The post earlier today in RRAM about the new address on the ARRL
website for AR licensees piqued my interest.

I clicked -on the ARRL web page to look at the numbers.

One thing led to another, and I pulled up some state population
numbers of states with roughly the same populations and compared their
per-capita numbers.

Some quick numbers:

State # of hams State population Ham/resident ratio

Alaska 3466 698473 1/201
Wyoming 1696 544270 1/320
Vermont 2137 621760 1/290
Guam 487 178430 1/366
Wake Island 1 300 1/300
DC 407 599607 1/437

What I found is that there is a significant problem in Washington,DC.

There seems to be a very low number of hams in DC for the size of its
population, both absolutely and per capita.
There are less hams per capita than any other state.
Even tiny Wake Island, way out there in the Pacific Ocean, has a
higher ratio.

There are all sorts of people with professional degrees in DC,
(lawyers, accountants,journalists,etc.)i.e. all of the chattering
classes.
Why do so few of the people in DC have any interest in technical
matters that would cause them to be hams?

This led me to look at the FCC Website and the Commissioners and
their personal staffs' biographies.
It seems they are all lawyers of one type or another.
Not a one who has any technical or operational electronics
experience.

Even the Chief of Amateur Radio Enforcement does NOT have an Amateur
license.

Could this have been a significant factor in the BPL fiasco of the
last few years?

This lack of technical experience or knowledge to me is a serious
problem.

How can the Commissioners their staff's at the FCC ,NTIA, and other
federal agencies adequately manage the nations telecommunications
infrastructure if they don't have any technical experience?

What is it about DC that causes a lack of interest in technical
matters?

What can be done about this problem?
Require the FCC Commisioners to hire Engineers on their staffs like
one congressman is proposing?
Require FCC commissioners to have some technical experience?

WHAT????

I've been to DC many times (it's only 135 miles from Philly).

Here's what I've noticed about the place:

1) Many of the movers-and-shakers don't actually live in DC. They live
in VA and MD, and commute.

2) Many of those who live in DC are students, foreign nationals, etc.

3) Many of those who live in DC permanently are very poor. Crime is
high and conditions are terrible.

4) DC is essentially an urban area from border to border. Even in the
nicer parts it's not that ham-friendly compared to suburbs, small
towns and rural areas. Urban areas tend to have a lower ham
population. (How many hams actually live in Manhattan or downtown SF?

5) Regulatory agencies are usually headed by political appointees.
That's the nature of the game since Andrew Jackson described the
"spoils system." The FAA isn't run by all pilots; the FRA isn't run by
all train drivers, etc. (In fact, if the FCC were run by hams, some
might claim they had a conflict of interest).

6) There are statistical variations all over the place in the license-
counts table. The difference is 2 to 1 in the numbers you cited
between the highest and lowest hams-per-capita areas. Look at the
table other ways and you'll see other variations.

For example, compute the percentage of hams in each state that are in
each license class, and you'll see wide variations from state to
state. Last time I looked, CT had the highest percentage of Extras,
and CA had the highest percentage of Technicians. Other variations are
all over the place.

I agree that those who make the rules should have a background in what
they are making the rules for. But that sort of thing is usually left
to "staff" in my limited experience.

73 de Jim, N2EY

MAJOR SNIP

5) Regulatory agencies are usually headed by political appointees.
That's the nature of the game since Andrew Jackson described the
"spoils system."

The FAA isn't run by all pilots; the FRA isn't run by
all train drivers, etc. (In fact, if the FCC were run by hams, some
might claim they had a conflict of interest).

SNIP

I agree that those who make the rules should have a background in what
they are making the rules for. But that sort of thing is usually left
to "staff" in my limited experience.

I don't think that all the High muckey-mucks have to be all Pilots or
Train drivers, but in the FCC's case there should be one or two that
have day to day operational expererience in electronics.
Even the commisioners' staffs do not have practical experience
according to their biographies on the FCC website.

N2EY wrote:

5) Regulatory agencies are usually headed by political appointees.
That's the nature of the game since Andrew Jackson described the
"spoils system." The FAA isn't run by all pilots; the FRA isn't run by
all train drivers, etc. (In fact, if the FCC were run by hams, some
might claim they had a conflict of interest).

Actually it is amazing the number of agencies that ARE run by hams.. Or
perhaps not so amazing when you consider a few things about Hams.

But the fact is many CEO's in many companies are hams.. Because the kind
of dedication it takes to study, not all that long ago code, plus the
law, and technical questions, these days even rocket science. The kind
of dedication it takes to pass that EXTRA CLASS license test.

Is the very kind of dedication that they look for when they hire a new
CEO or appoint a new department head.

And hams have that kind of dedication. Otherwise they'd be CBers or
SWL's or... Mundanes (A term we use in another of my hobbies)

Now.. I can tell you one origination you may wish to look at, IN fact
I'll describe two The American Diabetes Assn, and the Juvenile Diabetes
Research Foundation.

ADA is run mostly by Doctors, Nurses and other medical professionals..
They spend the majority of their funds on diabetes education teaching
diabetics (Such as myself) how to better manage our condition. This is
good work.

But when Diabetes is ever cured.. They will be out of work


JDRF is run by either Type 1 Diabetics or by parents of Type 1
Diabetics.. Now, when diabetes is ever cured they too are going to be
out of work.

But where the ADA folks will be "Woe is me, I'm out of work" the JDRF
folks won't have time for Woe cause they are going to be planing and
putting on the party to end all parties.. Cause the Dragon Mellitus (DM,
get it) has been well and truly slain!


The moral.. Some outfits are indeed run by the right people,, People who
have a very strong interest in seeing the company meet it's goals.

ai8o wrote:
The post earlier today in RRAM about the new address on the ARRL
website for AR licensees piqued my interest.

I clicked -on the ARRL web page to look at the numbers.

One thing led to another, and I pulled up some state population
numbers of states with roughly the same populations and compared their
per-capita numbers.

Some quick numbers:

State # of hams State population Ham/resident ratio

Alaska 3466 698473 1/201
Wyoming 1696 544270 1/320
Vermont 2137 621760 1/290
Guam 487 178430 1/366
Wake Island 1 300 1/300
DC 407 599607 1/437

What I found is that there is a significant problem in Washington,DC.

There seems to be a very low number of hams in DC for the size of its
population, both absolutely and per capita.
There are less hams per capita than any other state.
Even tiny Wake Island, way out there in the Pacific Ocean, has a
higher ratio.

There are all sorts of people with professional degrees in DC,
(lawyers, accountants,journalists,etc.)i.e. all of the chattering
classes.
Why do so few of the people in DC have any interest in technical
matters that would cause them to be hams?

How many of the DC professionals actually live in the District? How
many DC professionals interested in amateur radio choose to live in the
city when it might (might!) be a lot easier to put up a decent antenna
in an outlying suburb?

If you ran the numbers including both the District and ZIP codes in
adjoining Maryland and Virginia, would you get something similar to the
other states?

If you ran the numbers for not the entire state of Illinois, but just
within the city limits of Chicago, would you get something similar to
what you get for DC?

--

Doug Smith W9WI
Pleasant View, TN EM66

On Apr 16, 12:18 am, wrote:

If you ran the numbers for not the entire state of Illinois, but just
within the city limits of Chicago, would you get something similar to
what you get for DC?

Correct. While Washington DC is a district, for all intents and
purposes, it is a city, just like Philadelphia or New York.

And in line with what Jim had said, I'm actually surprised that there
are some many hams per non-hams.

I can under stand that there are relatively many hams in places like
Alaska. They live a lot closer to the edge of disaster than most of
us, and there's only so much infrastructure you can put in in some of
the more remote areas.

Wake Island might think about recruiting another Ham or two! 8^)

- 73 de Mike N3LI -

On Apr 16, 10:21 am, "Michael J. Coslo" wrote:

While Washington DC is a district, for all intents and
purposes, it is a city, just like Philadelphia or New York.

It's even more urbanized than Philadelphia, IMHO. (I've spend
considerable time in both cities).

And in line with what Jim had said, I'm actually surprised that there
are some many hams per non-hams.

I think you meant "so many hams...". I suspect that many of them are
temporary transplants (students, for example).

I can under stand that there are relatively many hams in places like
Alaska. They live a lot closer to the edge of disaster than most of
us, and there's only so much infrastructure you can put in in some of
the more remote areas.

I don't think Alaskans are "much closer" to the edge of disaster than
most of us. However, I bet they do have fewer restrictions on
antennas.

And for longer than I've been a ham, there's been the special Alaskan
emergency frequency. Might be more than a few folks who got ham
licenses just to use it.

There are probably a lot of factors that influence the number of hams
per-capita, and what they do. For example, Florida has lots of hams -
and lots of retirees.

73 de Jim, N2EY

On Apr 16, 7:24 pm, N2EY wrote:
On Apr 16, 10:21 am, "Michael J. Coslo" wrote:



While Washington DC is a district, for all intents and
purposes, it is a city, just like Philadelphia or New York.

It's even more urbanized than Philadelphia, IMHO. (I've spend
considerable time in both cities).

My point is not a matter of degree, but that urban areas often have
less Hams than we might think. In the PAQSO party, Philadelphia is a
rare county. When you get to the more suburban areas around it, there
are a lot more hams. It's a rough estimate due to being a specific
activity.

And in line with what Jim had said, I'm actually surprised that there
are some many hams per non-hams.

I think you meant "so many hams...". I suspect that many of them are
temporary transplants (students, for example).

Ratio, like 300 non hams for each 1 ham.

I can under stand that there are relatively many hams in places like
Alaska. They live a lot closer to the edge of disaster than most of
us, and there's only so much infrastructure you can put in in some of
the more remote areas.

I don't think Alaskans are "much closer" to the edge of disaster than
most of us. However, I bet they do have fewer restrictions on
antennas.

That I'd have to disagree with. Many Alaskans are pretty close to the
edge. We don't have to get food and supplies brought in by snowmobile
or bush pilot. There was a case I read about where a snowmobile
brigade was formed to ferry fuel oil to a remote village so that the
inhabitants could survive through the winter. The coastal areas are
not too bad, but you get inland and it can be pretty scary. When I was
in Juneau, I hiked on some trails that went by tunnels that were sent
through the mountains for the miners to get to their work in the
winter. They weren't mining in the tunnel, it was drilled to protect
the miners. A mining company wouldn't spend money on a luxury like
that unless it had to.

That Ham radio license can be a real lifesaver up there.

On Mon, 26 Apr 2010 10:58:11 EDT, "Michael J. Coslo"
wrote:

On Apr 16, 7:24 pm, N2EY wrote:
On Apr 16, 10:21 am, "Michael J. Coslo" wrote:



While Washington DC is a district, for all intents and
purposes, it is a city, just like Philadelphia or New York.

It's even more urbanized than Philadelphia, IMHO. (I've spend
considerable time in both cities).

My point is not a matter of degree, but that urban areas often have
less Hams than we might think.

And rural areas tend to have a higher ratio of hams. A case in point
is Pahrump, NV, where I live. 35,000 population spread over a valley
10 miles wide by 20 miles long, in the middle of the desert. Most
housing lots are 1.25 acres with little or no CC&Rs. (*) The nearest
nearby towns are at least a half hour away. According to qrz.com,
there are 322 ham licenses (not counting the 4 club licenses) with
Pahrump in their address. That's a ratio of 1 to 109.

Nationally, according to http://www.arrl.org/fcc-license-counts there
are 689,553 ham licenses in the USA. According to
http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html the USA population is
309,145,162, for a ratio of 1 to 448.

(*) My house is in a development which covers a quarter of the town,
and my CC&Rs (written 30 years ago) do not even mention antennas and
towers, just things like setbacks. And the CC&Rs are scheduled to
expire in a couple of years.

We are engaged in an active effort to make new hams here, including
holding free-of-cost classes for those who are interested. I run the
local VE team. Last Saturday, we had 11 candidates, nine got new
Technician licenses, and one upgraded to Extra. Last month, we held a
month-long study program for upgrade to General. In the VE session
that followed, we had 14 candidates, most of whom passed. In January,
we had a one-half-day study program for Technician (commonly called a
cram). At the following VE session we had 10 candidates, and all
passed.

Whenever someone passes an exam, I give to him/her a tri-fold pamphlet.
One side says "Congratulations. We know you have questions. Call on
any of us for advice and for help raising antennas." I.e., we are
offering to be Elmers. The other side of the pamphlet describes our
local ARES/RACES organization and invites them to join. About a
quarter of them do join ARES/RACES.

Dick Grady AC7EL

Michael J. Coslo wrote:

And in line with what Jim had said, I'm actually surprised that there
are some many hams per non-hams.

I'm not surprised to find that there are many hams in DC

Many of the folks who list DC addresses are folks who have worked hard
to get there, They are wise and they are interested in public service.

Does this not describe ham radio operators? (Well many of us)

The qualities overlap nicely