[bars] Hams as % of population

Sun Sep 10 22:54:23 EDT 2023

Here is my take on this, just an opinion, others may differ . . . I realize this may stir the pot but so be it . . . I been on HF since 1970 . . .

*	A lot of the EU hams are avid DXers and / or contesters.  It could be a “cultural” thing having to do with competitiveness.  At least that is the impression I got when I met many of them in person at the WARC 2014 wrap-up celebration. Think sports – whether it be EU/WW football, EU basketball players or hockey players coming to the states, etc.  The EU/WW hams call their hobby “RadioSport”.  So you will hear them on the HF bands and they are active Ops. 
*	Many of the EU hams do not have space or funding for a BIG station, so how to they get the BIG signals you may hear?  There are a lot more HF DX / contest clubs over there.  They pool their resources and build world-class club stations at prime locations. There are also DX/contest clubs in South America.
*	I work with a lot of engineers overseas for my day job, and find them to be very technically competent.
*	A lot of stateside hams are just into 2 meter/440 vs. HF, to keep in touch will local friends. Nothing wrong with that.  It’s a good social support network.  I myself have had folks ping me to see if I was “OK” after long periods of inactivity.
*	Some are first responder types (thank you for your service) that are primarily into EMCOMM,  CERT, ARES/RACES.  They may be to busy training to play on HF.
*	Others are NTS traffic handlers.  Even though NTS is not as “busy” as is once was, they are keeping the system active should it ever be needed.
*	Others are “preppers” – no explanation needed.
*	And some are “closet hams”, those that get their licenses but never get on the air.  Could have gotten their ticket just to please a family member get to them off their back.
*	Or maybe a new ham started listening on some “haters” frequencies on 20 40 or 75 meters and got turned off by that (and sadly so did the radio).  Don’t get me started on that.

But I digress . . . and I welcome other points of view, agree or disagree or neutral

Art

NF1A

From: bars <bars-bounces at w1hh.org> On Behalf Of Tim KC1RET
Sent: Tuesday, September 5, 2023 10:37 AM
To: w1hh <bars at w1hh.org>
Subject: [bars] Hams as % of population

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 ).

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 )

73,

T.

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