[UK-CONTEST] CW, a golden age?

[Clive Whelan]

I'm not sure what this proves, if anything, and it is certainly not 
scientifically rigorous to say the least. However if you have a high 
boredom threshold it might be of marginal interest to you.

The EUHFC CW contest took place yesterday over a 12 hour period, and the 
exchange, in addition to the ubiquitous RST included the last two digits 
of the year of the issue of licence of the operator ( as opposed to the 
station NB). I made 204 QSOs in a couple of hours footling around on 
20m, and the figures below detail the percentage of operators licenced 
in each 5 year period from immediately pre-war to the noughties. The 
only thing that IS clear is that if graphed, a fairly typical bell 
shaped or " normal" curve would result, with the peak somewhere in the 
70s to late 80s.

What does this tell us about our hobby? I'm not really sure. It is often 
speculated that the removal of mandatory CW proficiency, would result in 
an inexorable decline in the mode. However, as contesters we know that 
is certainly not true in its most general sense, in fact CW contest 
activity is probably higher today than it has ever been. Does this mean 
that new licencees are as keen on CW as ever they were? Not necessarily, 
as the observed high activity levels might be due to e.g. the baby 
boomers reaching retirement age and having more time and money to enjoy 
their passion for CW. What the figures seem to suggest is that the main 
decline in activity has been from the late 70s- eraly eighties  onwards 
and might be due ( speculation) to a decline in the popularity of the 
hobby in general, but there does not seem to be strong ( or any) 
evidence that the removal of mandatory CW tests have caused a decline in 
the mode. Of course if there were an SSB equivalent of the event, more 
evidence might be available, but in its absence we must draw our own 
conclusions.

As ever statistics can prove almost anything so I'll just continue to 
enjoy CW , the only glue which binds me to radio.




35-38    0.49%
40-44    0.49%
45-49    0.98%
50-54    2.94%
55-59    5.88%
60-64    7.84%
65-69    10.29%
70-74    12.74%
75-79    15.68%
80-84    17.64%
85-89    8.33%
90-94    6.37%
96-99    5.39%
00-04    2.56%
05-09    0.31%


73

  Clive


GW3NJW