wrote:
From: on Jun 1, 9:15 pm

These are the numbers of current, unexpired amateur licenses
held by individuals on the stated dates:
As of May 14, 2000:

deleted, four-year-old data, grace periods are only 2 years

May 14, 2000 was five years ago, Len. And the purpose of posting
those numbers is to have a comparison with today's numbers.

As of May 31, 2005:

Novice - 28,370 (decrease of 20,959)
Technician - 268,575 (increase of 63,181)
Technician Plus - 49,098 (decrease of 79,762)
General - 136,581 (increase of 23,904)
Advanced - 76,119 (decrease of 23,663)
Extra - 106,707 (increase of 27,957)

Total Tech/TechPlus - 317,673 (decrease of 16,581)

Total all classes - 665,450 (decrease of 9,342)

Note that these totals do not include licenses that
have expired but are in the grace period. They also
do not include club, military, RACES or other
station-only licenses

That's simply untrue, .

N2EY is my callsign.

Military "calls" are
assigned by the MILITARY.

The totals above "do not include club, military, RACES or other
station-only licenses".

What is untrue about what I wrote?

FCC has NO legal jurisdiction
over USA military OR government radio.

See post by K0HB on this subject.

Note also that effective April 15, 2000, new Novice,
Technician Plus or
Advanced licenses are no longer issued, and that all existing
Technician Plus licenses are being renewed as Technician.

An absolutely IMPORTANT clarification to obscure the
fact that no-code-test Technicians are condescendingly
sponged into the MORSE-TESTED totals.

It's important simply because the license class "Technician" includes
both code-tested and noncodetested amateurs.

Here's the totals of ALL AMATEUR licenses as given by
www.hamdata.com as of 5 June 2005, with "delta" relative
to those same classes two years ago

These totals *include* expired-but-in-the-grace-period licenses.

...and the percentage
of total 2005-date licenses less 9,550 "Club" calls:

Class Licenses Delta Percentage
Technician (no-code-test) 293,613 +19,932 40.64
Technician Plus 56,161 -19,480 7.77

Note that the decline in Technician Plus license numbers almost
exactly matches the increase in Technician license numbers.

Novice 34,116 -8,331 4.72
General 144,802 +1,855 20.30
Advanced 82,902 -3,322 11.43
Extra 109,325 +3,678 15.13

Total Less "Club" calls 722,452 -5,668* 99.99**

* 2003 all-license totals were 736,616 or which 8,496 were
"Club" calls so the Delta for comparison is 728,120.

** Percentage totals do not add up to precisely 100% due
to arithmetic round-off to hundredths.

Note: "Club" calls include all the non-individual license
grants.

As of the hamdata.com figures for this Sunday, 5 Jun 05,
NO-CODE-TEST Technician Class licensees outnumber General
Class licensees by an almost exact 2:1 ratio. [General
class licensees WERE the largest in old days, no more]

The license class "Technician" includes both code-tested and
noncodetested amateurs. If the FCC does not change the rules,
there will be no more Technician Plus licenses less than 5
years from now, because they all will have been renewed as
Technicians.

Nota Bene: The total licenses for the no-code-test
Technician Class, 293,613, do NOT include the "Tech Plus"
total licenses of 56,161.

But they *do* include all former Technician Plus licenses that
were renewed after April 15, 2000 but not upgraded since then.

And they include all former Novice licenses upgraded to Technician
after April 15, 2000 but not upgraded since then.

It is incorrect to say that Technicians are all "no-code-test" because
some of them are code tested.

[let's stop this foolish
"lumping-together" by rather obvious PCTAs in trying to
embelish the sanctity and nobility of morsemanship]

FCC has been renewing all Technician Pluses as Technicians since
April 15, 2000. They are doing the "lumping".

ALL license classes in the Technician (no-code-test),
General, and Amateur Extra classes have the SAME grace
period.

All amateur radio licenses have the same grace period - two years.

If current Novice or Advanced license holders
don't RETEST, they go bye-bye, get defunct, disappear
from that great database.

The previous statement is incorrect.

Current Novice and Advanced licensees can renew and modify their
licenses indefinitely, and retain their operating privileges. There is
no retesting requirement for them to retain their current operating
privileges.

Current Technician Plus licensees can renew and modify their
licenses indefinitely, and retain their operating privileges. There is
no retesting requirement for them to retain their current operating
privileges. However, their licenses will be
renewed as Technician.

The current percentage of NO-CODE-TEST Technician class
licensees now make up slightly over FORTY PERCENT of all
classes.

The license class "Technician" includes both code-tested and
noncodetested amateurs.

It is incorrect to say that Technicians are all "no-code-test" because
some of them are code tested.

It is obviously the most populous of ALL classes
and CONTINUES TO GROW.

It grows from three sources:

1) New licensees
2) Upgrades from Novices
3) Renewals of Technician Plus as Technician.

Neglecting that singular LARGE
class of radio amateurs is foolish pipe-dreaming or weird
personal fantasizing.

What "neglect", Len? They are listed along with all others.

We now return you to the regularly scheduled PCTA
rationalization party in progress...

No rationalization on my part, Len. The numbers I post are what they
say: current, unexpired licenses held by individuals. I do not include
expired-but-in-the-grace-period licenses, nor club or other
non-individual licenses.