[AMRadio] Ham Radio Growing in the Age of Twitter

[k5wlf]

David,

I have to disagree with your conclusion.  Your survey was taken within a unique subset of the general population of licensed hams. The mere fact that a ham is a member of this email group almost makes it a given that they were born with a soldering iron in one hand and a roll of Ersin Multicore in the other, and have plated their lungs with lead/tin smoke since before they could walk. I'm actually surprised that you didn't get 100% "YES' response to all three questions.

However, if you gave this same survey to a group of hams from the "general population", I believe the results would be much different. Regrettably, the majority of hams these days are simply appliance operators, with little or no interest in or knowledge of, homebrew and DIY. At a recent club meeting, another ham and I gave a presentation on a couple of coil-loaded 160m dipoles we'd built. Of a group of 22 or 23, there were only 2 hams who were really interested in the process and the product. Most of the rest have no interest in ever getting off the local 2m repeater.

I wish it was different, but those of us who like to build, modify and repair are in a very small minority of licensed hams.

73,
ldb
 --
  Larry D. Barr, K5WLF
  PIO, ARRL NTX District 3
  SKYWARN Spotter/Net Control
  Erath County (TX) ARES AEC
  Erath County (TX) RACES CLO (Alt)
  Erath County (TX) Emergency Management
  Website: http://www.rebelwolf.com/
  Blog: http://www.rebelwolf.com/blog/


 	-------Original Message-------
  From: David Knepper
  To: Discussion of AM Radio in the Amateur Service
  Subject: Re: [AMRadio] Ham Radio Growing in the Age of Twitter
  Sent: 08 Apr '10 06:21

  Based on my sample size of 43 that results indicate that 99 percent
  responded affirmatively to each of the statements in the first survey.  I
  concluded that there is a high likelihood that the entire populations of
  like hams would express a similar response rate at a 95 percent confidence
  level.

  Thank you to all those that participated in this survey.

  David Knepper, W3ST/W3CRA
  Publisher of the Collins Journal
  Secretary of the Collins Radio Association
  www.collinsra.com
  Join today
  Nets: 14.263 Mhz, 1900Z, Sundays
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