ARLA/CLUSTER: De onde vêm esses novos radioamadores?

[João Costa > CT1FBF]

Where are Those New Hams Coming From?by Bob K0NR
<http://www.k0nr.com/wordpress/author/k0nr/>

The Tri-Lakes Monument Radio Association <http://www.w0tlm.com/> just
completed another successful Technician license class resulting in 21 new
Technicians plus one person that passed both the Technician and General
exams. We survey the class a week or two later to get their feedback and
capture some demographic information. In recent years, our Technician class
has consistently filled to capacity, causing us to ask the question “Where
are those new hams coming from?�

The key relevant question on the survey is:

<http://www.k0nr.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/tech-class-survey-response.png>I’ve
abbreviated the response choices so they read better on the graph. For
example, “Comms during disasters/event� actually says “For communications
during disasters or other major events� on the survey. These 18 responses
represent over half of the students so they are representative of the
class. However, it is a small sample size overall, representing just one
class at one time at one location in the US. I will add that the surveys
from our other classes are similar.

The two highest responses, both with 67%, are *Comms During Disasters/Event*
and *Backcountry Comms.* It was no surprise that communications during a
disaster would be a prime motivation for getting a ham radio license. Per
FCC Part 97, this is one of the stated purposes of the Amateur Radio
Service.  Here in Colorado, many people have had the recent experience of
wildfires disrupting communications causing them to look for alternatives.
In general, the prepper movement is causing people to think in terms of
disaster preparedness. Communications in the backcountry includes hikers,
climbers, fishermen, dirt bike riders, four-wheel drive enthusiasts and
anyone who spends time in the mountains. There are many locations in
Colorado that don’t have cellphone coverage, so people are looking for
alternative communications. This is likely a regional phenomenon…I don’t
think you’d see “backcountry communications� on the short list of amateur
radio interest is downtown Chicago.

Radio as a hobby gathers 50% of the responses, followed by 39% interested
in learning about radio communications. This says that about half of the
students are pursuing ham radio as a hobby. I wonder if this is different
that the historical average from 20 years ago? I suspect it used to be
higher but I don’t have any data to support that. This would likely be a
leading indicator for how many of these new licensees get deeply involved
in ham radio activities. I have seen students start out with a narrow focus
on emergency preparedness but then discover there’s a lot more to ham radio
that they choose to pursue.

What do you think about these results?

73, Bob K0NR
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