ARLA/CLUSTER: Numero de radioamadores nos E.U.A. continua a aumentar

[João Costa > CT1FBF]

Ham Radio growth in the US

The ARRL report the number of amateur radio licenses in the USA is
continuing to grow. They note the situation in other countries and
make a misleading comment about the UK

The USA has three license exams Technician, General and Extra. These
are equivalent to the UK Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced exams.
It is worth noting that even holders of the US Foundation equivalent
the Technician are allowed to run 1500 watts output in contrast to the
10 watts the UK Foundation holder is allowed.

The USA used to have a two other license classes the Novice and the
Advanced license. The Novice license was designed to provide an
introduction to the hobby and permitted 200 watts output on HF. The
exam requirements were set at a level that enabled four year old
children to pass. The Novice license stopped being issued in 2000,
today slightly more than 13,000 people still have a Novice license.

The Advanced license required a Morse test of 13 WPM as against the 20
WPM of the Extra class. When the 13 WPM and 20 WPM Morse tests were
scrapped in 2000 in favor of a single 5 WPM test Advanced licenses
were no longer issued. Today there are 54,293 Advanced licenses
remaining.

The number of USA amateur licenses are:
Extra and Advanced 187,684
General 167,257
Technician 349,163

The ARRL VEC Manager Maria Somma, AB1FM, says that a significant
number of Technician licensees were earned through large emergency
communication and Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) classes.

The ARRL notes the dramatic slump in the number of Japanese amateur
station licenses in recent years but the article gives a rather
misleading impression of the situation in the UK.

They say "In the United Kingdom, 76,362 licensees were on record as of
March 2012 — up by 3.9 percent over 2011 — and growth was consistent."
which paints a completely false picture of the situation. The reality
is that the number of UK radio amateurs has fallen by 47% over the
past 7 years.

The UK licenses should be renewed (revalidated) every 5 years but the
regulator Ofcom recently admitted that 47% of the licenses reported in
their monthly statistics had not been renewed. The license statistics
still include people who died or gave up the hobby 7 years ago.

It must also be remembered that in the UK there is double or triple
counting of licenses. When people upgrade from Foundation to
Intermediate and Full (Advanced) their previous licenses remain in the
figures. In addition a significant number of amateurs hold two Full
(Advanced) licenses as a result of the old Class A / Class B license
structure.

Read the ARRL article at
http://www.arrl.org/news/amateur-radio-showing-steady-growth-
in-the-us

Ofcom UK Amateur Radio Licence Statistics
http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/radiocommunication-licences/
amateur-radio/guidance-for-licensees/monthly-stats/

How to validate your licence
http://www.essexham.co.uk/news/remember-to-validate-your-licence.html

Are UK amateur radio licences really on the increase?
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/september2013/
are_uk_amateur_radio_licences_really_on_the_increase.htm