"Kim W5TIT" wrote:

Oh man.... Well, I've thought about how I would "handle"
the robbery of my truck--it literally took me a lifetime of
dreaming to get one; and I really never thought I would be
able to do it. BUT, if it was stolen I would hope it was
totally destroyed beyond being able to be returned and
then I would hope that the extra coverage I am carrying
on it would hook me back up. (snip)


Mine has full coverage also, but waiting weeks or longer to get any real
response from the insurance company would be a nightmare.

Anyway, one pleasent note is that I've found the two guys I saw last
night - they're staying right here in this building. This place rents both
weekly and monthly suites. They're staying in one of the weekly suites, but
had no business at this end of the parking lot (especially that late at
night). The vehicles at this end of the parking lot either belong to the
company, building staff, or those staying in the two executive suites (I
stay in one).

Anyway, I reported all this to the police (they have the license plate
number now). They're going to keep an eye on these two to see if they have
anything to do with the string of vehicles thefts around here over the last
few months.


Dwight Stewart (W5NET)

http://www.qsl.net/w5net/

Clint wrote:
Don't forget that 300 million or so would benefit if all the
requirements were dropped.

- Mike KB3EIA -

oh, are they dropping the written test to? are they just
going to give away the license to all hams that pay
the fee?

or are they, in fact, still requireing a knowledge test?
ah, yes. I'm sure they are.

Very observent, they *are* requireing a knowledge test.

But you know they really DON'T have to.

If you thing they have to, tell me the reasons why.


- Mike -

"Mike Coslo" wrote in message
...
Clint wrote:
Don't forget that 300 million or so would benefit if all the
requirements were dropped.

- Mike KB3EIA -

oh, are they dropping the written test to? are they just
going to give away the license to all hams that pay
the fee?

or are they, in fact, still requireing a knowledge test?
ah, yes. I'm sure they are.

Very observent, they *are* requireing a knowledge test.

But you know they really DON'T have to.

If you thing they have to, tell me the reasons why.


- Mike -

To at least be reasonably sure that the applicant knows where he can put
what kind of a signal.

It is also handy in a enforcement situation. When some fool runs 10kw on
top of a broadcast station the FCC has grounds to nail his butt.

See how simple that is?

Dan/W4NTI

Dan/W4NTI wrote:
"Mike Coslo" wrote in message
...

Clint wrote:

Don't forget that 300 million or so would benefit if all the
requirements were dropped.

- Mike KB3EIA -

oh, are they dropping the written test to? are they just
going to give away the license to all hams that pay
the fee?

or are they, in fact, still requireing a knowledge test?
ah, yes. I'm sure they are.

Very observent, they *are* requireing a knowledge test.

But you know they really DON'T have to.

If you thing they have to, tell me the reasons why.


- Mike -


To at least be reasonably sure that the applicant knows where he can put
what kind of a signal.

It is also handy in a enforcement situation. When some fool runs 10kw on
top of a broadcast station the FCC has grounds to nail his butt.

See how simple that is?

Oh, personally I agree that there should be a written test, and there
shoud be a Morse code test.

What gets me worked up is those who think that removing the Morse code
part of the testing is not a reduction in the amount of knowedge needed
for the license. Maybe its newspeak. Less is more!

All the learning is ultimately what determines the state of amateur
radio. While not an indicator of the individual ham, in the aggregate a
better educated ARS is a good thing in my book.

- Mike KB3EIA -

These are the number of unexpired FCC ARS
licenses held by individuals on the dates listed:

As of May 14, 2000:

Novice - 49,329
Tech - 205,394
Tech Plus - 128,860
General - 112,677
Advanced - 99,782
Extra - 78,750
Total - 674,792


As of September 30, 2003:

Novice - 33,034 (decrease of 16,295)
Technician - 257,250 (increase of 51,856)
Technician Plus - 65,042 (decrease of 63,818)
General - 141,340 (increase of 28,663)
Advanced - 82,724 (decrease of 17,058)
Extra - 104,605 (increase of 25,855)
Total - 683,995 (increase of 9,203)

73 de Jim, N2EY

N2EY wrote:
These are the number of unexpired FCC ARS
licenses held by individuals on the dates listed:

snip

As of September 30, 2003:

Novice - 33,034 (decrease of 16,295)

snip

This may be hard to quantify, Jim, but is there any data or even
educated guessing about how many Novices are still actually active?

- Mike KB3EIA -

In article , Mike Coslo writes:

N2EY wrote:
These are the number of unexpired FCC ARS
licenses held by individuals on the dates listed:

snip

As of September 30, 2003:

Novice - 33,034 (decrease of 16,295)

snip

This may be hard to quantify, Jim, but is there any data or even
educated guessing about how many Novices are still actually active?

Not that I know of, Mike.

Let's look at how the three license classes that are closed to new entries have
declined in numbers:

Novice is now ~67% of where it was May 14, 2000
Advanced is now ~83% of where it was May 14, 2000
Tech Plus is now ~50% of where it was May 14, 2000

Of course the Tech Plus will decline the fastest because all Tech Pluses are
being renewed as Techs.

--

But if you want some interesting numbers, note that we are now down below
684,000, after peaking around 687,000. Extra and General continue to grow, and
Advanced is declining slowly. What gives?

One clue is to look at the AH0A site

http://www.ah0a.org

and look at the "new licenses" numbers. For some reason, the number of new
Technicians has dropped significantly in the past 2-3 months. The number of new
Generals and Extras continues at the same rate as before, so it's not due to an
FCC paper backup or seasonal variation.

So why the sudden dropoff in new Techs?

One definite possibility is the new Technician Q&A pool, which was introduced
on July 15th. The new pool has with 511 questions, while the old one had only
384 questions.

Prior to the new pool, the average number of new Techs was about 1700 a month.
Since then, it has dropped to less than 1000 per month.

Maybe this is just a temporary thing - or maybe it isn't. The code test cannot
be blamed for the drop because it's not a part of the Tech license
requirements.

73 de Jim, N2EY

N2EY wrote:

In article , Mike Coslo writes:


N2EY wrote:

These are the number of unexpired FCC ARS
licenses held by individuals on the dates listed:

snip

As of September 30, 2003:

Novice - 33,034 (decrease of 16,295)

snip

This may be hard to quantify, Jim, but is there any data or even
educated guessing about how many Novices are still actually active?


Not that I know of, Mike.

Let's look at how the three license classes that are closed to new entries have
declined in numbers:

Novice is now ~67% of where it was May 14, 2000
Advanced is now ~83% of where it was May 14, 2000
Tech Plus is now ~50% of where it was May 14, 2000

Of course the Tech Plus will decline the fastest because all Tech Pluses are
being renewed as Techs.

--

But if you want some interesting numbers, note that we are now down below
684,000, after peaking around 687,000. Extra and General continue to grow, and
Advanced is declining slowly. What gives?

One clue is to look at the AH0A site

http://www.ah0a.org

and look at the "new licenses" numbers. For some reason, the number of new
Technicians has dropped significantly in the past 2-3 months. The number of new
Generals and Extras continues at the same rate as before, so it's not due to an
FCC paper backup or seasonal variation.

So why the sudden dropoff in new Techs?

One definite possibility is the new Technician Q&A pool, which was introduced
on July 15th. The new pool has with 511 questions, while the old one had only
384 questions.

Coupled with many prospective technicians possibly holding out until
they might not have to take a Morse code test?


Prior to the new pool, the average number of new Techs was about 1700 a month.
Since then, it has dropped to less than 1000 per month.

Maybe this is just a temporary thing - or maybe it isn't. The code test cannot
be blamed for the drop because it's not a part of the Tech license
requirements.

Oh, I'll bet some try to blame it on that! 8^)

This may be hard to quantify, Jim, but is there any data or even
educated guessing about how many Novices are still actually active?



One could listen around the various novice subbands and copy down
callsigns, and
then go to qrz.com and look them up to get an idea of the precentage of
novices vs
other licenses active.

Another question would be how soon a new novice who gets into it
upgrades vs novices that never upgraded. Since no new novice licenses
have been issued in the last few years, it seems likely that anyone still
a novice likely lost interest in ham radio and thus inactive. But if
many renewals
of novice licenses are happening, then that's not a valid reasoning.....

N2EY wrote:

These are the number of unexpired FCC ARS
licenses held by individuals on the dates listed:

As of May 14, 2000:

You mean April 14th, yes? I upgraded from tech plus to
"extra lite" on April 15th, 2000. Otherwise I'd be counted as
an old extra below....


Novice - 49,329
Tech - 205,394
Tech Plus - 128,860
General - 112,677
Advanced - 99,782
Extra - 78,750 one of these is me!
Total - 674,792