard to carry on a hypothetical podcast on a solo basis and to keep it from being in a rut, it is clear that guest participation is key. A segment with well-known POTA guys would certainly attract a crowd as would those who actually designed and built a Digital VFO. Undoubtedly a new and simple SDR design from someone who has actually done it would be huge. Easy SMD techniques covered by a guest would certainly address the parts that are now available only in an SMD Version.
So, my back of the envelope market study suggests that a futuristic podcast should delve into Digital Stuff, SDR, SMD and projects that have software (for updating features) and as a bonus the frequent guest expert. Our hobby is continuously evolving, and the crowd follows the technology.
You only need to look how many ICOM IC7300's have been sold, and that is a piece of the proof of the changed hobby. The current estimate is 100000 worldwide sales with 50000 sold in the US. That says 1 out of every 16 US hams own a 7300. But if we only look at US hams with HF authorization that is 1 in 8 hams. I did not look at the Yaesu or Kenwood data, but that ratio would only grow to 1 in 5 or maybe 1 in 4 US Hams have an embedded SDR radio in their rigs.
Them that know can make it go.
73's
Pete N6QW