Why are we hostage to old men?

This week has been very interesting.  It's the week I realised that the effect of old men on amateur radio is much deeper than even I believed.  It's no surprise that all cases this week involved G4 callsigns, which indicates callsigns allocated decades ago by now - between 1971 and 1985.  If you were in your 40s on getting a licence in 1985, you're staring at your mid-70s today.

First, it started with the usual stuff.  A G4 busy holding Court on 60m FT8, merrily out of band by transmitting about 800Hz above the UK allocation for that band.  A friendly e-mail to point out the error, with a screen grab (not that anybody, including OFCOM, cares), brought back the usual 'I have been transmitting there for years' rebuttal.  Well, that's quite an admission.  But one that makes no progress towards being right.

Then I came onto digimode interfaces.  As earlier reported, G4ZLP (so another ageing operator), who has been making very nice interfaces for many years, seems to have lost the plot - or maybe can't get hold of parts - and now only makes a unit without on-board level controls.  This leaves us having to adjust levels using software, or the fundamental operating system's volume controls.  This is really a very retrograde step that makes using these units much more inconvenient and quick than it ought to be. 

Continuing my search, and keeping an open mind to different possibilities, I came across G4LIV.  He's 88 years old and, unusually for this hobby, a very friendly, communicative gentleman.  He sells his interfaces - with onboard level controls - on E-bay. They are very nice, but contain no soundcard.  I tried patiently to point out why this is a drawback (more wires, for one thing).  He accepted the issue, but pointed out that, as he was indeed 88 years old, well, you know, how long have you got left to change things?  

I understand G4LIV's position.  I could just buy one of his interfaces and give it a go; I'm sure it would be better, notwithstanding the extra mic/speaker wires, than no level controls on the interface.  Not sure about noise levels, though.

But in the wider scheme of things, it did highlight how very old men are somehow keeping important aspects of the hobby going.  It's not that I'm ageist or ungrateful - just concerned about its underlying unsustainability. 

Sure, you can homebrew.  But how many of us can homebrew a very low noise digital interface with onboard soundcard?  How many of us want to, given the fairly low price of commercial units - provided someone is making them?  I suppose someone with good writing skills, and who doesn't first assume everybody's a retired electronics engineer (take note, all radio magazine editors!), could write a series on how to build a top-notch interface.  But I've yet to see anybody do it.

For the moment, I'm left looking at a Signalink USB.  But according to G4ZLP, the Signalink has 20dB more noise.  Why would I want that?  

Surely someone, somewhere, who is not in his or her eighties, can start making high quality interfaces suitable for the modern era?  I mean, there is plenty of money in it, given practically all of us are using digimodes now.