This probably depends on which country you are in. Southgate News picked up a WIA story that reported roughly static numbers in Australia. In the UK, unless a trend is reversed, we are likely to see numbers rapidly fall in the next 20 years. People are getting older and die. Sadly there are too few young people and women in the hobby here in the UK.
Call me sad but every month I look in RadCom to see how many G3s are now SK. It averages about 5 a month. At this rate we'll soon all be dead!
What is it like in your country?
I think this is an interesting topic here in the US that the ham community doesn't talk about. I think over the last 10-15 years here in the US the ARRL has been beating their chest about how many new licensed operators there are, but I think this is really an artificially inflated number due to the federal government. They (feds) have been putting programs in place for emergency responses. I know of hams that have worked with hospitals and other places to get people licensed and they setup a station in the facility, often getting 3-7 people licensed in one location.
ReplyDeleteThese people have no interest in ham radio and are really just doing it for their job. They are mainly all tech operators and they install dual band VHF/UHF radios (being funded by the govt) in the office. In all likely hood, these people may not even have the same job in 10 years and won't renew their license.