On Feb 15, 11:01�am, Dave Heil wrote:
wrote:
On Feb 14, 11:36?pm, Dave Heil wrote:

In amateur radio, it is the biggest potato there is, here in the U.S.

Actually, Dave, I think the ARRL may be the largest amateur radio
organization in the world, or at least the largest national amateur
radio
organization.

I think you're correct.

According to www.AH0A.org, JARL membership is now well under
100,000. What other amateur radio organization even comes close
to 100,000 members?

I hedged my bet, thinking of JARL.

Their membership has been cut almost in half in the past ten years. It
follows closely the numerical decline of Japanese amateur radio in
general.

I remember how, ten years or so ago, the large numbers of Japanese
amateurs was touted as proof of the need for a nocodetest license with
HF privileges. Japan was held up as the poster country for code test
reduction/elimination.

(Japan has had such a license for decades. They used a creative
interpretation of the treaty coupled with very lower power limits for
the nocodetest class of license).

*I have a few copies of Japan's "CQ
Ham Radio" which are as thick as big city phone books.

How old are they?

Judging by the number of stations, the USA has regained the lead as
the country with the most licensed amateurs. While Japanese operator
license numbers are higher, it should be remembered that those
licenses never expire. Thus an amateur who progressed through the four
JA license classes 50 years ago increases the Japanese operator
license total by four, even if the amateur became a Silent Key decades
ago.

The number of Japanese operator licenses shown on the AH0A website is
really an indication of how many amateurs have been licensed in that
country since 1952, not how many are currently licensed. Imagine if
the US kept license totals that way!

73 de Jim, N2EY