Foundations of Amateur Radio

Are you an Elmer?

In our hobby there is a term "Elmer", referring to someone who helps new amateurs find their way inside the community, locate resources, understand techniques, etc. It's part of what we might consider the folklore of amateur radio.

I started this with the intent to quickly introduce the concept of an Elmer and then spend some time talking about our own role in this adventure, but as is often the case, I was side-tracked by my own investigation.

There is a push within the community to abandon the concept of an Elmer, that it's not real that it serves no purpose and that it's a recent invention and irrelevant to our community. Finding an Elmer today appears to be hard work, seeing the wood for the trees, finding a unicorn in this social media connected world. But as it turns out, Elmers are closer than you think.

With a little searching, the person who is credited with introducing the word Elmer into the amateur radio vocabulary was Rod W9BRD. He was the author of a column "How's DX?" in QST magazine from 1947 through to 1978. In March of 1971 he wrote:

"[t]oo frequently one hears a sad story in this little nutshell: 'Oh, I almost got a ticket, too, but Elmer, W9XYZ, moved away and I kind of lost interest.' Sure, the guy could have burned through on his own, maybe, but he, like others, wound up an almost-ham. No more Elmer. We need those Elmers. All the Elmers, including the ham who took the most time and trouble to give you a push toward your license, are the birds who keep this great game young and fresh."

Rod was first licensed in 1937 as a 14 year old. He became a silent key in 2012.

On the face of it we have this idea that an Elmer is someone who helps you get your amateur license, but it started me thinking. What if Elmer wasn't a phrase, but a reference. The name Elmer is a male name from Old English, meaning "noble" and "famous". What if W9XYZ wasn't an actual callsign, but an example, given Rod was licensed as W9BRD, it would be simple to think of XYZ as a random suffix, much like I might use VK6XYZ, which happens to be a non-existent call at the moment.

What if Rod was saying: Oh, I almost got a ticket too, but Peter VK6LB, or Paul VK5PAS or Mary VK4PZ, moved away and I kind of lost interest.

Instead of using real amateurs like I just did, Rod wanted to use a generic name, someone "nobel" and "famous", with a generic callsign to not single out a particular person.

The reference to "Elmer" takes on a whole different meaning. It means anyone, you, me, the amateur at your club, anyone who can help another person become an amateur.

As it turns out, "Elmer" is all of us, it's a way to refer to anyone and everyone, it's not a specific role or purpose, it's the invitation to you to help another amateur.

This of course means that you need to step-up. You don't need to put on your Elmer cape and become a superhero, you just need to be part of the community, to ask questions, to help with discovering answers and to encourage investigation into this exciting pursuit of amateur radio.

So, are you an Elmer and if not, what are you going to do about it?

I'm Onno VK6FLAB