On Apr 7, 5:10?pm, "KH6HZ" wrote:
wrote:
It's been about six weeks since the rules change, and
there hasn't been any tremendous increase in the number
of new hams nor a huge number of upgrades. Yes, there
have been more than in previous months but it's hardly
enough to be a "revolution".

March's final numbers are in.

Continuing with the trend in previous months, we saw a continued downward
trend in the total number of licensed amateurs. In fact, since Speroni has
been keeping statistics since 1997, the total number of licensed amateurs in
March 07 -- a month after the "no-code 'revolution'" -- is at a historic
low.

Here are some more numbers of current,
FCC issued amateur radio licenses held by
individuals:

As of February 22, 2007:

Novice - 22,896 (3.5%)
Technician - 293,508 (44.8%)
Technician Plus - 30,818 (4.7%)
General - 130,138 (19.9%)
Advanced - 69,050 (10.5%)
Extra - 108,270 (16.5%)

Total Tech/TechPlus - 324,326 (49.5%)

Total all classes - 654,680

As of April 6, 2007:

Novice - 22,396 (3.4%)
Technician - 288,621 (44.1%)
Technician Plus - 29,128 (4.4%)
General - 136,992 (20.9%)
Advanced - 68,408 (10.4%)
Extra - 109,591 (16.7%)

Total Tech/TechPlus - 317,749 (48.5%)

Total all classes - 655,136

That total-all-classes number wanders all over the place, btw. For
example, on April 1, 2007, it was
654,468.

Also, for the first time since 1994, we saw an actual *decrease* in the
number of licensed Technican-class operators.

Why should that be a surprise? A lot of Techs upgraded, and at least
some newcomers bypassed Tech altogether,

If these observations bear out into the future, all the "revolution" managed
to accomplish is give a bunch of no-code techs HF privileges, and did little
else to "bring new blood" into the hobby, like some people have claimed for
decades the code test was prohibiting.

That's a big *IF*. IMHO it's way too soon to tell. Six months or a
year is more like it, not a month or six weeks.

One thing that may happen is lots more new hams
as the word gets out. Another is that the word may
already be out, and the recent flurry of activity may
not last.

Time will tell.

73 de Jim, N2EY