ST. LOUIS (ST. LOUIS PUBLIC RADIO)

– Only a few years ago, blogs listed ham radio alongside 35mm film and VHS tape as technologies slated to disappear.

They were wrong.

Nearly 700,000 Americans have ham radio licenses up 60 percent from 1981, a generation ago. And the number is growing.

Ham radio will never have the sex appeal of the iPhone, but it does have a certain nerd appeal, says Allen Weiner, an analyst at the technology research firm Gartner.

“If it creates its own experience, that’s really what’s key here,” he says. “If it just emulates an experience that you can get online, it’s not going to grow.”

Read the full article here over at St Louis Public Radio