These are the number of current,
unexpired FCC-issued amateur
radio licenses held by individuals
on the stated dates, and the
percentage of the total number
of active licenses that class contains.

Percentages may not add up to exactly
100.0% due to rounding.

These totals do not include licenses
that have expired but are in the grace
period, nor do they include club, military
and other station-only licenses.

Effective April 15, 2000, FCC no longer issued
new Novice, Technician Plus and Advanced
class licenses, so the numbers of those license
classes have declined steadily since then.

Also since April 15, 2000, FCC has renewed all
existing Technician Plus licenses as Technician.
It is therefore informative to consider the totals of
the two classes, since the Technician class
includes a significant number of Technician Plus
licenses renewed as Technician.

On February 23, 2007, the last Morse Code
test element, the 5 wpm receiving test, was
eliminated as a requirement.

The ARS License Numbers:

As of May 14, 2000:

Novice- 49,329 (7.3%)
Technician - 205,394 (30.4%)
Technician Plus - 128,860 (19.1%)
General - 112,677 (16.7%)
Advanced - 99,782 (14.8%)
Extra - 78,750 (11.7%)

Total Tech/TechPlus - 334,254 (49.5%)

Total all classes - 674,792


As of February 22, 2007:

Novice - 22,896 (3.5%)
Technician - 293,508 (44.8%)
Technician Plus - 30,818 (4.7%)
General - 130,138 (19.9%)
Advanced - 69,050 (10.5%)
Extra - 108,270 (16.5%)

Total Tech/TechPlus - 324,326 (49.5%)

Total all classes - 654,680


As of June 2, 2007:

Novice - 21,940 (3.3%)
Technician - 287,530 (43.9%)
Technician Plus - 27,197 (4.2%)
General - 140,044 (21.4%)
Advanced - 67,809 (10.4%)
Extra - 110,428 (16.9%)

Total Tech/TechPlus - 314,727 (48.1%)

Total all classes - 654,948


As of June 24, 2007:

Novice - 21,781 (3.3%)
Technician - 287,037 (43.8%)
Technician Plus - 26,507 (4.0%)
General - 141,042 (21.5%)
Advanced - 67,552 (10.3%)
Extra - 110,697 (16.9%)

Total Tech/TechPlus - 313,544 (47.9%)

Total all classes - 654,616


Changes:

From May 14, 2000, to February 22, 2007:

Novice - decrease of 26,433
Technician - increase of 88,114
Technician Plus - decrease of 98,042
General - increase of 17,461
Advanced - decrease of 30,732
Extra - increase of 29,520

Total Tech/TechPlus - decrease of 9,928

Total all classes - decrease of 20,112


From May 14, 2000, to June 2, 2007:

Novice - decrease of 27,389
Technician - increase of 82,136
Technician Plus - decrease of 101,663
General - increase of 27,367
Advanced - decrease of 31,973
Extra - increase of 31,678

Total Tech/TechPlus - decrease of 19,527

Total all classes - decrease of 19,844

From May 14, 2000, to June 24, 2007:

Novice - decrease of 27,548
Technician - increase of 81,643
Technician Plus - decrease of 102,353
General - increase of 28,365
Advanced - decrease of 32,330
Extra - increase of 31,947

Total Tech/TechPlus - decrease of 20,710

Total all classes - decrease of 20,176


From February 22, 2007, to June 2, 2007:

Novice - decrease of 956
Technician - decrease of 5,978
Technician Plus - decrease of 3,621
General - increase of 9,906
Advanced - decrease of 1,241
Extra - increase of 2,158

Total Tech/TechPlus - decrease of 9,599

Total all classes - increase of 268


From February 22, 2007, to June 24, 2007:

Novice - decrease of 1,115
Technician - decrease of 6,471
Technician Plus - decrease of 4,311
General - increase of 10,904
Advanced - decrease of 1,498
Extra - increase of 2,427

Total Tech/TechPlus - decrease of 10,782

Total all classes - decrease of 64


73 de Jim, N2EY

wrote in message
ps.com...

[snip]

From February 22, 2007, to June 24, 2007:

Novice - decrease of 1,115
Technician - decrease of 6,471
Technician Plus - decrease of 4,311
General - increase of 10,904
Advanced - decrease of 1,498
Extra - increase of 2,427

Total Tech/TechPlus - decrease of 10,782

Total all classes - decrease of 64


73 de Jim, N2EY


So far an "effective change" of 0% but we'll see what the rest of the year
brings.

Dee, N8UZE

On Jun 28, 8:34?pm, "Dee Flint" wrote:
So far an "effective change" of 0% but we'll see what the rest of the year
brings.

We're only 1/3 of the way through the first year, though. And the
numbers have taken ups and downs all over the place.

A couple of things to remember when looking at these numbers:

- Any time a rules change is being considered, or is pending, there
will probably be an effect on licensing behavior. Just like the
announcement of an upcoming sale at a store. If the pending change
makes it easier to get a license, people who were considering getting
that license may simply wait until the change occurs. I suspect that
more than a few people who were planning to get amateur licenses, or
to upgrade, before February 23, 2007 decided to wait until after the
rules change.

- News like the rules change travels slowly, and its effects even
slower.

- While the rules changes have not resulted in steady new growth, it
appears to me that the decline has at least slowed, and probably
stopped.

My prediction, IIRC, was that in the first year we would see anywhere
from 0 to +1% growth in the total number of currently licensed US
hams.

73 de Jim, N2EY

wrote in message
s.com...
On Jun 28, 8:34?pm, "Dee Flint" wrote:
So far an "effective change" of 0% but we'll see what the rest of the
year
brings.

We're only 1/3 of the way through the first year, though. And the
numbers have taken ups and downs all over the place.

A couple of things to remember when looking at these numbers:

- Any time a rules change is being considered, or is pending, there
will probably be an effect on licensing behavior. Just like the
announcement of an upcoming sale at a store. If the pending change
makes it easier to get a license, people who were considering getting
that license may simply wait until the change occurs. I suspect that
more than a few people who were planning to get amateur licenses, or
to upgrade, before February 23, 2007 decided to wait until after the
rules change.


Absolutely. We had a test session scheduled for February 23rd and had a
monster turnout. All but two were for upgrades.

- News like the rules change travels slowly, and its effects even
slower.


Yes I still get people asking about the General credit for the pre-March,
1987 Tech and that has been in effect for 7 years now.

- While the rules changes have not resulted in steady new growth, it
appears to me that the decline has at least slowed, and probably
stopped.


That may be only temporary though. It will probably take more than a year
to see if that is real or temporary. Yes it will be interesting to see the
results on the one year anniversary.

My prediction, IIRC, was that in the first year we would see anywhere
from 0 to +1% growth in the total number of currently licensed US
hams.

73 de Jim, N2EY


Well I predicted -1% to +1%.

By the way, your "official guess" on the list I was running was +1% to +2%.
Would you like to change it or just stand on your existing numbers?

Here's the list as it stands right now:

N8UZE: 1% less to 1% more
N2EY: 1% more to 2% more
KH6HZ: 1% less to 0% change
N3KIP: 2% more to 6% more
KH6O: 6% more to 10% more
KK6J: 12% more to 14% more
KC2HMZ: 5% more
K8BSG: 2% to 3% more --- Added 02/18/06

Dee, N8UZE

On Jun 29, 6:02?pm, "Dee Flint" wrote:
wrote in message s.com...

We had a test session scheduled for February 23rd and had a
monster turnout. All but two were for upgrades.

IMHO, the major effect of the rules changes have been to increase
upgrades rather than to bring in lots of new hams. But it's only been
four months.

- News like the rules change travels slowly, and its effects even
slower.

Yes I still get people asking about the General credit for the pre-March,
1987 Tech and that has been in effect for 7 years now.

I still encounter people who think they can get a new Novice, Tech
Plus or Advanced license.

My prediction, IIRC, was that in the first year we would see anywhere
from 0 to +1% growth in the total number of currently licensed US
hams.

Well I predicted -1% to +1%.

By the way, your "official guess" on the list I was running was +1% to +2%.
Would you like to change it or just stand on your existing numbers?

Obviously I didn't recall correctly! Thanks for the right numbers.
I'll stick with my original guess. of +1 to +2%.

btw, you might want to run the prediction "contest" rules again in a
new thread so folks who haven't seen it before will know what it
means.

73 de Jim, N2EY

wrote in message
ups.com...
[snip]
btw, you might want to run the prediction "contest" rules again in a
new thread so folks who haven't seen it before will know what it
means.

73 de Jim, N2EY


Yes, I've been meaning to do that.

Dee, N8UZE