On Oct 3, 10:38 am, Steve Stone wrote:
wrote:
Consider that:

I believe that some of the cyclic activity you note is related to folks
being drafted into the military and coming out with radio skills that
were almost directly transferable to personal use in amateur radio.

Well, maybe, particularly after WW2.

But note that after WW1 there was no great rise in the number of US
hams, yet the Depression years and the 1970s saw amateur population
explosions. (Indeed, the post-WW2 times were an actual population
explosion now known as the baby boom...). Veterans who learned radio
in the military during WW2 or Korea may have contributed to amateur
growth, of course, but the post-WW2 growth went on for many years
after those conflicts ended. More importantly, a lot of it was people
too young to have served in the military when first licensed as
amateurs.

Another item could be the availability of surplus military gear or a
technology shift that made it easier for people to get into amateur ra
dio.

Certainly a factor, as mentioned in my original post. In the 1930s,
there was "surplus" in the form of inventory from failed radio
manufacturers, while surplus from WW2 was still inexpensive and widely
available 30+ years after the war ended. But the growth of the 1970s
wasn't fueled by surplus radio gear, IMHO.

It would seem that technology shifts would work against growth,
because the new stuff would cost more and not be available used or
surplus. It is possible that one major reason for the lack of growth
in the 1960s was the popularity of SSB among hams, because SSB gear
cost more and was generally more complex than AM. The 1970s-80s boom
coincides with the rise of VHF-UHF FM and repeater use by hams, which
started out with conversions of surplus land-mobile equipment and
simple homebrew stuff.

I'm sure hard times also has the effect you describe.

Correlation isn't necessarily causation, but where can you get more
fun-per-dollar than ham radio?

73 de Jim, N2EY