"John Smith" wrote in message
news
Dee:

We are possibly talking about 300,000 hams in the us, that is NOT a large
number for a good hobby... compare that to millions of bicyclists,
millions of fishermen, millions of bowlers, etc, etc... perhaps skydivers
are near that number, 300,000, but only because many of us are too damn
smart and won't jump out of a plane with a large sized piece of ripstop
nylon attached to us!


There are over 600,000 hams in the US.

How you quote such dismal numbers in amateur radio as if they/it are
something to be proud of does nothing but amaze me! As I have pointed out
before, there are MAGNITUDES more illegal aliens here than hams!

John


In this day and age, any technical or semi-technical hobby is lucky to have
any members at all.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE

Dee:

I differ with that figure, I think it is inflated about half, this is
VERY apparent when tuning the bands... something is OBVIOUSLY wrong with
that figure. I suspect it is like our "unemployment figure" here in the
USA, that ONLY depicts those who are "drawing" unemployment, not those who
have used up their unemployment, only worked part time and are not
eligible, those who have given up on looking for work, etc...

Those figures are "cooked" and those in the know--KNOW IT!

John

On Fri, 05 Aug 2005 20:39:25 -0400, Dee Flint wrote:


"John Smith" wrote in message
news
Dee:

We are possibly talking about 300,000 hams in the us, that is NOT a large
number for a good hobby... compare that to millions of bicyclists,
millions of fishermen, millions of bowlers, etc, etc... perhaps skydivers
are near that number, 300,000, but only because many of us are too damn
smart and won't jump out of a plane with a large sized piece of ripstop
nylon attached to us!


There are over 600,000 hams in the US.

How you quote such dismal numbers in amateur radio as if they/it are
something to be proud of does nothing but amaze me! As I have pointed out
before, there are MAGNITUDES more illegal aliens here than hams!

John


In this day and age, any technical or semi-technical hobby is lucky to have
any members at all.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE

John Smith wrote:
Dee:

I differ with that figure, I think it is inflated about half, this is
VERY apparent when tuning the bands...


Good grief!! So you can tell from listening to the bands how many hams
there are. WOW!! Do you think all 600,000+ licensed operators are on at
the same time? Do you even think all 600,000 are active on the bands?
Which bands to you tune? Do you think you can hear all the stations that
are on 40 meters? Do you think you can hear all the stations that are on
20, 15, 10 meters at any one time? Can you hear all the 2 meter, 440,
and other UHF activity going on all over the country?
Do you think?

As of July 31, 2005

Novice - 27,975 (-43.28%) (-21,354)
Tech/+ - 317,655 (-5.02%) (-16,800)
General - 136,435 (+20.81%) (+23,490)
Advanced - 75,812 (-24.28%) (-24,236)
Extra - 106,900 (+35.74%) (+28,150)

Total All Classes - 664,040

commander buzzard:

.... yawn ...

John

On Fri, 05 Aug 2005 20:53:20 -0700, Cmdr Buzz Corey wrote:

John Smith wrote:
Dee:

I differ with that figure, I think it is inflated about half, this is
VERY apparent when tuning the bands...


Good grief!! So you can tell from listening to the bands how many hams
there are. WOW!! Do you think all 600,000+ licensed operators are on at
the same time? Do you even think all 600,000 are active on the bands?
Which bands to you tune? Do you think you can hear all the stations that
are on 40 meters? Do you think you can hear all the stations that are on
20, 15, 10 meters at any one time? Can you hear all the 2 meter, 440,
and other UHF activity going on all over the country?
Do you think?

As of July 31, 2005

Novice - 27,975 (-43.28%) (-21,354)
Tech/+ - 317,655 (-5.02%) (-16,800)
General - 136,435 (+20.81%) (+23,490)
Advanced - 75,812 (-24.28%) (-24,236)
Extra - 106,900 (+35.74%) (+28,150)

Total All Classes - 664,040

I differ with that figure, I think it is inflated about half, this is
VERY apparent when tuning the bands...

I doubt that it's any more inflated today than it was decades
before.



Good grief!! So you can tell from listening to the bands how many hams
there are. WOW!! Do you think all 600,000+ licensed operators are on at
the same time?

Only on the frequency I'm trying to snag that rare DX on.. :-)

But to a first order approximation the ratio of people
actually transmitting right now to the total number of
hams would be essentially constant.

John Smith wrote:
Dee:

I differ with that figure, I think it is inflated about half, this is
VERY apparent when tuning the bands... something is OBVIOUSLY wrong with
that figure. I suspect it is like our "unemployment figure" here in the
USA, that ONLY depicts those who are "drawing" unemployment, not those who
have used up their unemployment, only worked part time and are not
eligible, those who have given up on looking for work, etc...

Those figures are "cooked" and those in the know--KNOW IT!

John

You purport to be an active radio amateur and you didn't even have a
realistic idea of how many hams there are in the United States? Do you
think the FCC and ARRL are in collusion and they've whipped up some
massive coverup of the number of licensees? Sheesh!

Dave Heil

"Dave Heil" wrote in message
k.net...
John Smith wrote:
Dee:

I differ with that figure, I think it is inflated about half, this is
VERY apparent when tuning the bands... something is OBVIOUSLY wrong with
that figure. I suspect it is like our "unemployment figure" here in the
USA, that ONLY depicts those who are "drawing" unemployment, not those
who
have used up their unemployment, only worked part time and are not
eligible, those who have given up on looking for work, etc... Those
figures are "cooked" and those in the know--KNOW IT!

John

You purport to be an active radio amateur and you didn't even have a
realistic idea of how many hams there are in the United States? Do you
think the FCC and ARRL are in collusion and they've whipped up some
massive coverup of the number of licensees? Sheesh!

Dave Heil

And he obviously hasn't been on the bands during a major contest! Wall to
wall signals is inadequate to describe the activity.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE

Dee:

Nope, never have seen all the bandwidths in as much use as back during the
70's and early 80's, did you have a ticket back then? My gawd, those
oldtimers have forgotten what a real "pileup" means! Congestion worse
than imagined in my worst nightmare!

Never have had interest in "contesting", much prefer just a gentle
argument around stuff which "seems to matter"... never had a wall covered
with QSL cards, only asked the ones who interested me, which I wanted to
be reminded of, to correspond--hell, guess I am "not with it", but never
have been, don't count one me now to "get with it."
lack-a-daisyial-grin-and-a-wink... that "different drummer" has always
caught my attention, started listening as a youth, never quit...

I have never been afraid to be different, if there is just one of me--so
be it!

John

On Sat, 06 Aug 2005 00:51:27 -0400, Dee Flint wrote:


"Dave Heil" wrote in message
k.net...
John Smith wrote:
Dee:

I differ with that figure, I think it is inflated about half, this is
VERY apparent when tuning the bands... something is OBVIOUSLY wrong with
that figure. I suspect it is like our "unemployment figure" here in the
USA, that ONLY depicts those who are "drawing" unemployment, not those
who
have used up their unemployment, only worked part time and are not
eligible, those who have given up on looking for work, etc... Those
figures are "cooked" and those in the know--KNOW IT!

John

You purport to be an active radio amateur and you didn't even have a
realistic idea of how many hams there are in the United States? Do you
think the FCC and ARRL are in collusion and they've whipped up some
massive coverup of the number of licensees? Sheesh!

Dave Heil

And he obviously hasn't been on the bands during a major contest! Wall to
wall signals is inadequate to describe the activity.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE

John Smith wrote:
Dee:

Nope, never have seen all the bandwidths in as much use as back during the
70's and early 80's, did you have a ticket back then? My gawd, those
oldtimers have forgotten what a real "pileup" means! Congestion worse
than imagined in my worst nightmare!

It's a nice story. It is a pity that t'ain't true. I've run pileups
spanning five to seven KHz for as long as six hours at a time, working
200-300 CW QSOs per hour. That happened as recently as 2000. DXing and
contesting aren't games about twenty and thirty years ago, they're
about what you've done lately. Contest scores have gotten bigger. The
top scorers work more stations than were worked two or three decades ago.
There are domestic scores now which top the world high scores of that
many years ago.

Dave K8MN

Dave:

A useful figure here would be the percentage of hams who contest... Dee
seems to think all 600,000 (and yes, I don't think that figure is even
close to correct) do...

John

On Sun, 07 Aug 2005 00:40:39 +0000, Dave Heil wrote:

John Smith wrote:
Dee:

Nope, never have seen all the bandwidths in as much use as back during the
70's and early 80's, did you have a ticket back then? My gawd, those
oldtimers have forgotten what a real "pileup" means! Congestion worse
than imagined in my worst nightmare!

It's a nice story. It is a pity that t'ain't true. I've run pileups
spanning five to seven KHz for as long as six hours at a time, working
200-300 CW QSOs per hour. That happened as recently as 2000. DXing and
contesting aren't games about twenty and thirty years ago, they're
about what you've done lately. Contest scores have gotten bigger. The
top scorers work more stations than were worked two or three decades ago.
There are domestic scores now which top the world high scores of that
many years ago.

Dave K8MN