RadioReference.com Forums
Taking a break from my General Class studies, I checked the HamData.Com website and saw the rather large number of new ham operators.
To be honest, I was a bit surprised, especially in the face of the ever growing variety of smart devices, which, in my opinion, outperform any radio 100-to-1 hands down, so I'm not sure about the reason why so many people get into ham, but I find it very interesting.
Year to year, the number of hams grew by over 13,500 in the US, that's over 1,100+ a month:
- Technician: 4910
- General: 5253
- Extra: 3377 (WOW!)
On the other hand, I was surprised by the Total number of hams in the US to be ONLY 796,146, which I thought would be a LOT more, considering the large population.
- Total Tech: 389,930
- Total General: 183,019
- Total Extra: 143,685
(I did not include the values for the previous classes that had been discontinued.)
Based upon the upper figures it seems that after the Tech license, most people are upgrading towards the Extra. That is pretty cool!
So, what may be the reason to this rather drastic growth? Is it because ham radio is an interesting hobby, or because handy talkies are all over in electronics stores and people get interested in them, or more and more people think about some SHTF survival situation?
Well, whatever the reason, it's good to know that this hobby is definitely picking up steam.
To be honest, I was a bit surprised, especially in the face of the ever growing variety of smart devices, which, in my opinion, outperform any radio 100-to-1 hands down, so I'm not sure about the reason why so many people get into ham, but I find it very interesting.
Year to year, the number of hams grew by over 13,500 in the US, that's over 1,100+ a month:
- Technician: 4910
- General: 5253
- Extra: 3377 (WOW!)
On the other hand, I was surprised by the Total number of hams in the US to be ONLY 796,146, which I thought would be a LOT more, considering the large population.
- Total Tech: 389,930
- Total General: 183,019
- Total Extra: 143,685
(I did not include the values for the previous classes that had been discontinued.)
Based upon the upper figures it seems that after the Tech license, most people are upgrading towards the Extra. That is pretty cool!
So, what may be the reason to this rather drastic growth? Is it because ham radio is an interesting hobby, or because handy talkies are all over in electronics stores and people get interested in them, or more and more people think about some SHTF survival situation?
Well, whatever the reason, it's good to know that this hobby is definitely picking up steam.