Dee D. Flint wrote:
"Mike Coslo" wrote in message
...
Dee D. Flint wrote:
Using the table at http://www.speroni.com/FCC/Licenses.html
Combined number of General, Advanced, and Extra licensees in July 1999
==
289,669
Combined number of General, Advanced, and Extra licensees in April 2004
==
326,024
Increase in number of General, Advanced, and Extra licensees over the
time
period == 36,355
Number of Tech+ licensees in July 1999 == 133,979
Now the July 1999 Tech+ would have been eligible to upgrade to General
and
higher with only written tests. Even if they expired after July, they
still
had plenty of time to renew within their grace period and still upgrade
to
General and higher with only written tests at the time of the
restructuring
in April 2000.
From the above numbers, at most only 27% of the people eligible to
upgrade
with only a written test did so. The number would actually be less
since
some were the pre-1987 Techs who only had to submit a paper upgrade
without
testing, some would have been Techs who upgraded by taking code and
theory,
and some would have been Techs/Tech+ licensed since July 1999 who went
on to
upgrade too.
So we have OVER 97,000 people eligible to upgrade with just a written
who
did not do so. Any one care to venture an explanation as to why?
Because many of these people are happy right where they are. I've long
said that there is a natural divide between the HF and VHF/UHF, much of
it based on propagation characteristics. There are simply many people
that are quite content with their access to a local repeater, and thank
you very much! 8^)
I think this is one of the mistaken impressions that a lot of people
have. Some people do not want to put up a big antenna, some people
aren't all that entranced about talking all over the world.
The fact that I would rather operate HF than VHF and up does not mean
that everyone or even a majority does.
I think it is a mistake to think that simply allowing Technicians HF
access is going to provide some kind of shot in the arm to Ham radio. I
suspect that many of them will continue on the local repeaters, or
whatever they were doing before they got the extra privileges
The numbers above certainly support that deduction better than any other. I
suspect that there are a lot of people that simply want to be able to talk
to people in their local area. Our club is running an upgrade class for
those who would like to take it. There are only 8 people in the class yet
we have at least 70 or 80 Tech/Tech+ licensees in the club. Now I realize
that some people have conflicts such as shift work or other commitments but
I would have expected a better turn out for this class as it is the first
one we've done for an upgrade. Previously the people were simply encouraged
to study on their own. The low number coming up to the class would tend to
somewhat support the deduction that there is a fairly large group not
interested in HF.
Continuing in this vein:
In April 2000 the number of Advanced licensees == 101,725
In April 2004 the number of Advanced licensees == 80,597
Change == 21,128
Thus only 21% either upgraded, died (and their family officially
notified
the FCC), or let their license expire. Why did so many choose not to
upgrade? All they needed to do was take a written no harder than what
they
had already taken.
Care to take a stab at why the Advanced hasn't upgraded? Some have stated
that they are doing it as a protest against reducing the code requirement
but I can't believe that to be true of more than a very small number.
I have heard some advanced that say they want to "prove" that they took
a higher speed Morse code test and won't upgrade. Weird stuff for sure.
As much as I do support testing for Morse, I consider the tests a lot
more important. However there are a fair amount that consider the fact
that they took a faster speed test to be the more important thing
Some advanced amateurs may be inactive, although I doubt it is enought
to account for all. It's probably a combination of factors.
- Mike KB3EIA -