wrote in message
oups.com...
wrote:
As of November 1, 2006:
Novice - 24,154 (3.7%) [decrease of 25,175]
Technician - 287,444 (43.7%) [increase of 82,050]
Technician Plus - 34,786 (5.3%) [decrease of 94,074]
General - 131,994 (20.1%) [increase of 19,317]
Advanced - 70,607 (10.7%) [decrease of 29,175]
Extra - 108,563 (16.5%) [increase of 29,813]
The point being that the Coded Amateurs are REALLY almost 60% of
the Amateur population when one figures in the Tech Plus folks who have
already been assimilated into the vanilla Technician.
Those are numbers that political appointees are impressed by.
Perhaps it's that simple math that prevents the FCC from
broadstroking the code test out of existence...?!?!
73
Steve, K4YZ
Hello Steve,
Bear in mind that only 10.7% are *known* to have passed 13 words per minute
(advanced).
I honestly expect that the FCC will likely eliminate code testing but as to
when, I haven't a clue.
There are also modes (PSK) that use *less* bandwidth than CW, although it
appears that voice seems to be the most popular. It would be nice to see
some expansion of the HF amateur bands, but a number of 3rd world countries
are relying on HF rather than satellite, so I'm not holding my breath LOL.
73 from Rochester, NY
Jim AA2QA