On Mon, 3 Aug 2009 12:18:24 EDT, Jeff Davis
wrote:

The other immeasurable data is how many licensees are no longer active at
all yet religiously renew their license since it is free and can be done
with almost no effort? That number could be enormous and may hint at why
despite having nearly 700,000 names in the hopper, there are only some
150,000 members of the ARRL (not withstanding the naysayers).

Good point. I know many people in my town who have a license (mostly
Technician) who rarely use it to transmit. My wife Bonnie is one of
them. She got her Technician license 9 years ago when her husband at
that time, Paul, got the ham radio bug, and pestered her to get
licensed so they could "enjoy the hobby together." Bonnie used her
license a couple of times to keep in touch with Paul when he took
walks out in the desert behind their house. Then seven years ago Paul
died. Bonnie and I got together, and were married the next year.
Since then, she hasn't transmitted at all. But we have changed
mailing addresses a few times, and we both update our licenses on the
FCC ULS site. And, when her licence expires next year, no doubt she
will renew it. But I consider her inactive.

Dick, AC7EL