The Soldersmoke Podcast 263 opens that session on February 23, 2026, with that very same question.
There were divergent answers amongst the three of us and that clearly reflects the state of our hobby. But one opinion was not stated that actually overwhelmingly characterizes today's answer from the supermajority of hams. That answer "NOTHING". One other piece of evidence is that as of February 25, 2026, at 5:00 AM PST there are not thousands of views on you tube. But in all fairness, there are more views of SS #263 than my paperclip unboxing video.
As a datapoint a You Tube Video by a newly minted YL Extra who went to the top license literally overnight (the subject of the video) had 27K views in 2 days. Her stated objective was POTA.
But the Nothing answer requires an examination as the very founding of our beloved hobby had its start because you had to scratch build your rig to get on the air. Marconi's 1st effort was totally homebrewed.
So, the why of Nothing. I suggest the following may cover some of the answer and in reality, has parallels in other hobbies.
Let us use a non-radio example. Take the iconic movie My Cousin Vinny with Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei. Pesci's character Gambini is a newly minted sort of lawyer, and his girlfriend (Tomei) Mona Lisa Vito are in the deep south trying to defend Gambini's relative on a murder charge. A key piece of evidence is provided by Tomei who was an automotive expert as she worked as a mechanic in her family's garage. The evidence involved tire tracks made by a getaway car and a Posi-traction rear end. The writer of the movie as a teenager knew the innards of every American car and this piece of the movie was an accurate fact based on his experience with homebrewed cars. The writer didn't have money to buy a Z-80, but scrounged junk yards and homebrewed a jalopy.
Two factors are presented in the above story, the first being that young people wanted to learn things, and they did that by doing. There was no Google or AI... you actually had to learn things and much of that was hands on. The second piece was disposable income. It was near zero and young people actually earned money with paper routes (pre-digital) or mowing lawns. I personally earned the $20 to build my 1st station (ARC-5 Receiver and 6V6 transmitter) by mowing lots of lawns.
A huge responsibility falls on the shoulders of the ARRL who chose to shift away from the techie side of the hobby and focus on contests, operating and reviews of expensive equipment. QST is no longer the technical journal it once was.
Education is another factor where the emphasis on science and technology takes a back seat to Football, Lacrosse and lest we forget Basketball. I personally witnessed something extra-ordinary at my little high school back in Pennsylvania. The Russians launched Sputnik and 6 weeks later we had two new teachers on the staff and if you were in the college preparatory classes you suddenly had a curriculum change. New classes were added covering advanced mathematics and advanced physics both taught by teachers who had engineering backgrounds.
Friends N2CQR and KK4DAS tried to introduce a STEM project at an upscale High School in VA. This project was their now famous DCR receiver. It did not finish well, as the problem was not the students but lack of support from the school administration.
The other ARRL piece is the 45 Minute Extra where the licensing requirements have essentially been bypassed so that nothing of substance is needed to hold the top license.
These factors have led to a hobby dominated by individuals who have money or headroom on the credit cards and an ability to remember answers to a set of canned questions. It has nothing to do with real knowledge, learned skills and an inquisitive mind to know things like how an oscillator oscillates or what is involved with a frequency conversion or the why of inverted sidebands.
The sad part of Nothing is that Nothing will change except that the number of hams will become less and less as there is no incentive to look under the hood.
There may be pockets of one or two individuals that are challenged by the basic first principles, but AI will be the dominant factor for new designs and technology breakthroughs.
I witnessed perhaps one individual who may be one of those who will lead us forward. About a month ago on my morning walk in the neighborhood, I spotted a young teenager on the side of the road with an older mini motorcycle that was sort of rough running. I said hello and asked about his "rig". He mentioned that he had just acquired it and that it was not working when he got it and now was trying to fix it. Bravo... no doubt he will get it running and just think of what he was learning. I also smiled at him as I saw sticking out of his pocket were a large screwdriver and two wrenches.
My response of what to build was a test oscillator and N2CQR's was a crystal set and KK4DAS suggested a Regen receiver. The crystal set here in SoCal literally demands you know Spanish or have a strong stomach for right wing talk shows. The dynamics of AM radio have like "no homebrewing by hams" have changed.
Them that know will always know but for many they just wished they knew.
73's
Pete N6QW
