N2EY wrote:

While perusing QST for September, 1961, I came across the following..

In 1961, ARRL's BoD conducted a survey of band/mode use of 8000 hams
(membership and license class not specified). Results (operating time):

HF:
CW: 34.4%
AM: 27.8%
SSB: 23.3%
A big reason for SSB is that, in a pile up, the
receiving station can make out people's voices
without carrier heterodyne whistles. Also no
wasted power transmitting carriers. Take a
listen to a crouded CB channel sometime and hear
all those heterodyne whistles.
RTTY: 1.5%
FM/NBFM: 0.3%
NBFM might have been better than SSB except it's
wider bandwidth...
Other modes: 0.6%

VHF/UHF (all modes): 12.1%


Even back then, half the hams perferred voice
(phone) modes (AM, SSB, FM). Compared to a bit
over 1/3 perferring CW.