September 2008 ARS License Numbers
 

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
two-year 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.
Due the renewing of Technician Pluses as Technicians, the number of
Novices now exceeds the number of Technician Pluses.

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 September 23, 2008:

Novice - 18,748 (2.8%)
Technician - 307,813 (46.6%)
Technician Plus - 12,480 (1.9%)
General - 143,815 (21.8%)
Advanced - 62,619 (9.5%)
Extra - 114,860 (17.4%)

Total Tech/TechPlus - 320,293 (48.5%)

Total all classes - 660,335


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 September 23, 2008:

Novice - decrease of 30,581
Technician - increase of 102,419
Technician Plus - decrease of 116,380
General - increase of 31,138
Advanced - decrease of 37,163
Extra - increase of 36,110

Total Tech/TechPlus - decrease of 13,961

Total all classes - decrease of 14,457


From February 22, 2007, to September 23, 2008:

Novice - decrease of 4,148
Technician - increase of 14,305
Technician Plus - decrease of 18,338
General - increase of 13,677
Advanced - decrease of 6,431
Extra - increase of 6,590

Total Tech/TechPlus - decrease of 4,033

Total all classes - increase of 5,655

73 de Jim, N2EY