"Jim Hampton" wrote in message
...

"Dee Flint" wrote in message
. ..

"Dee Flint" wrote in message
. ..

wrote in message

[snip]


1. Who won the pool?

2. It will be interesting to follow the numbers on the licenses.
Please give consideration to either excluding the Novice license class
entirely or reporting it as a separate item. This puts a different
light
on the so-called decline of amateur radio. This group is almost
entirely
inactive, not renewing, and not relevant to the growth or decline of
amateur radio anymore.

Dee, N8UZE


Also it might be interesting if you post three sets of numbers:

1. As of May 2000 as you have been doing.
2. As of the effective date of the implementation of no-code testing.
3. The current number of licensees.

My predictions are that there will be numerous upgrades but little to no
impact on the overall growth of ham radio.

Dee, N8UZE


Hello Dee,

An interesting question, but I am going to guess that it may have a
positive
impact - simply because folks that aren't licensed will hear that there is
no more cw requirement. There are, I suspect, a fair number out there
that
haven't bothered simply because a tech license limits you to above 30 MHz
and they want to work the world - without cw.

We should have the answer to the question in the next year or so. Like
you,
I suspect a fairly large number of upgrades; unlike you, I suspect there
will be a modest impact in the growth of amateur radio.


It will be interesting to see if this proves true. I know of many people
who have no idea what the requirements are to get a ham license. Matter of
fact most have no idea that ham radio exists. Therefore the code
requirement was not a factor. I have yet to meet anyone who said that they
had an interest but did not pursue it because of the code requirement.

Many don't understand the implications of learning something about
electronics. A few years ago, I was given a Leslie speaker (rotating
speaker used on Hammond organs) that was not compatable with my organs.
It
was obvious that not only would the socket have to be re-wired, but the
new
Leslie needed control via 110 volts ac. My control was high-impedance dc
(about 90 volts dc).

I called the service guy. The estimate was 8 hours of labor (at $70.00
per
hour), plus a new relay, tube, and other components.

After looking the situation over, I spent less than $5.00 in components,
rewired the socket, isolated the dc with an interstage transformer, fed
the
dc to a big VFET through a 1 megohm resistor and zener to ground (to limit
the voltage applied to the gate). The VFET switched 400 volts dc through
a
100 k resistor to a solid state relay to the existing relay. The 110
volts
was already present in the Leslie.

It has worked flawlessly for a few years now. 2 hours work and 5 bucks
spent vs probably over $600.00.

Amateur radio was my background; hey, ya never know :P


While some of the hams I know could and would do the same, the majority have
chosen not to explore electronics beyond what they had to do for the test.
That isn't sufficient to enble them to venture into this type of activity.


73 from Rochester, NY
Jim AA2QA



Dee, N8UZE