He wrote; "amateur radio community depends on large companies (Icom, Yaesu, Kenwood) and solutions they provide."
What I have to add to this is as time has elapsed this dependancy has become more so than in it the early days of the hobby. And clearly this is not good without at least a better line communcations with these companies.
However, there are external to the hobby factors to consider. Globalization is what has lead us from a lot of small companies to a few large ones. Some good of globalization has come, but truthfully a lot of bad as well.
In am 45 and when and where I grew up there was still a vibrant manfactuting based economy. Now that has sadly shifted to a consumer based economy. And how does that house of cards even really work in a global society? What do you have to trade? You once did....
The education system (at least speaking of the American one) is another point of failure as it has really not kept in check with promoting technical schools and life skills vs 4 year colleges.
My grandfather and father's generation were handy, they could fix jut about anything they had. Why did this change? Part of it was they lived through or had an effect left by the great depression. Now are better off (at least in the pocket book), and really I hate to say it, this has made us lazy. Sure maybe you father now doesn't change his own oil for example, but if that's the case his son will likely never learn it. It's not rocket science, but if the future doesn't learn certain things then they die off.
Wojciech alos talks about pitfalls of volunteer-based work. He is talking about open source development, but when I look at any number of clubs or groups, be them ham radio or other; the bulk of the reliable volunteers are that of an older generation.
The question is what motivates people these days? The survival instinct of the older generation has faded.
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