State of the Hobby

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

The 2018 survey is now closed! I want to extend a HUGE thank you to everyone who participate, and to those who passed this on to other hams as well. This year had a much larger turnout that 2017 and hopefully this trend will continue. So - the 65 million dollar question is...when will the results be posted? Short answer is anywhere from 4-8 weeks from now. My next steps are to pull the data out of the survey and begin to cleanse and normalize. Each question with an open ended response can be anywhere from 10-15 hours of work, depending on the variance of the response. It's important to me that each response is valued, as a result I want to ensure this is done well. As an example, I provided some options for "How did you find this survey?" and also left it open to people to enter in their own choices. Some example responses I received are: Email Emailed Emailed from another ham Got an email from my dad Gmail Someone mailed it to me online I

This survey started out as simple curiosity. While browsing Reddit on the amateur radio subreddit I began to notice several users posting surveys for highly specialized topics. I completed the surveys and began to wonder what the results were. I then decided to host my own survey, to collect the opinions from the community on topics that I cared about. I wanted to make sure I made the results widely available for anyone to consume for whatever reason. Again, this is not meant to be an exhausting study of the hobby, but about the nagging questions I had about the community as a whole. I hear time and time again things like "the hobby is growing, just look at the licenses being issued!", which is but one figure that can indicate the growth of amateur radio. It's not the only factor however, and I wanted to know more about that. I also wanted to know about new, emerging facets of an already diverse hobby. Lastly I wondered about perceptions of operators, which can indi