"Bob Brock" wrote in message
news:_Eovh.2876$ch1.1567@bigfe9...

"Dee Flint" wrote in message
. ..

"Bob Brock" wrote in message
...
On 28 Jan 2007 13:11:46 -0800, "
wrote:


Not at all, John, you be wrong there. ARRL has periodical and
publication racks on the floors of HRO and Radio Shack and
other stores to catch all eyes.

Not really trying to change the subject, but I went to the local
bookstore and two Radio Shacks trying to get a copy of the General
Class Study manual. Both Radio Shacks said that they no longer carry
the study guides. So, I opted to download the questions and answers
from the net for free and give that a shot.

Did two Radio Shack managers lie to me? Has anyone seen the ARRL
study guides? I didn't even see any of the "Now Your's Talking" books
at the local stores.

Radio Shack has basically gotten out of amateur radio. I haven't seen
any study guides there for a couple of years. Sometimes you can get them
at Barnes & Noble but you have to special order. In that case one might
as well order directly off the ARRL website.

The Technician license manual is no longer called "Now You're Talking".
I don't recall the new name.

Right. Radio Shack pimps the hot products for the moment. The way I see
it, them not even carrying license manuals speaks volumes about demand for
them. Now, when you walk into a Radio Shack and see loads of HF antennas,
HF rigs, and a shelf of study guides; then you can say that Ham radio is
back in demand.

So, to bring this back on topic. I wonder if the intent of the average ham
is to make ham radio grow or to maintain a stale status quo? The way I
see it, a steady increase in qualified hams is a good thing. Ham radio
needs a good infusion of new blood and the no-code tech license as a good
start. However, it was only the beginning.


It will be very tough to grow ham radio. We've "saturated the market" so to
speak. If you check around the internet (for example, Speroni's site is
one), you can find the statistics on a few of the other countries. We have
2 hams per thousand people while Europe is running more like 1 ham per
thousand people. While we need to actively recruit, there just aren't a lot
of people out there that are inclined to amateur radio as a part of their
leisure pursuits. We will have to recruit hard just to stay at the current
level. It would not surprise me if our numbers dropped in half over the
next decade or so before leveling out.

Dee, N8UZE