Good, and valid points. However...as long as this country continues along
the lines of the 'dumbing down' mentality I see no chance for improvement.
The ARRL has not helped me change my opinion lately.
Dan/W4NTI
> [Original Message]
> From: K4SB <k4sb@earthlink.net>
> To: <secc@contesting.com>
> Date: 1/29/04 9:36:43 AM
> Subject: Re: [SECC] Fw: Your stand?
>
> Bill Coleman wrote:
> You missed my point: Without a steady influx of new hams, the hobby
> will
> eventually die out. Worse, because of the effects of 10-year licenses,
> the hobby may already be shrinking, we just don't know about it yet.
>
> Well, in fact we do know about it. Part of the FCC database contains
> license renewal, cancellation, purged, expired, ect information.
>
> In the main program I use to decode the database, I manipulate the
> date of the computer ( today for example ) and the date attached to
> each of the paragraph 2 files.
>
> In this manner, any call which is available for reassignment is
> omitted, and only those calls within the 2 year window are retained.
>
> There are 64,970 calls of this type at this time in the FCC database.
>
> The database also shows ( including the above ) 715,873 as the ham
> population. Of these, 7057 are Clubs, the vast majority ( over 90 % )
> special interest such as high school, boy scouts, packet, VHf, UHF,
> commercial company clubs, and a host of others, some with almost
> obscene names. Oh, can't forget the hundreds of "Krishna" clubs.
>
> In my opinion, we are shrinking because of a lack of ambition on the
> part of new hams to really do the work necessary to qualify for a
> license. And the fact that the "real" hams among us are aging. Take a
> look at the SKs in QST. An astounding number of 1x2 or 2x1 calls.
>
> Want to know how many no code Techs and Novices are in the file?
> Thousands and thousands. ARRL membership is now about 62% of the
> "shack on a belt" type.
>
> 73
> Ed
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