On Mar 31, 8:02�am, xxx wrote:
*"AF6AY" wrote:
* *Prior to the cessation of code testing for US amateur radio
* *license testing, there were a number of speculations on what
* *would happen in the amateur radio ranks. *To see what really
* *happened [...]

* * Are you sure that you've given it enough time? How many non-hams
know anything about any of this? It will probably be years before the
results are in.

Yes, an accurate portrayal won't be possible until some time
in the future. However, this day is only the end of March and
the code test ended on 23 February 2007. I was showing what
was thought to be the beginning of a trend, based on the FCC
database information as collected - en toto - by third parties.
As far as I can see, the FCC database numbers are "what
really happened" in the 30-day period following (and including)
the day that amateur radio license testing excluded the code
test.

Disclaimer: The numbers for the 30-day period ending 24
March will be skewed slightly in (approximately) the first
week of code test elimination. That is a result in delay of
applicant test results being delivered to the various VEC
headquarters, re-checked, then (if VEC approval occurs)
being delivered to the FCC. That delay time is unknown but
can be speculated as at least a week, perhaps two weeks.

As a benchmark for comparison, I used the 30-day period
which began during the start of US year-end holiday time,
when the code test was mandatory for General and Amateur
Extra license classes. I did not download and save either
the publicly-posted Hamdata or ARRL statistics prior to that
time on a daily basis. Note that the earlier period can also
be "skewed" since the Technician class license has not
required a code test since it was first created by the FCC
in 1991.

I may be erroneous in the assumption that the end of code
testing was a landmark decision of major proportions in
United States amateur radio. That news has been a topic
of news and conversation of organizations and news and
discussion sites about amateur radio for at least two years.
For references there are www.qrz.com, www.eham.net,
several equipment classified ad websites, QST, CQ,
Popular Communications magazines, and newsgroups,
all concerning US amateur radio policies and practices.
I am aware that a few radio-interested individuals were not
up-to-date on the cessation of code testing...but, in fairness,
the majority of individuals were cognizant of the end of code
testing and exceptions to that do not adequately eliminate
the majority awareness.

Argument aside on the veracity of information that is
available, there is no real evidence that the end of code
testing resulted in any great tidal-wave of "no coders"
suddenly appearing in US amateur radio. There was a
very evident condition of many already-licensed who
applied for, and got, "upgrades" to General and Amateur
Extra class licenses. I am not approving nor disapproving
of that practice, just showing the result of publicly-
available numeric information gathered and presented in
a format for comparison of two selected time-periods.

I have to apologize to readers for the very un-neat
appearance of my tabulations. Those were done in
fixed-size typeface in Notepad off-line and its
conversion to Google-accepted message format
destroyed a neat columnization of numbers of fixed-
font. If anyone wants the original text of columnization
I will be happy to forward that in private e-mail.

73, Len AF6AY

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