At 10:03 AM 3/16/2004, W9SZ wrote:
>This brings up a question that has bugged me for most of my life (I was
>first licensed at the age of 14). What is there about us that is
>different and why are the percentages so few? When I got my license in
>high school, out of a school of 600-700 students only 4 had ham licenses.
>When I came to the University of Illinois which had a student body of
>35,000 the school radio club had maybe 50 members. There were other hams
>around who weren't in the club, but the total couldn't have been over a
>couple hundred for the whole school.
>
>We definitely need new contesters, but are the percentages ever going to
>be very high? My only concern would be if those percentages were dropping.
>I have always been intrigued by radio as radio, as the method of relaying
>the communication more than the fact of communication. Someone pointed out
>somewhere recently that most people don't care whether they are talking to
>someone else via radio or telephone, they have no interest in what the
>mode of communication is. I guess a small percentage of us are different.
>We just need to find those other people who haven't been introduced to it yet.
>
>I think the solution is to become an Elmer, go to schools and put on
>demonstrations, go to local clubs and do programs on contesting, invite
>prospective contesters over to get their feet wet in contests, and maybe
>we will find those few rare individuals.
The numbers you quoted are reasonable. In my town there are about 14000
people and 50 hams. I don't think more than 10 of them are active though.
The number of hams per one thousand people in the USA is about 2.4 (about one
in 420 people). In 1995-96 it was 2.7/1000 (one in 375) - that was the peak.
In 1964 when I was first licensed it was 1.7/1000 (one in 575) and before that
even worse. Quite a number of licensed hams are not active - I think more
than 50%.
Of course the number of contesters is a lot smaller than the number of hams -
no more than 5%.
The comments in your last paragraph are right on target!
-- Tom
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e-mail: frenaye@pcnet.com YCCC --> http://www.yccc.org/
Tom Frenaye, K1KI, P O Box J, West Suffield CT 06093 Phone: 860-668-5444
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