From: Michael Coslo on Jul 22, 3:06 pm


K4YZ wrote:
Because all THEY are interested in is playing on HF...If all those
engineering types had any interest in obtaining an Amateur Radio
license for "experimenting" purposes, it would be a done deal.

Rather a sad sign of our times, Steve. We live in an era in which
"things" are so simple. NeoCons can attribute ALL problems to the
mythical "liberal", who despite being almost nonexistant today, is still
somehow responsible for all the ills of society.

Poor babies. Suffering the cynicsm and angst of the middle-aged
are you? :-)

In the same way, we have a lot of people who are willing to attest
every problem, real or imagined, to that dreaded Element 1 test. It is
responsible for the "declining number of Hams", etc etc, etc.

You two aren't cut out to be forest rangers...you two are unable
to see the forest for the trees... :-)

Had you bothered to look (outside of your respective insides),
you would have seen an INCREASE in amateur radio licenses in
the USA between the mid-2000 restructuring change and mid-2003.
A three-year period of growth in numbers.

Unfortunately, since then there has been a DECREASE in numbers
over the last two years. Steady - but small - decrease. That
is borne out by the delta between NEW licensees and EXPIRED
licenses. About 3,623 in one year's time from the 21 Jul 05
numbers on www.hamdata.com.


They will get the chance to put their theory to the test. They will
also find out they are wrong.

Love those ABSOLUTE predictions! So...well..."predictable!" :-)

By the way, has no one else noticed that the drop off in numbers is
primarily Technicians who were not code tested?

Really? Who wrote that...besides an obvious PCTA, that is...?

Joe Speroni said that about 5 years ago. He tried to "prove"
it with some number juggling but only made headway with his
fellow PCTAs.

Kinda puts the lie to that theory right away doesn't it?

Kinda puts your statement into a POS without some proof...:-)

There was not that much effort, and those who were not all that
interested got their license. Ten years later, they allowed the license
to lapse.

Sunnuvagun! All those no-code-test Techs being "quitters?"

NOBODY else left the U.S. ARS? :-)

Novice class has been dropping steadily for over five years.
They were NEVER "no-code-test" and once heralded as the
"entry point" into amateur radio, years ago. "Bunch of
quitters," right? :-)

Sweetums, go look at the present-day numbers. Technician
class now (as of 21 Jul 05) has 40.81% of all individual
licensees. That's over twice as many General class
licensees (only 20.33%). Together with Technician Plus,
they make up 48.46% of all individual licensees.

The no-code-test Technician class did not exist in 1990.
Since the inception of that class in 1991, those licensees
have ADDED about 200 THOUSAND hams to the U.S. numbers.
Without them the U.S. amateur radio "community" would have
DECREASED markedly over the last 14 years...like DROPPING
a whopping 27% compared to today's total individual licenses.

But, you don't want to see reality, do you? The fantasies
are much more appealing and "it's always someone else's
fault," isn't it?

bit bit