[bars] Hams as % of population

Tue Sep 5 11:33:14 EDT 2023

I attribute my contact experience to a combination of # of hams in a 
country and propagation.  There are times on 15m FT8, for example, where 
I can decode 24+ JA stations in a single period with only 2 or 3 non 
JAs.  However the raw number of Slovenian stations, despite a much 
easier path to the EU, is rather low due to a much smaller population 
(6,500 in 2000).

If you arrange that same listing by # of licensed hams the results are 
quite different:

The Top Ten by # of licensed hams
10: Russia
	38,000
9: South Korea
	42,632
8: Spain
	58,700
7: Germany
	63,070
6: Canada
	70,198
5: United Kingdom
	75,660
4:Thailand
	101,763
3: China
	150,000
2: Japan
	381,899
1: US
	779,545

Now, if you add propagation to the equation, my experience makes more 
sense.  Italy is #13 with 30,000 reported hams but this data is quite 
old, 1993, so I suspect the current number is rather different.  Another 
outlier, in my experience, is China. I have many contacts in Japan but 
only a small handful into China.  The data from Russia is also quite 
old, 1993.  I see tons of Russian stations on any given day.

I have not taken a stats class, but I can whip up a mean spreadsheet! ;-)

73,

T.

On 05-Sep-23 11:11, Nancy Araway wrote:
> I find this metric quite interesting for purposes of the ARRL or FEMA, 
> who have embedded interest in increasing the percent of the population 
> with RF communications capabilities.  But  it strikes me that it's a 
> really broad leap to compare how many contacts you make within a given 
> population to the license density within that population for the 
> purpose of understanding why you get more Q's from Germany, Spain and 
> Italy. While license density matters, it is only one factor in that 
> equation, and like Slovenia, can be entirely over ridden when 
> multiplied by the population of the country.
>
> I think the dominant factors would be the percent of global hams in 
> the country (country licenses/global licensees) times a geo-political 
> factor that measures how active hams are in each country (think 
> Germany vs. Korea), times a location dependent propagation factor.
>
> Sorry, sometimes I overthink these things.  I like Statistics.....
>
> Nan
> NK1A
>
> On Tuesday, September 5, 2023 at 10:37:24 AM EDT, Tim KC1RET 
> <kc1ret.radio at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> I was ruminating the other day about the relative percentage of hams 
> in various countries.  I seem to work A LOT of Italians, Spaniards and 
> Germans.  So a quick Google search led me to Wikipedia.  It has a 
> listing of hams by country ( https://bit.ly/3sI2aeR 
> <https://bit.ly/3sI2aeR> ).
>
> The Top Ten by % of Population
> 10: United Kingdom: 	0.114
> 9: New Zealand: 	0.120
> 8: Norway: (seriously?)
> 	0.125
> 7: Spain:
> 	0.127
> 6: Thailand:
> 	0.147
> 5: Denmark
> 	0.152
> 4: Canada:
> 	0.187
> 3: US:
> 	0.233
> 2: Japan:
> 	0.304
> 1: Slovenia:
> 	0.317
>
>
> Germany was 15 at 0.073% and Italy 21 at 0.049%.
>
> Slovenia was a bit of a surprise but it is a small country so a 
> relatively small population of hams (6,500 as of 2000) can tip the 
> scale pretty easily. Same with Norway with 6,818 hams as of 2022.  US 
> had almost 780,000 as of 2021.
>
> So we hams are a relative rarity, population wise - approx. 1 in 500 
> in the US.  We are LEET! ( https://bit.ly/45DwgyC 
> <https://bit.ly/45DwgyC> )
>
> 73,
>
> T.
> -- 
>
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>
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>
>       Tim Carter - KC1RET
>
> 			
>
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-- 

Courageously sent from a non-Apple device that /includes/ a headphone jack.

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<https://kc1ret.com/img/kc1ret-qsl-card-front-v3.png> 	

      Tim Carter - KC1RET

	+1.978.710.0133 <tel:1.978.710.0133>

	kc1ret.radio at gmail.com

	https://kc1ret.com

"Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid; humans are 
incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant; together they are powerful 
beyond imagination." -- /Albert Einstein/

Warning: Spelling errors in this message are the product of a poor 
school system. Pay teachures more than athletes.
IMPORTANT: This email is intended for the use of the individual 
addressee(s) named above and may contain information that is 
confidential privileged or unsuitable for overly sensitive persons with 
low self-esteem, no sense of humor or irrational religious beliefs. If 
you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or 
copying of this email is not authorized (either explicitly or 
implicitly) and constitutes an irritating social fauxpas. No animals 
were harmed in the transmission of this email, although the mutt next 
door is living on borrowed time, let me tell you.
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