Nice article

[W5GA]

marking that there are now over 700k licensed amateurs in the U.S.
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/11/17/radio-days-are-back-ham-radio-licenses-at-all-time-high/?test=faces (http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/11/17/radio-days-are-back-ham-radio-licenses-at-all-time-high/?test=faces)

[KC2UGV]

If this were another forum, the naysayers claiming ham radio died once the no-code requirements came into effect, would be in full-force....

And, then the ones claiming it died once they discovered anything emcomm related...

And, then the ones claiming it died once they discovered contesting...

And, then Chuckle claiming it died once PIII replaced his mode(s) of choice...

[W2NAP]

most are paper hams who never key a radio.

[KC2UGV]

most are paper hams who never key a radio.

Why do you say that? And, in your opinion, when did the influx of paper hams start?

[W3WN]

Well, I'll tell you Corey, I won't say "most." But I would venture that based on my own experiences online the last 6 years, there are a significant number of people who post opinions (and often nonsense) to the various forums... be it here (though not so much here), the Zed, eHam, Hamsexy, and many others... whose exposure to RF appears to be, at best, limited to an HT on the belt.

Take... well, let's keep names out of it, but one known Zedder comes to mind, for example. Despite all his kvetching and moaning about Packet, Hinternet, Winlink, Sailmail, and so forth... when did you actually ever hear him say he was on the air? The only time that I can recall was when he was claiming that Station "A" on one coast was interferring with Station "B" on the other coast. He knew this for a fact, because being in Texas, he could hear both simultaneously, and he wanted to listen to "A" but not "B". No explanation of how propagation works or how it is possible for both "A" & "B" to share a frequency and never know would dissuade him. And for all his talk about TexNet, what has he actually done to bring it back or set up an equivalent? Nothing.

Another one was once a well known columnist and author. He can regale you with many tales of the Good 'Ol Days on 2 meter FM. But has he actually picked up a mike or key recently? Or in the last decade?

Then there's our mad scientist of the fractal antennas, who bounces around several sites. He often would try to out-shout anyone who dared to disagree with him, he has a doctorate after all. And he took real umbrage at any suggestion that he used any harvesting techniques to acquire his current 1x2, even when those suggestions came from the guy who said he helped in that particular harvest. Ever hear him talk about doing anything on the air?

I could dredge up more examples, but you get the idea.

On the other hand, take two of our resident Left Coasters. OK, their resident Left Coasters. One from my home state, who does tend to come across as a bit of a patronizing know-it-all. He may know more about buying an antenna-friendly house than anyone on several sites, though. And I've actually heard him on the air, ragchewing on 17 meters.

Then there's everyone's favorite pack rat & low-level hoarder of radio-related electronics. His tall tales are just that, but when you brush away the hyperbole and hype, he does actually work DX and ragchews a little.

So I'd disagree with "most." Change it to "many" and I'm with 'IBC on this one.

And in all fairness, some of those "paper" hams have circumstances that prevent them from presently getting on the air -- lack of money, lack of equipment, lack of antenna or a place to put one, and so on. But at least they're trying. Many others wouldn't know which end of a PL-259 to insert... or where...

[KC2UGV]

You do not have to be heard on the air, in order to be a ham, really. Having an amateur license allows one to experiment utilizing our bands.

I'm not often on the air, I'm generally working on stuff for the soundmodem project (Such as bug tracking), Codec2 (Code refactoring, and bug tracking), and other experimental stuff.

I would not consider myself to be a "paper ham", however.

But, I guess it just boils down to this: If they are just paper hams, they must be renewing licenses, since the number continues to grow over the past decade at least.

[W2NAP]

Here are the "ham" in my and surounding zip codes

46012 - 65
46011 - 61
46013 - 51
46014 - 1
46015 - 1
46016 - 37
46017 - 26
46018 - 2
46001 - 50
46044 - 20
46036 - 28
46070 - 19
46063 - 2
46064 - 39
46056 - 8
46051 - 4
46048 - 2

Total Hams in Madison County Indiana - 416
and Id say 10% or less actually key a radio up at least once a year
about 5% may be active at least once a week or more.
90% never heard any of them on the air anywhere.

even if 10% of that 90 is dead (licence not expired) your still looking 80% just paper hams. or about 334 tickets are not used.

147.435 is the most active 2 meter freq in this county. So if these 80% actually had a radio chances are they would show up on 435. Hell we have had more out of county hams show up on 435 then in county.

So when I say most are just paper hams. there is what im talkin about.

Put this on a national level. lets say 60% are paper thats 420,188 paper hams.

[kb2vxa]

Well, since finding myself without antennas I became a paper ham and I'm not at all pleased with it. Yes, I keep my license current and keep my equipment because should the curse be broken one day I'm ready to hit the airwaves once again. Meanwhile I use a Telnet link to a packet BBS (I know you hate land line lids) so all is not lost. And now for some of my usual stuff...

"...and you'll see why the American Radio Relay League -- the authority on all things ham -- is calling it a "golden age."
...and you'll see why the American Radio E-mail and EMCOMM League -- the authority on all things ham and only game in town -- is calling it a "golden age."
There, that's better.

“The fox hunting is really fun -- the thrill of the chase, the competition of being the first to find the transmitter,”
The fox hunting is really fun -- the thrill of the chase, the competition of being the first to find the transmitter, and blow it up is an adrenalin rush.
Watch out Faux News, the hams are coming!

"HAM IT UP!"
Gordo

[KC2UGV]

Here are the "ham" in my and surounding zip codes

46012 - 65
46011 - 61
46013 - 51
46014 - 1
46015 - 1
46016 - 37
46017 - 26
46018 - 2
46001 - 50
46044 - 20
46036 - 28
46070 - 19
46063 - 2
46064 - 39
46056 - 8
46051 - 4
46048 - 2

Total Hams in Madison County Indiana - 416
and Id say 10% or less actually key a radio up at least once a year
about 5% may be active at least once a week or more.
90% never heard any of them on the air anywhere.

even if 10% of that 90 is dead (licence not expired) your still looking 80% just paper hams. or about 334 tickets are not used.

147.435 is the most active 2 meter freq in this county. So if these 80% actually had a radio chances are they would show up on 435. Hell we have had more out of county hams show up on 435 then in county.

So when I say most are just paper hams. there is what im talkin about.

Put this on a national level. lets say 60% are paper thats 420,188 paper hams.

How many are too busy doing packet and APRS (And other digital modes), so you'd never hear them?

It would be quite challenging to hear my voice OTA. Sometimes, I hit up 10M on FM and SSB, but that's about it.

[W2NAP]

How many are too busy doing packet and APRS (And other digital modes), so you'd never hear them?

It would be quite challenging to hear my voice OTA. Sometimes, I hit up 10M on FM and SSB, but that's about it.

with most of these tickets being techs, most got the ticket due to the orange vest save the world deal.

Most of these hams specially in my area you dont see any antennas on homes nor cars. and they sure as hell ain't on a ht using repeaters here cause those sit silent 98% of the time. A new ham isnt going to run out 1st thing just for digi modes. 1st thing they are going to do is voice.

hell we get more activity out of the local jammers here then we do 80% of the tickets around here.

[KC2UGV]

with most of these tickets being techs, most got the ticket due to the orange vest save the world deal.

Most of these hams specially in my area you dont see any antennas on homes nor cars. and they sure as hell ain't on a ht using repeaters here cause those sit silent 98% of the time. A new ham isnt going to run out 1st thing just for digi modes. 1st thing they are going to do is voice.

hell we get more activity out of the local jammers here then we do 80% of the tickets around here.

I think your notion of what new hams will and wont do is a little misplaced. Yes, they might run out and do voice, but as in my case, that lasted about a week, then I had my interface built.

As for not seeing the antennas, you know, an antenna is a rather easy thing to hide, right? If I see an antenna, I assume it's a CB'er lol

[W7XF]

There's 115 licences listed in my ZIP code....sadly, MANY reside in HOA-hell; in some cases, an HT is in violation of CC&Rs.

SO, I'd say 75-80% are "paper" hams. I saw 2 or 3 SK's that I recalled on the list...

[X-Rated]

10% of the hams in my zip code are in my household.

[K7SGJ]

100% of the hams in my household live in our zip code.

[X-Rated]

33% of the hams in our household presently reside in our zip code since two of them are away at college.

[W2NAP]

I think your notion of what new hams will and wont do is a little misplaced. Yes, they might run out and do voice, but as in my case, that lasted about a week, then I had my interface built.

As for not seeing the antennas, you know, an antenna is a rather easy thing to hide, right? If I see an antenna, I assume it's a CB'er lol

they might only last a week when they figure out only thing allowed on the machines around there is "you must act like your a police dispatcher with the xxxxx this is xxxxxx hi john how is your grass growing" have to be 100% formal no fun talk. then you have the others who just got the ticket to "toss on a orange vest save the day" wacker ecom stuff. (which honestly i believe 60%+ of the tickets are these guys)

[N8YX]

I'm a 1%er.

Part of the 1% who tinkers more than operates; listens more than talks.

There are 10 receivers and transceivers powered up near me as I'm typing this. I may or may not work anyone via any of that equipment today but I'll certainly be doing a lot of monitoring and will have an HT along for our bike ride. It will probably see some action if the local simplex crowd fires up - I want to see how far south in the county I can go and effectively communicate with the handlebar-mounted setup.

The outcome will help determine what's needed to construct a WIRES-linked VHF/UHF node which has decent coverage. Infrastructure creation and operation is another vector by which I (along with a number of like-minded hams) "play radio": You may not hear us frequently but the services we provide are used and appreciated by all.

[N7YA]

Want to hear how much contesting has killed ham radio? Turn the rig on to anywhere in the CW subband this weekend....will be dead as a doornail....Not!

[N8YX]

There's a DL8 on 10M at the moment - 28.417 - running NA stations one after the other. Dead? Hardly.