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Author Topic: FCC License Counts  (Read 843642 times)

K0UA

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Re: RE: FCC License Counts
« Reply #1230 on: January 04, 2023, 03:34:18 PM »

From http://www.arrl.org/fcc-license-counts,

the number of current unexpired FCC issued amateur licenses held by individuals on January 1, 2023 was:

Novice:                    6,314      (0.8%)
Technician            387,676     (50.4%)
Technician Plus               0       (0.0%)
General                186,413     (24.2%)
Advanced               34,537       (4.5%)
Extra                    154,482     (20.1%)

Total                    769,422

Percentages may not add up to exactly 100.0% due to rounding.

No new Novice or Advanced licenses have been issued since April 2000. However, the totals for those classes may sometimes show an increase over prior numbers due to renewals in the grace period.

This is not a new all-time high. It is provided to avoid a large gap in the timeline.

The all-time high total of 780,526 occurred November 24, 2021

73 de Jim, N2EY

Fixed if for you.  :)
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73  James K0UA

N2EY

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Re: RE: FCC License Counts
« Reply #1231 on: January 06, 2023, 05:02:41 PM »

From http://www.arrl.org/fcc-license-counts,

the number of current unexpired FCC issued amateur licenses held by individuals on January 5, 2023 was:

Novice:                    6,300      (0.8%)
Technician            387,569     (50.4%)
Technician Plus               0       (0.0%)
General                186,367     (24.2%)
Advanced               34,474       (4.5%)
Extra                    154,410     (20.1%)

Total                    769,120

Percentages may not add up to exactly 100.0% due to rounding.

No new Novice or Advanced licenses have been issued since April 2000. However, the totals for those classes may sometimes show an increase over prior numbers due to renewals in the grace period.

This is not a new all-time high. It is provided to avoid a large gap in the timeline.

The all-time high total of 780,526 occurred November 24, 2021

73 de Jim, N2EY
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N2EY

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Re: RE: FCC License Counts
« Reply #1232 on: January 09, 2023, 10:31:24 AM »

From http://www.arrl.org/fcc-license-counts,

the number of current unexpired FCC issued amateur licenses held by individuals on January 7, 2023 was:

Novice:                    6,297      (0.8%)
Technician            387,515     (50.4%)
Technician Plus               0       (0.0%)
General                186,346     (24.2%)
Advanced               34,473       (4.5%)
Extra                    154,405     (20.1%)

Total                    769,036

Percentages may not add up to exactly 100.0% due to rounding.

No new Novice or Advanced licenses have been issued since April 2000. However, the totals for those classes may sometimes show an increase over prior numbers due to renewals in the grace period.

This is not a new all-time high. It is provided to avoid a large gap in the timeline.

The all-time high total of 780,526 occurred November 24, 2021

73 de Jim, N2EY
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N2EY

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Re: RE: FCC License Counts
« Reply #1233 on: January 24, 2023, 10:33:44 AM »

From http://www.arrl.org/fcc-license-counts,

the number of current unexpired FCC issued amateur licenses held by individuals on January 23, 2023 was:

Novice:                    6,262      (0.8%)
Technician            386,769     (50.3%)
Technician Plus               0       (0.0%)
General                186,339     (24.3%)
Advanced               34,379       (4.5%)
Extra                    154,433     (20.1%)

Total                    768,182

Percentages may not add up to exactly 100.0% due to rounding.

No new Novice or Advanced licenses have been issued since April 2000. However, the totals for those classes may sometimes show an increase over prior numbers due to renewals in the grace period.

This is not a new all-time high. It is provided to avoid a large gap in the timeline.

The all-time high total of 780,526 occurred November 24, 2021

73 de Jim, N2EY
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AI5BC

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Re: FCC License Counts
« Reply #1234 on: January 24, 2023, 02:07:11 PM »

Down 804 in a week.
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N2EY

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Re: FCC License Counts
« Reply #1235 on: January 25, 2023, 09:39:02 AM »

Down 804 in a week.

It's not a good idea to extrapolate from short-term changes, because the numbers fluctuate widely due to VEC/FCC processing and other factors.

Better to step back and look at the longer term - say, a year.

Since November of 2021 we've lost about 12,000. That's about 200 per week, average.


73 de Jim, N2EY
« Last Edit: January 25, 2023, 09:43:15 AM by N2EY »
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VE3WGO

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Re: FCC License Counts
« Reply #1236 on: January 25, 2023, 11:56:51 AM »

has anyone consolidated or graphed these numbers to see when the total ham population peaked?

73, Ed
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AI5BC

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Re: FCC License Counts
« Reply #1237 on: January 25, 2023, 04:55:49 PM »

Since November of 2021 we've lost about 12,000. That's about 200 per week, average.
That was my point, dwindling fast and accelerating.
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N2EY

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Re: RE: FCC License Counts
« Reply #1238 on: February 10, 2023, 07:50:02 AM »

From http://www.arrl.org/fcc-license-counts,

the number of current unexpired FCC issued amateur licenses held by individuals on February 9, 2023 was:

Novice:                    6,234      (0.8%)
Technician            386,171     (50.3%)
Technician Plus               0       (0.0%)
General                186,285     (24.3%)
Advanced               34,272       (4.5%)
Extra                    154,419     (20.1%)

Total                    767,381

Percentages may not add up to exactly 100.0% due to rounding.

No new Novice or Advanced licenses have been issued since April 2000. However, the totals for those classes may sometimes show an increase over prior numbers due to renewals in the grace period.

This is not a new all-time high. It is provided to avoid a large gap in the timeline.

The all-time high total of 780,526 occurred November 24, 2021

73 de Jim, N2EY
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N2EY

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Re: RE: FCC License Counts
« Reply #1239 on: February 10, 2023, 08:00:23 AM »

From http://www.arrl.org/fcc-license-counts

the number of current unexpired FCC issued amateur licenses held by individuals on November 24, 2021 was:

Novice:                    6,905      (0.9%)
Technician            396,978     (50.9%)
Technician Plus               0       (0.0%)
General                186,143     (23.8%)
Advanced               36,244      (4.6%)
Extra                    154,256    (19.8%)

Total                    780,526

From the same source, the number of current unexpired FCC issued amateur licenses held by individuals on February 9, 2023 was:

Novice:                    6,234      (0.8%) (decrease of 671)
Technician            386,171     (50.3%) (decrease of 10,807)
Technician Plus               0       (0.0%)
General                186,285     (24.3%) (increase of 142)
Advanced               34,272       (4.5%) (decrease of 1,972)
Extra                    154,419     (20.1%) (decrease of 107)

Total                    767,381

Percentages may not add up to exactly 100.0% due to rounding.

No new Novice or Advanced licenses have been issued since April 2000, so decreases in those license totals are to be expected. However, the totals for those classes may sometimes show an increase over prior numbers due to renewals in the grace period.

Note that the percentage of US amateurs with Technicians has decreased while the percentage of Generals and Extras have increased.


73 de Jim, N2EY
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WW5F

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Re: FCC License Counts
« Reply #1240 on: February 11, 2023, 08:30:57 AM »

Two things that puzzle me to no end.

1.  Why is there still a column to keep track of "Tech-Plus" licenses if there are no longer any "Tech-plus's" and no way for technicians to upgrade to "Tech-Plus?"

2.  It's been 23 years since the Novice license was dropped.  Why are there still 6,233 (10-Feb-2023) Novices?  (Apparently another one expired the day after.)

These lead me to question at least a couple other things about people in general and the unnecessary administrative efforts of the FCC and the ARRL.

Time will tell when enough of us old hams die off and the pressure to try to keep an old, obsolete way of thinking about how to keep ham radio alive diminishes enough to allow a new generation of hams take over.
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K4KYV

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Re: FCC License Counts
« Reply #1241 on: February 14, 2023, 04:39:14 PM »

I predict there will soon be a precipitous drop in numbers if nothing is done about the licence renewal debacle.

Many who haven't been active for years but who have maintained their licence because it was easy enough to do, will simply let it go once they see all the hoops they will now have to jump through to renew.  Many who have passed the Tech exam (or higher) without any real interest in amateur radio won't follow through once they see the ordeal they will have to go through to complete the process.
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N2EY

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Re: FCC License Counts
« Reply #1242 on: February 15, 2023, 08:52:00 PM »

Two things that puzzle me to no end.

1.  Why is there still a column to keep track of "Tech-Plus" licenses if there are no longer any "Tech-plus's" and no way for technicians to upgrade to "Tech-Plus?"

Don't know for sure. My guess is that the web page was set up years ago and does the calculations automatically, and they don't see a reason to do the work to eliminate that column.

Quote
2.  It's been 23 years since the Novice license was dropped.  Why are there still 6,233 (10-Feb-2023) Novices?  (Apparently another one expired the day after.)

There were about 50,000 Novices when FCC stopped issuing new ones in April 2000. Those 6,233 are the last remaining few. They make up less than 1% of US amateurs.

FCC also stopped issuing new Advanced licenses in April 2000 as well. There were about 100,000 Advanceds when that happened.

Quote
These lead me to question at least a couple other things about people in general and the unnecessary administrative efforts of the FCC and the ARRL.

What "unnecessary administrative efforts" of the ARRL?

Here's what I think is going on:

First, 10 year license terms mean that a considerable number of SKs and dropouts who will never return still show in the numbers. At least some of them are Novices and Advanceds.

Second, some inactive or barely-active folks keep renewing, figuring that they will someday become active again. At least some of them are Novices and Advanceds.

Third, there are some who see their Novice or Advanced as some sort of badge of honor, and want to be the "last man standing" or something. I have encountered some who cling to the license because they claim it proves they passed a code test. Stuff like that.

Fourth, I think that back in 1999 FCC chose the path of least work for them. By closing off the Novice and Advanced to new issues and reducing code testing to 5 wpm, they eliminated medical waivers, 2 written tests and 2 code tests, and a ton of administrative work in upgrades. In 2007, they dropped the 5 wpm code test, leaving just 3 written tests. Much less admin work for FCC.

It costs FCC practically nothing to keep the rules specific to the Novice and Advanced licenses, so they just let the system roll on. Eventually the last Novice and Advanced will either drop out or upgrade, and they can change the rules then.

Leaving the system alone saves the FCC a lot of hand-wringing and decision-making, too. Here's why:

In 1999, when they were deciding what to do about Novice and Advanced, they had three choices:

1) Downgrade and/or stop renewing all Novice and/or Advanced licenses.

2) No-test upgrade Novice and/or Advanced licenses.

3) Stop issuing new ones but let existing Novices and Advanceds continue.

Options 1) and 2) would result in lots of wailing and moaning from the amateur community, proposals, comments, etc.

Downgrading would be seen as "you're taking away what I worked for without any reason!".

Upgrading would be seen as a "giveaway".

Both would require more admin work by FCC to implement. They would also set precedents that FCC would want to avoid.

Option 3) was the easiest path. And there's an historical precedent: At the end of 1952, FCC stopped issuing new Advanced licenses. For more than 15 years, no new Advanced licenses were issued, but existing ones could be renewed and modified. Then, in 1967, the Advanced was opened to new issues again, as part of "incentive licensing".


Quote
Time will tell when enough of us old hams die off and the pressure to try to keep an old, obsolete way of thinking about how to keep ham radio alive diminishes enough to allow a new generation of hams take over.

That won't happen.

There are no "generations" in amateur radio, and no real consensus either. That's why changes are so few.

There's also the fact that getting FCC to change the rules in a way that makes more admin work for FCC is all but impossible. Look at almost every change to the license structure and testing for the past 40 years, and you'll see that the vast majority of the changes resulted in less admin work for FCC. 10 year license terms meant half the number of renewals. The VEC/QPC system took the work of preparing and administering license tests off of paid Federal employees and gave it to unpaid volunteers. The changes in 2000 reduced the admin work even further. Heck, FCC doesn't even send out paper licenses any more; you have to download a PDF and print it yourself if you want a paper license document.

73 de Jim, N2EY
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N2EY

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Re: RE: FCC License Counts
« Reply #1243 on: February 15, 2023, 08:55:55 PM »

From http://www.arrl.org/fcc-license-counts,

the number of current unexpired FCC issued amateur licenses held by individuals on February 14, 2023 was:

Novice:                    6,231      (0.8%)
Technician            385,898     (50.3%)
Technician Plus               0       (0.0%)
General                186,284     (24.3%)
Advanced               34,273       (4.5%)
Extra                    154,458     (20.1%)

Total                    767,144

Percentages may not add up to exactly 100.0% due to rounding.

No new Novice or Advanced licenses have been issued since April 2000. However, the totals for those classes may sometimes show an increase over prior numbers due to renewals in the grace period.

This is not a new all-time high. It is provided to avoid a large gap in the timeline.

The all-time high total of 780,526 occurred November 24, 2021

73 de Jim, N2EY
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AI5BC

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Re: FCC License Counts
« Reply #1244 on: February 16, 2023, 06:06:53 AM »

Time will tell when enough of us old hams die off and the pressure to try to keep an old, obsolete way of thinking about how to keep ham radio alive diminishes enough to allow a new generation of hams take over.

Younger generations do not want anything to do with ham radio and boomers.
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