2018 State of the Hobby Results
I truly hope you read and enjoy the results from this year. Between the survey, the data modeling and cleansing, making the analytics and presentation, I'd say this is about 100 hours worth of work. It was certainly fun, and while you may think I have a pretty demented definition of fun....no actually you'd be right about that, no argument here.
If you are interested in participating next year, please subscribe to my blog. New surveys and results will be posted here so by subscribing you will get any and all updates.
Anyway - on to the results!
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Spelling error. Acreage is used instead of Average on one of the charts.
ReplyDeleteMust have been a result of no sleep and not enough coffee. Thanks - I've corrected!
DeleteThis is a very interesting profile of amateur radio and information that is not the kind of thing that is often covered in detail regarding who is in the hobby and what they do with it not only for fun but also as a service to the community we live in. I got licensed last fall after decades of SWL and I am finding this is quite a complex activity, with enough depth in regard to technology to keep one learning for a long, long time. Before I got into this facet of radio I had no idea about the hobby - like a lot of folks I saw ham radio as an activity like it was portrayed in the movies. I didn't have a lot of exposure to it growing up as my connection to radio was basically broadcast listening like most of the general public. I met about half a dozen people in 60 years that were active hams and all I understood about it was it was heavily equipment oriented. Now, I view the equipment like a tool - a means to accomplish something else. I worked with computing systems beginning in the 1970's and retired just a few years ago and after being work focused 12 to 16 hours a day sometimes more than 5 days a week, all of a sudden I had free time on my hands and I felt a bit bewildered as to what to do with it. Well, I went back to SWL and discovered almost all of the bands and broadcasts were silent now. The thing I watched and helped to grow into the behemoth it is now, (the internet - when I started it was the Arpanet and was mostly governmental in nature), kind of eliminated the need for shortwave in many respects.
ReplyDeleteSo I thought I'd try ham radio. Now, I have my time occupied with it, and my mind as well, (a fact my wife is not always pleased with). I was not one to watch a lot of television and most of the things I was interested in was technical in nature. The only things impeding me from a higher level of involvement are money, my level of grasp of the technology - which is growing every day, and getting my station put together and on the air. Time is only one factor in that, as it takes lots of time to get to the point where I feel fully operational as far as my station goes. I have some 2 meter experience now, and I'm working on setting up my HF rig. It's all a growth experience and the accomplishment is challenging and satisfying at the same time.
I for one appreciate all the work and time you put into this study, it was not only a confirmation but a new level of information from my perspective.
73!