On Mon, 26 Apr 2010 10:58:11 EDT, "Michael J. Coslo"
wrote:

On Apr 16, 7:24 pm, N2EY wrote:
On Apr 16, 10:21 am, "Michael J. Coslo" wrote:



While Washington DC is a district, for all intents and
purposes, it is a city, just like Philadelphia or New York.

It's even more urbanized than Philadelphia, IMHO. (I've spend
considerable time in both cities).

My point is not a matter of degree, but that urban areas often have
less Hams than we might think.

And rural areas tend to have a higher ratio of hams. A case in point
is Pahrump, NV, where I live. 35,000 population spread over a valley
10 miles wide by 20 miles long, in the middle of the desert. Most
housing lots are 1.25 acres with little or no CC&Rs. (*) The nearest
nearby towns are at least a half hour away. According to qrz.com,
there are 322 ham licenses (not counting the 4 club licenses) with
Pahrump in their address. That's a ratio of 1 to 109.

Nationally, according to http://www.arrl.org/fcc-license-counts there
are 689,553 ham licenses in the USA. According to
http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html the USA population is
309,145,162, for a ratio of 1 to 448.

(*) My house is in a development which covers a quarter of the town,
and my CC&Rs (written 30 years ago) do not even mention antennas and
towers, just things like setbacks. And the CC&Rs are scheduled to
expire in a couple of years.

We are engaged in an active effort to make new hams here, including
holding free-of-cost classes for those who are interested. I run the
local VE team. Last Saturday, we had 11 candidates, nine got new
Technician licenses, and one upgraded to Extra. Last month, we held a
month-long study program for upgrade to General. In the VE session
that followed, we had 14 candidates, most of whom passed. In January,
we had a one-half-day study program for Technician (commonly called a
cram). At the following VE session we had 10 candidates, and all
passed.

Whenever someone passes an exam, I give to him/her a tri-fold pamphlet.
One side says "Congratulations. We know you have questions. Call on
any of us for advice and for help raising antennas." I.e., we are
offering to be Elmers. The other side of the pamphlet describes our
local ARES/RACES organization and invites them to join. About a
quarter of them do join ARES/RACES.

Dick Grady AC7EL