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 for any class of US
amateur radio license.

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 February 22, 2010:

Novice - 16,878 (2.5%) Technician - 335,694 (49.0%) Technician Plus -
115 (0.1%) General - 151,663 (22.1%) Advanced - 60,586 (8.8%) Extra -
119,806 (17.5%)

Total Tech/TechPlus - 335,809 (49.0%)

Total all classes - 684,742


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 February 22, 2010:

Novice - decrease of 32,451 Technician - increase of 130,300 Technician
Plus - decrease of 128,745 General - increase of 38,986 Advanced -
decrease of 39,196 Extra - increase of 41,056

Total Tech/TechPlus - increase of 1,555

Total all classes - increase of 9,950


From February 22, 2007, to February 22, 2010:

Novice - decrease of 6,018 Technician - increase of 42,186 Technician
Plus - decrease of 30,703 General - increase of 21,525 Advanced -
decrease of 8,464 Extra - increase of 11,536

Total Tech/TechPlus - increase of 11,483

Total all classes - increase of 30,062

73 de Jim, N2EY

Here's an attempt to reformat the numbers better:

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 February 22, 2010:

Novice - 16,878 (2.5%)
Technician - 335,694 (49.0%)
Technician Plus - 115 (0.1%)
General - 151,663 (22.1%)
Advanced - 60,586 (8.8%)
Extra - 119,806 (17.5%)

Total Tech/TechPlus - 335,809 (49.0%)

Total all classes - 684,742

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 February 22, 2010:

Novice - decrease of 32,451
Technician - increase of 130,300
Technician Plus - decrease of 128,745
General - increase of 38,986
Advanced - decrease of 39,196
Extra - increase of 41,056

Total Tech/TechPlus - increase of 1,555

Total all classes - increase of 9,950

From February 22, 2007, to February 22, 2010:

Novice - decrease of 6,018
Technician - increase of 42,186
Technician Plus - decrease of 30,703
General - increase of 21,525
Advanced - decrease of 8,464
Extra - increase of 11,536

Total Tech/TechPlus - increase of 11,483

Total all classes - increase of 30,062

73 de Jim, N2EY

wrote in message
...
Here's an attempt to reformat the numbers better:

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 February 22, 2010:

Novice - 16,878 (2.5%)
Technician - 335,694 (49.0%)
Technician Plus - 115 (0.1%)
General - 151,663 (22.1%)
Advanced - 60,586 (8.8%)
Extra - 119,806 (17.5%)

Total Tech/TechPlus - 335,809 (49.0%)

Total all classes - 684,742

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 February 22, 2010:

Novice - decrease of 32,451
Technician - increase of 130,300
Technician Plus - decrease of 128,745
General - increase of 38,986
Advanced - decrease of 39,196
Extra - increase of 41,056

Total Tech/TechPlus - increase of 1,555

Total all classes - increase of 9,950

From February 22, 2007, to February 22, 2010:

Novice - decrease of 6,018
Technician - increase of 42,186
Technician Plus - decrease of 30,703
General - increase of 21,525
Advanced - decrease of 8,464
Extra - increase of 11,536

Total Tech/TechPlus - increase of 11,483

Total all classes - increase of 30,062

73 de Jim, N2EY

-------------------
Is there a point to presenting the statistics?

It appears that the Technician (w/ or w/o HF) class remains approximately
half of all licenses actively maintained, and relatively unchanged over 10
years. There are also Novice and Advanced licenses that are being renewed
without upgrading (about 10% of all licenses [11.3%]). The average number
of Advanced and Extra classes is approximately constant, although there has
been a shift from one class to the other.

Is there anything you want to conclude from all of this?

On Feb 23, 7:56�pm, "D. Stussy"
wrote:

-------------------
Is there a point to presenting the statistics?

Actually, there are two:

The first is to provide an archive of the number of hams in the USA.
In the old days we had paper callbooks and CD-ROMs, but as time goes
on dependence on the online databases has become pretty standard.
That's fine for right-now information, but for historical purposes,
what do we do?

By posting the numbers, all it takes is a google search to see trends
and changes. As long as groups are archived, the data will be there
for all to see.

The second reason is to see the results of rules changes and other
influences. I've seen many claims from different people that "ham
radio is dying", "ham radio is growing", "there are X hams in the
USA", etc. By posting actual totals from the same source over a period
of years, the reality becomes apparent.

It appears that the Technician (w/ or w/o HF) class remains approximately
half of all licenses actively maintained, and relatively unchanged over 1
0
years.

Just under half. All Techs and Tech Pluses have had the same
privileges since Feb 2007; there is no difference anymore. Soon the
Tech Plus will completely disappear, as the last one expires in June.

�There are also Novice and Advanced licenses that are being renewe
d
without upgrading (about 10% of all licenses [11.3%]).

The number of Novices is dropping much more rapidly than the number of
Advanceds. In the past ten years the number of Novices has dropped to
about a third of what it was, but Advanceds are at about 60%.

Ten years ago we had a 6 license class system. Very soon we will have
5 classes, as the Tech Plus disappears. At some time in the future,
when the last Novice expires and isn't renewed, we'll have a 4 class
system.

But it may be a very long time before the last Advanced goes away,
giving us a 3 class system, judging by how slowly that class's license
numbers are declining.

�The average number
of Advanced and Extra classes is approximately constant, although there h
as
been a shift from one class to the other.

Which means a lot more US hams have full privileges.

The big gains have come in the General class.

Is there anything you want to conclude from all of this?

Lots of things can be concluded. Perhaps the most important is the
general trend of how many hams we have in the USA, and is the number
growing or dropping?

Another purpose is to see how true various predictions have turned out
to be. It turns out that predictions of rapid growth and rapid decline
were both untrue.

Looking back, ten years ago there were about 675,000 US amateurs. From
2000 to 2003, our numbers grew to about 686,000, then from 2003 to
2007 declined to about 655,000. Since 2007 we've gained over 30,000,
and now are almost back to the 2003 peak. If the growth continues,
we'll soon have a new all-time high.

Growth is good - we cannot expect to keep our bands and privileges
with a constantly declining number of hams. But the growth hasn't kept
up with the growth rate of the US population. And despite all the
changes in license requirements and privileges, the growth hasn't been
anything close to what it was in decades such as the 1930s, 1950s,
1970s and 1980s.

73 de Jim, N2EY

On 2/24/2010 7:06 AM, wrote:
Another purpose is to see how true various predictions have
turned out to be. It turns out that predictions of rapid
growth and rapid decline were both untrue.

Which pretty means that all the frantic arm waving and cries
of the utter destruction of Amateur Radio due to the no code
changes in the licensing were unwarranted.

The earlier growth of Amateur Radio was due to the "ow wow"
factor when it was new, and then the "we can't let THEM win"
factor during the Cold War.

The current growth is due to "good publicity" concerning the
role Amateur Radio has in emergencies.

As long as we don't come across as a bunch of buffoons or
cranky old men, we should continue to grow.

Jeff-1.0
wa6fwi

On Feb 24, 7:27�pm, Jeffrey Angus wrote:
On 2/24/2010 7:06 AM, wrote:

Another purpose is to see how true various predictions have
turned out to be. It turns out that predictions of rapid
growth and rapid decline were both untrue.

Which pretty means that all the frantic arm waving and cries
of the utter destruction of Amateur Radio due to the no code
changes in the licensing were unwarranted.

Maybe. It's only been three years.

Note that after the changes of 2000, we had three years of growth, and
then four years of decline. Hopefully that pattern won't repeat, and
the growth will continue.

But also note that the predictions of lots of growth have been
unwarranted as well.

The earlier growth of Amateur Radio was due to the "ow wow"
factor when it was new, and then the "we can't let THEM win"
factor during the Cold War.

I respectfully disagree with that, in many ways.

Sure, the oh-wow factor was there in the early days (before and just
after WW1). But note that during the 1920s, when Radio (meaning
broadcasting) was the cat's pajamas, amateur radio grew very slowly.
There were fewer than 20,000 US amateurs in 1929.

OTOH, during the 1930s the number of US hams almost tripled, despite
the Great Depression and much tighter regulation.

The Cold War may have been a factor in the 1950s, but I suspect that
the oh-wow factor was still very big then. There was also the
increasing affluence of middle-class Americans plus inexpensive WW2
surplus and kits to boost amateur radio. Yet during the 1960s, US ham
radio hardly grew at all.

The biggest growth in recent times was during the 1970s and 1980s,
despite stagflation, incentive licensing, energy crises, and
competition from the cb boom. From the late 1960s to the mid 1980s the
number of US hams about doubled. The growth actually went down in the
1990s.

The current growth is due to "good publicity" concerning the
role Amateur Radio has in emergencies.

Certainly a factor, but not the only one. Another is the large number
of baby boomers approaching retirement age. Yet another is the
maturation of the internet - it's an appliance now, not the golly-whiz-
bang new thing of a few years ago.

Plus there are so many different things to do in ham radio today!

As long as we don't come across as a bunch of buffoons or
cranky old men, we should continue to grow.

Hopefully. Another thing that's needed is continued publicity.

But we're still not keeping up with the growth in the US population.
Yet.

73 de Jim N2EY

On Feb 24, 9:02�pm, wrote:
On Feb 24, 7:27 pm, Jeffrey Angus wrote:
On 2/24/2010 7:06 AM, wrote:

Another purpose is to see how true various predictions have
turned out to be. It turns out that predictions of rapid
growth and rapid decline were both untrue.

Which pretty means that all the frantic arm waving and cries
of the utter destruction of Amateur Radio due to the no code
changes in the licensing were unwarranted.

Maybe. It's only been three years.

The no-code-test Technician class license existed since 1991.

Note that after the changes of 2000, we had three years of growth, and
then four years of decline. Hopefully that pattern won't repeat, and
the growth will continue.

The growth of USA amateur radio licensing has been miniscule since
2006. Using www.hamdata.com statistics for the period of 18 May 2006
through 18 Nov 2009, there were a total of 95,465 NEW licensees and a
total of 95,702 EXPIRATIONS. That is from referece material for an
e-ham.net article published at the endof 2009.

But also note that the predictions of lots of growth have been
unwarranted as well.

I have yet to see a specific quote from anyone who "predicted lots of
growth." At best there were a few who optimistically wanted more
growth. I was not one of those nor in the habit of "predicting"
anything, only trying to show TRENDS.

The Cold War may have been a factor in the 1950s, but I suspect that
the oh-wow factor was still very big then. There was also the
increasing affluence of middle-class Americans plus inexpensive WW2
surplus and kits to boost amateur radio. Yet during the 1960s, US ham
radio hardly grew at all.

The "Cold War" existed from 1948 to 1991 and the dissolving of the
Soviet Union. The first wide release of WWII surplus electronics to
local electronics stores was 1947. There was also the factor of the
meteoric rise of Television beginning in 1947, drawing
consumer-electronics manufacturers into that market. Even Hallicrafters
and National Radio Co. were making TV receivers in that time. By about
1959 established radio makers and many start-ups were entering the
Class D CB market which would almost equal TV receiver production.

The current growth is due to "good publicity" concerning the
role Amateur Radio has in emergencies.

Certainly a factor, but not the only one. Another is the large number
of baby boomers approaching retirement age. Yet another is the
maturation of the internet - it's an appliance now, not the golly-whiz-
bang new thing of a few years ago.

The Internet went public in 1991, 19 years old, not "a few years ago".
Compuserve and other network message providers were in existance before
the Internet and Personal Computers were in existence on them by 1978
(text-only for the most part).

Back in 30 December 1990 Richard Hoffbeck, N0LOX, made a study of the
amateur radio license classes and ages as of the FCC database of
November 1988. That data was sent to Fritz Anderson, WT9T (no relation)
over what I think was Compuserve (or another network). Both N0LOX and
WT9T were in the FCC database as of 13 Dec 2009. Of the (then) 5
classes in the USA, the average age of Novices was 42.19, the oldest
average age was Advanced with 56.26. The total number of licensees was
480,191 in Nov 88. Note: A birthdate was required by the FCC in 1988.

Plus there are so many different things to do in ham radio today!

Except that the code test for all licensees except the no-code- test
Technician was KEPT until 23 Feb 07 and the Technician class currently
has the GREATEST population of all despite its start in 1991.

As long as we don't come across as a bunch of buffoons or
cranky old men, we should continue to grow.

Hopefully. Another thing that's needed is continued publicity.

Publicity isn't generated by sitting around in amateur radio venues
congratulating one another. There is MINISCULE publicity generated in
mass media to inform the PUBLIC. New licensees aren't all coming from
"ham families." Hobbyists in electronics are enjoying all sorts of
activities besides amateur radio. One out of three Americans have cell
phones, one out of five has some Internet access. Both of those can
reach around the world (or in the neighborhood) 24/7. They don't need
to out-guess the ionosphere to use a 160-year-old telegraphic
technique.

The ARRL has existed since before WW One yet it has not caused a blip
in any Mass Media TV or Radio markets with all of its "prepared
high-quality broadcast material." Look in cable TV program listings.
Most of us in the Public are asleep in the 1 AM to 6 AM "public
service" time slots.

But we're still not keeping up with the growth in the US population.
Yet.

USA amateur radio license numbers are STATIC, essentially un- changing
down in "statistical noise" or random variations.

Len, K6LHA

If I might be a little contrary here (only a little)

I would have to say that I really prefer what we are having now, a
slow growth, as compared to some sort of tracking of general
population growth with ours.

We have some pretty finite operation bandwidth, and if we had a huge
number of people trying to operate, it would be pretty bad.

At least for my setup, I turn on the radio and there are a lot of Hams
operating. The only empty places are the higher frequencies which are
only slowly coming back, and even 80/75 has local traffic during the
day. 40 and 20 are pretty wall to wall, and 30 and 15 are busy enough
to keep an Op happy.

If we had a lot more Hams getting on the air, it would be worse than
contest weekends. We've done fairly good in getting more frequencies
to operate on, 60 meters was a mixed success, and 40 opening up a bit
is nice. I don't know that there will be much more room to spread out
though.

- 73 de Mike N3LI -

D. Stussy wrote:

Is there a point to presenting the statistics?

Yes there is, If you archive Jim's post then come back a year from now
you can see if the hobby is growing or shrinking, and how it is growing

For example.. A few years ago I was listed in the "Technician with HF"
group... Now I'm not (All other classes, Extra to be specific)

But it is important to know if we are growing or fading into the sunset.

Personally.. I prefer growth

And the stats.. They tell the story

K6LHA wrote:

The Internet went public in 1991, 19 years old, not "a few years ago".
Compuserve and other network message providers were in existance before
the Internet and Personal Computers were in existence on them by 1978
(text-only for the most part).

Thank you LEN... I have long forgotten when the internet became public,
1991, good to know.. I first logged on to Compuserve as 73455,43 in
1983 using a VIC-20 and a VIC 1011A modem. 300 baud (well you could
push it to 450 for the same price) and folks we paid by the minute for
connect time back then so I used a modified "Fast-Doc" to download
messages fast as the modem could stream them to memory, then print 'em
out and compose replies off line as a script file and upload 'em later.
Not easy on a VIC-20, even with full memory expansion (Which I had)

I'm still on what's left of Compuserve under my call (WA8YXM) though the
Ham Radio forum is long gone... There are still some good groups left
there.. However it's now an AOL-Web Property and farmed out to some
folks who have no concept of how a forum should be hosted so many of the
features that made classic Compuserve the single greatest service in the
world... History. But many of the good people who also helped to make
it great... Still there.

But it's nice to know the internet became "live" in 1991 (Public)
--
John in Detroit E-Dress is smoked, Invalid equals NET.