On Apr 7, 12:49 pm, "Bill Horne, W1AC" wrote:
According to a recent story on National Public Radio (NPR), the
Internet generation is re-discovering an older communications
medium. Reporter Matt Sepic said "Nearly 700,000 Americans have ham
radio licenses, up 60 percent from 1981".

Not at all a surprise. The issue I've always had with comparing Ham
radio to the internet is that it's a real apples/oranges thing. For
some strange reason, the internet is/was thought of as some sort of
high tech wonderland. I've been there for a long time, and high tech
the internet isn't. It's a matter of software and "which option do I
choose". While still a great medium, the internet is at least for me,
a tool, and doesn't hold a lot of interest, beyond what I need to do
my work and play with.

Whereas radio on the other hand, is what one might call a live medium.
It isn't automatic, even the person who uses only store bought gear
has to learn how to use it. And the settings need to be changed all
the time. Oddly enough some of the detractors of Ham radio liked to
point out how you could contact anyone in the world via internet. Yup
indeed. With Ham radio, you need to know the right times, right band
and right frequency, and sometimes have a bit of luck to contact
another ham across the world. But doing it without any structure
between you and the other guy or gal is the hook. I'll never forget
the first time I QSO'ed with a Ham in Australia on 10 meters. It would
be hard to feel the same about a phone call. Or a chat room.

I did have to chuckle at the part where the article notes that die
hard Hams have to agree that Amateur Radio will never be a mainstream
hobby. It's true, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

- 73 de Mike N3LI -

On Apr 7, 9:27�pm, "Michael J. Coslo" wrote:
The issue I've always had with comparing Ham
radio to the internet is that it's a real apples/oranges thing.

It all depends on one's motivation.

For
some strange reason, the internet is/was thought
of as some sort of
high tech wonderland.

The thing is, for most people, it's not about the technology.

With the internet, cell phones, PCs, etc., what's interesting is the
content more than how it gets to you. Most people *expect* it all to
work perfectly 100% of the time on the first try, automatically. It's
the email/phone call/message/website that's the important part; the
technology is just how you get to it.

But ham radio is about "radio for its own sake" and is all about the
journey rather than the destination. It's the difference between
riding in an airliner from, say, New York to San Francisco and
piloting your own airplane over the same route. Sure, in both cases
you "flew", but the journey was completely different.

If you send an email to Australia, you *expect* it to get there in a
few minutes at most. But working Australia on the air is a completely
different thing.

Some people don't get this - in fact, most people don't get it. When
someone's first question about ham radio is "what do you talk about?",
it's an indication that they don't get it. That's not a bad thing,
just a different view.

73 de Jim, N2EY

On Apr 8, 12:24 am, N2EY wrote:
On Apr 7, 9:27 pm, "Michael J. Coslo" wrote:

The issue I've always had with comparing Ham
radio to the internet is that it's a real apples/oranges thing.

It all depends on one's motivation.

For
some strange reason, the internet is/was thought
of as some sort of high tech wonderland.


With the internet, cell phones, PCs, etc., what's interesting is the
content more than how it gets to you. Most people *expect* it all to
work perfectly 100% of the time on the first try, automatically. It's
the email/phone call/message/website that's the important part; the
technology is just how you get to it.

No argument there. I do think that as the internet has matured a lot
of the more tech minded among us have done a sort of "Okay, time to
move on".

Interestingly, the net and computers have helped fuel this. In my own
case, I got into Ham radio as a sort of way to get away from the
computers. I'd seen them used at my first field day as logging
machines, but that was it. Then after getting my license, I found out
about the sound card modes, the DX spotting nets, and all the other
great stuff available to us as Hams. So in trying to get a hobby away
from the computers led me to using them even more. That's okay though,
as noted in another thread, I think there are so many different things
to experiment with that it's all good.

Now back to the internet, Ham radio has a pretty big presence there,
and a lot of it is not commercial, it's some person who made say a
loop antenna, is proud of it, and want's to tell the world about it.
Maybe it's a person who built their own little QRP rig and a key that
fits in an Altoids tin. So they put up a web page. Well, along comes
someone else, maybe just browsing around, and hits his site. The
curious and technical minded person might just get hooked around that
time. Then they read about digital modes, soon the are hooked.

The interesting thing for me is that I have heard many people lament
how the Internet was going to kill Amateur Radio. I firmly believe the
exact opposite is true. The internet will be one of the best things to
happen to Ham radio when all is said and done.

But ham radio is about "radio for its own sake" and is all about the
journey rather than the destination.

Oh yeah, I Enjoy the ride as much or more that the destination. I had
some tree work done this week. Gave me an excuse to take down my
vertical antenna. But Now I'm having fun reinstalling it. I'm making
it more professional looking install, and putting in more radials,
which has been an ongoing project. I put them in until the knees and
back start barking at me, then tune and use it. Then do it again some
time later.

Point is, Doing the install, tuning and all are as much fun to me as
getting on the air and using it. I'm up to around 20 radials now. I've
also found that the number of radials does indeed make a difference.
Learned something and had fun doing it. Gunny says "Booyeah!

Some people don't get this - in fact, most people don't get it. When
someone's first question about ham radio is "what do you talk about?",

I had to smile here. Once someone asked me what Hams talked about on
the air. I said "Nothing". "What do you mean?", they asked. I said we
talk about very general stuff, but mostly it's talk about nothing.
"You mean like That show with Jerry Seinfeld?"
I figured I needed to change my approach.

- 73 de Mike N3LI -

On Wed, 7 Apr 2010 21:27:33 EDT, "Michael J. Coslo"
wrote:

I did have to chuckle at the part where the article notes that die
hard Hams have to agree that Amateur Radio will never be a mainstream
hobby. It's true, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I agree.

If everyone got a ham license and got on the air, there wouldn't be
enough spectrum for all of us.

Dick, AC7EL

Some historic perspective on growth in US Amateur Radio:

Numbers of US population, the number of US hams, growth over the
previous decade and ratio of hams to population at the start of each
decade from 1930. Thanks to W5ESE for the pre-2010 info. (# of hams is
of individuals and does not include grace-period licenses)

Year Population Hams Growth Ratio
1930 123,202,624 19,000 6,484 to 1
1940 132,164,569 56,000 +194% 2,361 to 1
1950 151,325,798 87,000 +55% 1,739 to 1
1960 179,323,175 230,000 +164% 780 to 1
1970 203,211,926 263,918 +15% 770 to 1
1980 226,545,805 393,353 +49% 576 to 1
1990 248,709,873 502,677 +28% 495 to 1
2000 281,421,906 682,240 +36% 412 to 1
2010 309,026,303 688,326 +4.5% 449 to 1

(hopefully that will stay formatted)

Note that the decade of greatest percentage growth was the 1930s.

Until 2000, the decade of least percentage growth was the 1960s.

73 de Jim, N2EY

On Apr 8, 10:38�am, N2EY wrote:
Some historic perspective on growth in US Amateur Radio:

Numbers of US population, the number of US hams, growth over the
previous decade and ratio of hams to population at the start of each
decade from 1930. Thanks to W5ESE for the pre-2010 info. (# of hams is
of individuals and does not include grace-period licenses)

Year � Population � � Hams � � Gr
owth � � � Ratio
1930 �123,202,624 � �19,000 � �
� � � � � � � 6,484 to 1
1940 �132,164,569 � �56,000 �+194% ï¿
½ � �2,361 to 1

2000 �281,421,906 �682,240 � �+36% ï¿
½ � � �412 to 1
2010 �309,026,303 �688,326 � � �+
4.5% � � 449 to 1


Note that the decade of greatest percentage growth was the 1930s.

Until 2000, the decade of least percentage growth was the 1960s.

Two things to differ: The USA Census has not yet been formally released
since the US Census Bureau is still requesting all to send in Census
Forms and temporary Census workers are beginning to prepare to get
ready to go to work to interview those who have not sent in forms.

The highest-ever number of USA amateur radio licensees occurred on
midnight of 1 July 2003 at 737,938 total individual licensees.

A minor point to differ about was the scarcity of 'radio parts' for
amateurs building at home and the overall home radio market size not
being anywhere near as big as the consumer electronics market of now. I
am somewhat familiar with the market scene since I was born in 1932.
:-)

K6LHA

In my previous post, I forgot to include the source of the various
numbers not provided by W5ESE.

The current US population came from the "population clock" website:

http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html

which is run by the US Census folks. I'm not sure how often it
updates. Last time I looked it was 309,039,794

The license numbers came from the ARRL website, which is the source of
all the ARS license numbers I've posted:

http://www.arrl.org/fcc/stats.html

As of April 9 2010, the number of current unexpired FCC-issued amateur
licenses held by individuals was:

Novice 16,683
Tech 338,087
Tech Plus 15
General 152,796
Advanced 60,367
Extra 120,631

Total 688,579

which works out to about 1 ham for every 449 people in the USA.

73 de Jim, N2EY