State of the Hobby

The crew over at the ICQ Podcast talk about the State of the Hobby survey, among other topics. It's certainly a bit odd listening to a panel of well-respected hams discuss the project. Many thanks to them for the feedback and for the flowers. Frank, if you're reading this, I may have to pick your brain for the 2020 survey! :-)

Radio amateurs have spoken and the results are in! I truly hope you read and enjoy the report below. It represents approximately 120 hours of blood, sweat and tears each spring, donated out of love for amateur radio and a sense of duty to help in some way. Share these results with your clubs, ham friends and family, and most importantly challenge them (and yourself) to use the information to enact positive change. We all know this hobby isn't one we can do solo - it's in our best interest to improve and grow it each and every year. It doesn't have to be a grand gesture either - to quote the greatest movie ever, Contact , starting the marvelous Jodie Foster, "small moves Ellie, small moves". Do something small within your community or club to positively promote the hobby and create that ripple. As always, if you are interested in receiving email updates please subscribe to the blog. The yearly survey, results and information will be posted there and by subscr

If you have not subscribed to this channel, I highly recommend this! Great content from a fellow ham!

And by we're I mean me. Each year I attempt to make the State of the Hobby survey a bit more geocentric. While amateur radio is something that can be enjoyed around the global, some of the issues and topics are very regionally specific. The viewpoints and concerns of hams outside of the US are just as important, and can offer fantastic insights if properly collected. In an effort to increase the global nature of the questions solicited, I'd like to partner with a few hams from around the world for 2020. I'd like this to be a small panel of hams who have specific insights into both questions pertaining to their specific regions and into those questions on the general portion that may not be applicable. Specifically, I'm looking for representation from the following continents / regions / countries: Europe (e.g. UK, Western Europe, Eastern Europe) Oceania (e.g. Australia / NZ) South America Central America Russia Africa Japan China India Idea

During the course of this survey and it's development, some people have mentioned launching a Patreon page as a way to support the initiative. While I administer the survey out of interest and as a service to those who read the results, I've decided to do just that. The survey is currently financially sustainable out of my pocket, however I'd like to grow this each year and with that comes some opportunity to invest in new platforms. To that end, while Google Survey is the right price (free), it's not without it's limitations. I've received feedback that some of the questions lack clear or functional responses, something due in part to the Google platform. Others have also shown concern over the hosting of this survey on Google itself, and while I don't share in those concerns, it doesn't make them any less valid. I'm going start a Patreon as an option for those who would like to financially support this initiative. This survey will always rema

Get ready operators - the 2019 State of the Hobby Survey is here! I first want to take a moment to sincerely thank everyone for the fantastic participation in 2018. Our inaugural survey in 2017 found around 600 responses but 2018 came booming in with nearly 3,000 responses, voicing their opinions! A huge shout out to the blog / websites owners, podcast producers and large clubs for taking the time to promote the survey within their respective audiences - I could not have done this without you! If you have not had a chance to see the results from previous years, they are listed here: 2018 2017 The survey started out in 2017 as simple curiosity. While browsing Reddit I began to notice several users posting surveys for highly specific topics. I made sure to participate yet often wondered what the results were. I then decided to host my own survey, to collect the opinions from the community on a variety of topics for comparison over the years. I wanted to ensure I made the r

Greetings folks - 2019 is upon us! I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable new year. With a new year comes a new annual survey, and another chance to pick the brains of operators worldwide for what they like and dislike about amateur radio, as well as their opinions. Last year was a fantastic survey and I highly recommend checking out the results, if you have not done so. I am eternally thankful for all the blogs, sites and podcasts that picked up the 2018 State of the Hobby survey and push it out to such a wide audience. This brings us to now. I spent a fair amount of time sifting through comments and suggestions from last year and how I'd like to incorporate that feedback. I received some excellent ideas and I think you'll find the changes to the survey to be more inclusive and more holistic than before. The idea behind this survey is to grow each year. I will be spending the month of February preparing and polishing the survey for release in March. This year the survey