[CQ-Contest] Advice on CW/contest rig for $1000-$2000?

[Tom Rauch]

 > Assuming that the stated ~1% is the growth in the total number of US
 > licensed hams, what was it in the year(s) before the reduction of the
 > CW speed requirement?  (My high school physics teacher, Peewee
 > Crawford, taught me to always ask "relative to what".)
 >
 > How has the number of US hams licensed to operate on all the HF bands
 > (potential contesters) been affected?

In October 1999 the previous year's growth was 1/2 percent.

The growth for the year following the CW reduction was 1 percent.

The only large change was upgrades from General to Extra, which was
30%.

When numbers are down around 1/2 percent change, it is in the noise. It is
very safe to say no one is beating the doors down, and no one will no
matter what we do. This is no longer a mainstream hobby, and never will be
again.

We should enjoy it, and not give away the quality for growth we won't get.


73, Tom W8JI
W8JI at contesting.com 


--
CQ-Contest on WWW:        http://lists.contesting.com/_cq-contest/
Administrative requests:  cq-contest-REQUEST at contesting.com