ARLA/CLUSTER: Afinal o n.º de radioamadores australianos aumentou ou caiu em 2015.?

[João Costa > CT1FBF]

Number of Australian radio hams fell in 2015

This is WIA Director Roger Harrison VK2ZRH with news on licensee
numbers and what might be done about attracting new amateurs

In WIA News Roger VK2ZRH says:

In a recent broadcast, I reported that the total number of individual
amateur licensees in 2015 reached 14,144, which is up from 14,035 for
2014.

Well. I wuz wrong!

I am informed that the figure of 14,144 individual amateur licensees
for 2015, is in fact 13,977.

So – we lost fifty eight amateurs over 2015, compared to 2014, when
there were 14,035 licensees.

Marc Hillman VK3OHM, who ran the numbers from the ACMA database for
the WIA’s Open Forum Reports published for the AGM in May, has – er –
“confessed” to the error. “I accept all the blame for misleading
people”, he said in an email to me.

Marc’s sterling analytical efforts to provide snapshots of amateur
licensee numbers over the years are widely appreciated, no less so
than by the WIA Board.

I am reminded of a few lines from the Goon Shows' "Tales of old
Dartmoor". The Goons take Dartmoor Prison for a sailing holiday to the
south of France. Having discovered that Eccles is responsible for a
miscalculation in navigation, Neddy Seagoon berates Eccles, shouting:
"You idiot ! We're 4000 miles off-course !". Eccles responds with,
"Nobody's perfect . . "

Anyway, amid the bad news of 58 licensees lost over 2015, I took a
look at 2013 versus 2014.

We had 14,202 licensees in 2013, which fell to 14,035 for 2014. That’s
a loss of 167 amateurs.

Wow.

Can we conclude that the loss is declining because we only lost 58 over 2015?

Well, no. Not until we know what happened over this year.

Naturally, of course, the naysayers out there will blame these losses
on the nearest available target – the Institute.

But then. Aren’t we all in this together ?

At the regular August WIA Board meeting this past week, the Board
agreed to organise a symposium, you might call it a summit, in
November, in Canberra, for all those interested or involved in S T E M
or S T E A M activities – science technology engineering arts and
maths – to plan ways and means the amateur radio community can engage
those interested in technical pursuits.

This is one area from which future radio amateurs will likely emerge.

Watch this space.

This has been WIA Director Roger Harrison VK2ZRH for VK1WIA News

Source WIA http://www.wia.org.au/