John Smith writes:

It seems to me, many here have suggested there are "tons" of active
hams out there; some have even went so far as to claim the bands are
"crowded."

How crowded?

CQ WW DX contest 2005 received 4430 logs for SSB, 4100 for CW. We all
agree that these events increase activity on the HF bands many
fold. How many of these are actually transmitting at any given time?
1000? (A few may be transmitting and listening at the same time, but
there are many more who aren't active for the entire permitted period.)

So how many simultaneous transmissions are there on the HF bands when
there isn't a contest going on? Low hundreds seems more likely.

73
Jon (LA4RT)