From: on Oct 21, 4:25 pm

Leo wrote:
On 20 Oct 2005 09:40:10 -0700, wrote:
Leo wrote:
On 15 Oct 2005 14:02:03 -0700, wrote:
From: Leo on Oct 15, 9:36 am
On 14 Oct 2005 15:02:32 -0700, wrote:
Leo wrote:
On 14 Oct 2005 12:39:50 -0700, wrote:
From: on Oct 14, 9:20 am
Bill Sohl wrote:
wrote in message
wrote:


Comparing the total number of amateur licenses existing today is an
apples-to-oranges comparison, and not a true indicator of the
"popularity" of the hobby then or now.

Why?

"Why?" ...it shoots down your rationalizations for one... :-)

I realize that we have to allow for the population
increase. But when you do that, the inescapable conclusion
is that the ratio of the number of hams to the total population is more
now than it was in 1955, or 1965, or 1975, etc.

Tsk, tsk...the "inescapable conclusion" obtained from comparison
of filings on WT Docket 05-235 of 2005 is that the Belief in the
efficacy of morse code is less than it was in 1975, 1965, or 1955.

Only very recently has the growth curve flattened out.

In the last two and a half years, this "growth" has been negative.

In the '60s, morse code was a mandatory requirement for an amateur
license (up here anyway) - and at a difficult 13 words per
minute, not our easy 5.

It was a requirement for all US ham licenses until 1991, when
the Technician lost its code test requirement.

That code test is STILL an absolute pass-fail separate test
for any amateur radio privileges below 30 MHz.

The Technician DID NOT LOSE its code test requirement. The
former Technician class got RENAMED to "Technician Plus." :-)

Whether 13 wpm is "difficult" or not depends on the person
and the training methods.

Riiiiiiight...ALL human beings have the SAME aptitudes and
abilities! All one has to do is "work hard" in order to
pass a federally-mandated morse test in order to transmit
below 30 MHz as an amateur.

Tsk. That is NOT required for General Radiotelephone
(Commercial) Radio Operator license holders at HF and below.

That is NOT required for UNLICENSED CB radio operators on
27 MHz, yet their signals can - during certain propagation
conditions - be heard all over the world.

Slightly less than half of US hams hold Technician licenses, but
there's no way of knowing how many have passed the code test.

A mere 48+ plus percent of ALL USA amateur radio licensees
are Technician class. The Technician class (exclusive of
the Technician PLUS class) is over TWICE as numerous as
General class (most numerous of the "code tested" classes).


There's also the factor of how long somebody stays interested. And what
they do when they have the license.

That's NOT a LEGAL requirement, is it? :-)

The ONLY requirement I can find in all of Part 97, Title 47 C.F.R.
as to "doing" when a person has an amateur radio license is to
OPERATE LEGALLY ACCORDING TO THE REGULATIONS. Is there something
I missed in Part 97 about "building from scratch," "devotion to
morse code," or being an acolyte at the Church of St. Hiram?

As far as populatity goes, I'd say that the general public back
then
seemed to be far more aware of even the existence of the hobby
than it appears to be today (wonder if there's a survey available
anywhere on
this anywhere.....). For example, all of my friends and I knew
about amateur radio back then - both of my teenage sons indicate that
the majority of their contemporaries have no idea at all that the hobby
even exists. Those who are aware are pretty much disinterested
in the activity - they have more fun and interesting things to do!

But are you and your friends a representative sample?

Why not? YOU seem to hold yourself as a "representative sample"
of the very model of a modern major marvel in amateur radio. :-)

[apologies to Gilbert & Sullivan]

When I was growing up, most people, kids or adults, had no idea
what ham radio was unless they were related to or good friends
with a ham.

In 50 years little has changed in that regard... :-)

Where is the ARRL Public Relations effort when it is sorely
needed?

I grew up in a suburb of Philadelphia that was mostly blue- and
white-collar middle class families. Lots of kids, houses ranging from
rowhomes to big single Dutch Colonials. Yet there were less than a
dozen hams in the whole township then, all spread out, and about half
were inactive or minimally active.

"Typical?" :-)

Tsk, didn't you claim to have begun amateur radio in another
state?

In my high school (grades 9/10/11/12), which had over 2500 boys and
emphasized math and science, there were perhaps a half-dozen hams in
the 4 years I was there.

Ah, an "all boys" school. That may explain a lot...?

In my high school in the middle west (northern Illinois), only
three grades (we had a "junior high school" now known as a
"middle school" for some kind of PC reason). We had a mere
900 or so of mixed gender and NONE were licensed as radio
amateurs. [sunnuvagun!]

At the Big 50th Reunion my high school class had in 2001, NONE
mentioned anything about "getting a ham license" after
graduation. However, to be fair about it, one did become the
manager of a supermarket which had a meat department selling
ham.

The main problem wasn't code or theory, for those who were interested.
It was space for an antenna and money for equipment.

Amazing how the story changes as time goes on... :-)

NOBODY had an "attic antenna" back in those ancient days?
Tsk, the "beer can vertical" started in the 1950s...

NOBODY managed to attend a Field Day exercise back then?
[were there any parks to hold them in?]

NOBODY scrounged for "old radio parts" to build a whole
station for $100 then?

Most people, young or old, thought ham radio looked like a kind of fun
thing, when they found out about it. But not enough to spend the
necessary time and money to set up a station, let alone get a license.

Too busy playing with car fix-ups?

They couldn't get part-time jobs to afford $100 to build a
"Southgate" transceiver?

Well, I have to give you slack on that. "Surplus" in the late
1940s was very inexpensive: $6 for a brand-new Command Set
receiver, $12 for a brand-new Command Set transmitter, $18 for
the Command Set antenna tuning unit and modulator...at H&H
Electronics, co-owned by Gene Hubbel (then W9ERU, later W7DI
and then SK...a VERY high-rate tested morseman). Tsk, I used
my part-time earnings to buy and convert (to 110 VAC power)
TWO Command Set stations...sold them quickly at a very modest
profit by 1950. "Surplus" radios cost much more 30 years later.

IMHO one of the biggest reasons ham radio isn't better known
is that it's not a very "visual" thing - it doesn't translate well to
TV or a movie.

Really? Ernest Lehman didn't think so. He wrote a fairly
popular novel entitled "The French Atlantic Affair" which was
made into a two-part TV movie on one of the networks. Lehman
was a respected award-winning screenwriter ("North by Northwest"
is perhaps the most notable). Lehman was also a licensed ham.

Of course, CB Radio has been featured in many a TV show and
movie such as "Convoy," "Smokey and the Bandit," and (would
you believe this title) "Flatbed Annie and Sweetiepie"...not
to mention an essential part of "The Dukes of Hazzard" series.

A later movie, "Frequency" used amateur radio as essential to
enable communications time-travel between deceased father and
son, but that was more science-fantasy in its plotline and
didn't really showcase radio as much as the supernatural.

Maybe we're using the wrong term - perhaps instead of "popularity",
what you are describing is better described as "visibility" or
"recognition by the public".

Tsk. You should have a long heart-to-heart talk with ARRL
Public Relations (excuse me, "Media Advisors") people on
getting amateur radio more popular with the general public.
ARRL hasn't done much in THAT regard for the last half
century...they've spent most of their time preaching to the
choir to try and enlarge their membership numbers (haven't
done too well there, either, still only 1 out of 5 licensed
U.S. radio amateurs are members).

But, you are NOT offering any possible solutions to either
popularity, visibility, or recognition by any public. Your
aim is to disrupt any talk of eliminating the code test by
any means possible. NOT a democratic-principle effort on
your part. But, it's par for the course in this newsgroup.