N2EY wrote:
In article . com,
"K4YZ"
writes:

N2EY wrote:
In article
.com,
"K4YZ"
writes:

N2EY said:
In Japan, the station license needs to be renewed annually and
costs
120 yen, last time I looked. There's an enormous difference
between
the
number of JA operator and station licenses as a result.
73 de Jim, N2EY

I'd recheck the math, Jim. 120 yen isn't even $1.00 I doubt
that
the Japanese governent is quite that generous!
Perhaps Y120K...?!?!

Could be, Steve, I'm a little rusty on exchange rates.

One of my biggest regrets from my FIRST tour to Japan (1980) was
not buying up a bunch of Yen and burying it in a box somewhere!...It
was over Y400 to the USD then! Next time I was back (only 6 months
later) it was down to Y220 to Y250 to the USD. When I was last
there
(1990) it was Y105 to Y120 to the USD.

So if you'd bought $100 worth of yen in 1980 (40,000 yen) and then
converted it
back to dollars in 1990 when the rate was 110, those 40,000 yen would
be worth
$363.

I did better than that in the stock market back about then....;-)

And I know a lot of folks who were doing real well until 1989.

It peaked briefly at Y144 then
dropped again. I think it'be been pretty much stable in the low to
mid
100's since then.

:-(

The reciprocal (JA) license was around Y48,000 in 1981.

Over $100!

Yeppers.

Pretty
steep! I was just tickled with my KA6 call for free!

This may be one reason for the popularity of nonresident aliens
getting US
callsigns...

Why? Wouldn't do them any good. Those "KA" calls in Japan are
only good for persons covered under SOFA...(S)tatus (O)f (F)orces)
(A)greement. Joe or Jane American visiting in Japan did not qualify
for an AMRS (not to be confused with MARS) assignment. Joe Nonresident
Licensee certainly wouldn't qualify either!

73

Steve, K4YZ