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....;-)

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!

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...

73 de Jim, N2EY