From the July 15, 2010 issue of the ARRL Letter:
With more than 18,000 new Amateur Radio licenses issued in the first half of this year — 18,270 to be exact — 2010 is shaping up to be a banner year for Amateur Radio. So far, the number of new licenses issued by the FCC in 2010 is outpacing the January-June 2009 totals by almost 8.5 percent; at this time last year, the FCC had issued 16,844 new licenses. As of June 30, 2010, there are 694,346 licensed Amateur Radio operators in the US, an almost 1 percent rise over all of calendar year 2009. Broken down by license class at the end of June 2010, there were 16,299 Novices, 342,064 Technicians, 154,284 Generals, 60,059 Advanced and 121,640 Amateur Extra licensees .
I still think we’re not doing enough to help new hams get involvedin the hobby and really learn ham radio, but I suppose that having more hams is a good thing. Despite my rant five years about leaving no ham behind, I’ve found that many new hams are either reluctant to ask for help or just want to make their own way. I haven’t figured out which it is, but I do know that few of the students in my one-day class ever take me up on my offer of help.
What do you think?