Statistically speaking...

[K9CCH]

Remember, statistically, one out of every 500 cars you pass is another ham! On some interstates, that is one every 10 minutes.

Is this true?


I got it from here" http://aprs.org/VoiceAlert3.html

[Bubba]

Not in Guam its not..

[PA5COR]

less as 1 in 1000 people has a ham license here, the USA might have a bit better statistics 1 on 700 or so.

Not all Hams will own a car, and not all hams will be on the road when you are on the road, so i think that statistic might be a way bit off the truth.

[NQ6U]

According to the Wikipedia, in 2009 (most recent number I could find) there were 254,212,610 passenger vehicles on the road in the United States. In 2012, there were 738,497 amateur radio operators. If you simply divide, the number comes out to 344 cars per ham, but I think that's over-simplifying it considerably. For one thing, not every ham has a rig in his car—I don't, most of the time. I only put my 2m in when I'm traveling some distance. For another, a fair portion of those hams are not currently active.


Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passeng...er_of_vehicles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_radio_operator

[K7SGJ]

The ratio is a lot higher after a ham fest, and a lot lower near bathing facilities.

[kb2vxa]

The armpit said 1 in 500 are hams, he didn't say ham mobiles. Still methinks the figure is a bit high... 1... really? (;->)

[KG4NEL]

I've had the 706MKIIG out of my truck for years, although I still have the antennas on it - by now looking a bit worse for wear after too many run-ins with garage ceilings and trees.

So I guess I'm the asshole if anyone called out on .52 trying to talk, and I didn't answer

One of these days I'll put it back in and buy new Larsen antennas that don't look like they need a year's worth of Cialis.

[K7SGJ]

I've had the 706MKIIG out of my truck for years, although I still have the antennas on it - by now looking a bit worse for wear after too many run-ins with garage ceilings and trees.

So I guess I'm the asshole if anyone called out on .52 trying to talk, and I didn't answer

One of these days I'll put it back in and buy new Larsen antennas that don't look like they need a year's worth of Cialis.

Not an asshole, more like a, well.......a responsible driver, yeah, that's the ticket.

[kb2vxa]

WOT? Responsible drivers get tickets???

[NQ6U]

Here's an interesting take on the number of US amateur radio operators who are actually active—the writer estimates the number as maybe 25% of licensed hams. Assuming he is correct, that works out to about 180,000. Doing the same simple division as in my post above, that works out to 1,405,000 cars per ham. As Cor said, they're not all in their cars at any given moment, they're scattered all across a very large country and many of them don't have mobile rigs either, so that "every 500 cars" estimate is probably way off base.