Where in the world are all the Hams?

[M5AKA]

An interesting item at:

http://www.southgatearc.org/news/aug2005/where_are_the_hams.htm

about the distribution of Radio Amateurs around the world. It highlights the dramatic differences between the number of Amateurs per thousand of the population in difference countries.

I wonder if there is a connection between Japan having such a high Amateur population in the 1960's (up to 50000 new Amateurs each year!) and it's dramatic performance developing hi-tech consumer products in the 70's and 80's. I think countries that succeed in getting large number of young people involved in Amateur Radio will inevitable do well in subsequent decades as these self-trained, self-motivated young Amateurs go out into the business world.

73 Trevor M5AKA
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Where in the world are all the Hams?
Following an article in eHam.net which raised questions about the worldwide distributions of hams and engendered speculation about the possible reasons for differences in Ham populations across countries, Bob Olsen, KK7WN attempted to shed light on these issues.

He collected some demographic data from various sources including the United Nations, the IARU, and various other professional research organizations. He was able to find relatively complete and comparable information for 36 countries in North America, South America, Europe, Oceania and Asia. Although these countries make up a small portion of all countries, they do contain the “lion’s share” of the world’s Hams.

He focused on Hams as a percentage of a country’s population since it is obvious that more populous countries would be expected to have a larger absolute number of Hams. The average (median) has about one Ham for every 1300 residents. Examples of countries near this average include Sweden, Austria, Australia and the Netherlands.

The high-end “outliers” include Japan (1 per 99) and South Korea (1 per 333). Low-end “outliers” include Russia (1 per 33,000) and China (1 per 17,000, including Taiwan). Averages for countries by region are: North America (1 per 546), South America (1 per 2,800), Oceania (1 per 926), Scandinavia (1 per 819), Northern Europe (1 per 1,500), Southern Europe (1 per 2,100).

Ham percentages appear to be most influenced by a culture’s attitude toward “personal electronic gadgetry”. For example, holding all else constant, countries that have the greatest relative number of personal PCs and the greatest relative Internet use have the largest number of Hams per inhabitant. Ham percentages also appear to be strongly influenced by language. In particular, country Ham percentages are higher where a significant proportion of a country’s population speaks a language that is widespread worldwide. Again this influence is most noticeable in North America, Oceania and Scandinavia (where English is for many the academically required second language).

The very poor penetration of Ham radio in France (1 per 3,200) appears to be a function of a lesser acceptance of electronic gadgetry as well as generally acknowledged
lesser use of languages other than French.

Gross per capita income does not influence Ham penetration unless it is very low or accompanied by a strong general interest in electronic gadgetry. In fact, where gadgetry interest is low, higher incomes are associated with reduced relative interest in Ham radio.

Ham radio penetration is slightly greater where the population density is less. There is no evidence that this effect is related to the difficulty of antenna placement. It appears to be more related to an overall felt need to “stay connected”.

Source: Radio Bulgaria
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[AE4TM]

Nice article. When I was 4 years old, my father suggested I take very good care of one of favorite toys, a set of walkie talkies. He now takes great pleasure in telling all of his friends that I responded by saying that when I grow up walkie talkies will have a "million buttons". Seems most gadgets today are moving in the direction of more complexity. Being an active ham somewhat depends on how much persistence you have in learning how many commands can be programmed into a single button. Being a cell phone operator also requires this same degree of persistence as well.

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Ed

[W5HTW]

Quote[/b] (M5AKA @ Aug. 21 2005,05:17)]The very poor penetration of Ham radio in France (1 per 3,200) appears to be a function of a lesser acceptance of electronic gadgetry as well as generally acknowledged
lesser use of languages other than French.


---------------------------
Maybe the French hams are too busy on the air to waste time on the internet like we Americans do. In fact, I also note there are few British hams plowing around the ham radio web sites. Could it be they are also on the air? Or is it that we Americans just have too much spare time, and too much money for internet gadgets?

When I was in France I admit I ran across, in person, very few French hams. Perhaps only two or three in the two and a half years I was there. However, I ran across dozens of them on 80 CW, once I got my French license. Of course, there WAS no Internet back then - heck color TV was still new! While there I worked mostly 80 and 40 CW and a bit of 20 AM. Power limitations in France made it rather difficult to do much voice DX (if that is, DX means USA.) But CW all across western Europe was plentiful.

Being young and single, girls took a priority over ham radio. One of the French girls I dated spoke moderately poor English, but did well in not only French, but German and Italian. Another, one I hung with for several months, spoke six languages fluently, one of which was English. The final one, in my last few months over there, spoke understandable but broken English, plus Czech, German, French of course, and pretty good Italian. (Well, sounded good to me! I didn't know Italian!) One girl I dated only infrequently, spoke Dutch, French, Spanish and almost flawless English. Me? I could lay claim to high school English (my native tongue!) plus broken French (it got me by, and was learned from these girls) and high school Spanish augmented by street Spanish in my "raisin' town" of Denver.

Most of the French men with whom I worked spoke only French, though a few spoke halting German as well. Almost none spoke English. Europe is very conducive to multiple languages, though, as a couple hours' drive puts you in another country. Here in the border states that is also true, but the variety of "other countries" accessible there made it considerably easier to learn various languages, as one might travel into three countries in a single afternoon - France, Germany and Luxembourg, for example.

I hear a few French hams on 40 CW at night even now. But not as many as I heard when I was there!! Part of that was economics; many French citizens had very few extra francs. I think that holds true today. Yet, we are next door to a third world country which has many hams; Mexico. Clearly neither Mexico nor France have as many as there are in the USA. Nor does Canada.

Next door to us in Germany, there were many hams, and they had more lenient power/frequency restrictions, so there were more of them. They were among the first Europeans to embrace single side band, and I think that was due to cost.

The few French hams I knew, and the few I have worked from the States, are all under 100 watts in power, and when I was there, more likely 50 watts (That is what I had - power INput..) Most use/used wire antennas.

I never met a ham in Belgium or Holland, but met several in Germany (German, not US, hams.) They tended to have better rigs but still mostly wire antennas. Knew only one Italian ham but never saw his station. Never met a Spanish ham.

Of course, that was then! Late 1950s, early 1960s.

It would be very neat to know what it is like there today! Maybe I'll do some research for my own use.

I also operated briefly from Morocco. Met only one Moroccan ham, but with our lanaguage barrier we didn't get much accomplished in conversation!

It is interesting to understand or contemplate ham radio in other countries. I wish I could revisit Europe and see what it is like, ham radio wise, today.

Ed

[wa3vjb]

There's an effort to try to promote "DX Ragchewing" over on the BBS serving the Society for the Preservation of Amateur Radio, or SPAR. One of the participants, Charles, N5PVL, hopes to encourage people to spend more time on a conversation than the ordinary signal exchange and see ya later. I totally agree, and had posted this response to support not only a more satisfying international exchange, but improve the chance to get to know people.

I have an example from France to share here on QRZ.com.

I miss Cycle 23's peak on 10 meters that brought a world of new friends to me with regular QSOs between 29.0 and 29.100. I even made tape recordings of some of the better conversations because I knew conditions would soon head for low tide.

Italy, the U.K., the old Soviet region, France, Germany and scandanavia all were regulars for in-depth, detailed visits on the radio. Claude, F5HSH and myself have become friends beyond basic radio chit-chat and plan with our wives to visit someday.

Check out this sound file:
http://www.amwindow.org/audio/htm/f5hsh.htm

http://www.wa3vjb.com/pics/F5HSH.jpg

All these operators were **so** glad to actually spend some time talking instead of the shallow, robotic and boring exchanges routinely involving a bogus signal report, name, QTH and see ya later.

(then, returning to the idea of promoting international ragchewing with an award or certificate, I said...)
I'm not sure your timing is the best for immediate activity, but yours is a nice proposal to develop and think about in the time ahead when the upper bands start to come back.

Of course, there already is an opportunity for stateside ragchews, so perhaps yes, let's start there and build it out...

Paul/VJB

[AE4TM]

Quote[/b] ]Being young and single, girls took a priority over ham radio. One of the French girls I dated spoke moderately poor English, but did well in not only French, but German and Italian. Another, one I hung with for several months, spoke six languages fluently, one of which was English.

Wow. Very interesting story. I once told an extremely pretty girl to be careful from spooking the "Wild Boar" in the Great Smokies. As I returned to our camp I found that she was trying to scare a skunk out of our camp. She later said "I thought it was a Wild Boar." Language is definately a barrier in many cases of the outdoors, esp when you go camping with pretty Europeans.

Ed

[kg5yr]

In our day and age of cell phones and computer chat rooms. Who wants to be a ham http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

Joe / kg5yr

[wu8o]

Quote[/b] (kg5yr @ Aug. 22 2005,10:34)]In our day and age of cell phones and computer chat rooms. Who wants to be a ham http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

Joe / kg5yr
Would not have a cell phone. You want to call me, then call my home and leave a message or get your own ham radio. Chat rooms? HA! The very few times I've been in a chat room remind me of why I spend my time on the radio! Except, of course, the dxworld.com logs.

[w5aox]

Quote[/b] (kg5yr @ Aug. 22 2005,10:34)]In our day and age of cell phones and computer chat rooms. Who wants to be a ham http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

Joe / kg5yr

Almost everyone I show my radios and setup to would like to become hams.... but few feel they have time to dedicate to such a hobby, increasingly including me. #Time, or lack thereof, is the defining factor in this rushed era we live in, IMHO.

[w5alt]

As far as DX rag chewing, I can say it is certainly enjoyable and a nice way to get a glimpse into different cultures. I have had many ragchews with hams from Spanish speaking countries, mostly on CW or digital, some on SSB. Once I respond to them in Spanish, that usually gets things going.

So, if I contact someone, I understand if they're in a hurry for whatever reason, but sometimes the results are interesting and enjoyable. What other passtime lets one learn so much and meet so many nice people from around the world?

73,
Walt, W5ALT

[n9kpn]

Question: #Does anyone know of a world wide "plot" of every ham in the world? #In other words a map of the world with a "push pin" of every registered Amateur station at the home QTH or similar. #I'm curious to see the distribution of hams throughout the world.

[w8znx]

Hello Gang

some places people just
do not have
extra money
and time to become ham ops
when you are living on the edge
its also
very hard to get rigs and parts

know that some clubs have
sent rigs and qrp kits to 3rd
world countries

only to have equpment
it all stolen before it got thrugh customs

there are ops
that travel for bus.
that have had to hand carry and bribe coustoms
to get the kits
in to the hands of
poor ops, in poor countries

if you lump ROC with PRC
will see very low numbers of ham
to general population
but if you just put ROC alone
find higher numbers
note that ham radio was ilegal
in PRC for over 50 years

Japan kinda a fluke
entry level licence, easy to get
it is a life time licence
so there are lots of people
on list that are not active ops

yours truly
mac dit dit

[kd5vjn]

Quote[/b] (w5aox @ Aug. 22 2005,15:26)]Joe / kg5yr

Almost everyone I show my radios and setup to would like to become hams....[/QUOTE]
most of my friends try to steal my radios

[K0SRE]

Quote[/b] (kd5vjn @ Aug. 23 2005,12:15)]most of my friends try to steal my radios
I'd get some different friends then....

[K4JF]

Quote[/b] (kg5yr @ Aug. 22 2005,10:34)]In our day and age of cell phones and computer chat rooms. Who wants to be a ham http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

Joe / kg5yr
You gotta be kidding!! Cell phones compare with ham radio exactly like wired phones of the 50s. In other words, same as a watermelon.

Internet chat rooms? Are those old things still around?

[K4JF]

Quote[/b] (w5alt @ Aug. 22 2005,15:26)]What other passtime lets one learn so much and meet so many nice people from around the world?

73,
Walt, W5ALT
Exactly!

The question asked by the post was where in the world are all the hams.
Well, a simple answer all the hams are in the world,
Occam's razor,
73
Howard

[wb9eck]

Bologna sandwiches...that's all we had and we liked it.

If thats too dificult to understand, try schrodingers cat or hysenbergs uncertainty principle.
Abuse and insults are the last resort of the incompetant,
73
Howard

nice 2 see wb9 posting after having a good say about the morse going away from the yanks. He gets everywhere. nice 2 see you.
over

[VE3UUH]

Just my two cents on the issue of"where are all the hams". First of all the data very often mentioned is flawed. For example in Canada there were a reported number of callsigns of around 60, 899. I see that in fact there are numerous people with multiple callsigns, thus there are not 60 thousand plus active Amateurs in Canada. I would suspect that in many countries a person may be a holder of multiple callsigns. The next problem is to determine what equates to being active? We were however able to" guessitmate" for a few years that silent keys were about a ratio of approx 4 silent keys to every newcomer. I think that it is difficult to accurately determine the number of active hams in a given country and compare this data because, collection is flawed, numbers go up and down. Too many factors to make any sweeping comments to either a rise or fall in Amateur radio.

Quote[/b] (m3wem @ Aug. 24 2005,14:12)]The question asked by the post was where in the world are all the hams.
Well, a simple answer all the hams are in the world,
Occam's razor,
73
Howard
I Agree

[W5HTW]

Quote[/b] (K0SRE @ Aug. 23 2005,12:20)]Quote[/b] (kd5vjn @ Aug. 23 2005,12:15)]most of my friends try to steal my radios
I'd get some different friends then....
Either that, or go with an R390A and a T368.

ed

[W5HTW]

Quote[/b] (AE4TM @ Aug. 21 2005,18:00)]Quote[/b] ]Being young and single, girls took a priority over ham radio. One of the French girls I dated spoke moderately poor English, but did well in not only French, but German and Italian. Another, one I hung with for several months, spoke six languages fluently, one of which was English.

Wow. Very interesting story. I once told an extremely pretty girl to be careful from spooking the "Wild Boar" in the Great Smokies. As I returned to our camp I found that she was trying to scare a skunk out of our camp. She later said "I thought it was a Wild Boar." Language is definately a barrier in many cases of the outdoors, esp when you go camping with pretty Europeans.

Ed
That is easier (not "more easy!") to accomplish in Europe, as I mentioned. With multiple languages all within a few hours' drive, it is a natural for those who go skiing in Germany or Italy, fishing in England, boating in France, gambling in Belgium, and hiking in Denmark or Holland.

That is why the Euro works, and NAFTA fails. The Americas are too strung out for cross-border relations to work, plus we are generally larger nations geographically. It is a long, long ways from say, Ontario, to El Salvador. And with less "national" languages (though both Canada and the US have two. For Canada it is English and French, and for the US it is Spanish and English. Mexico has onl one: Spanish)

Living near Strasbourg, France, many places, other nations, were within easy motorcycle reach of my home. Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, and for a three day weekend, Holland and Denmark and Spain. There the language was a mixture of French and German, though mostly French. Not nearly as much mixture as our own southern border. (Which is now just north of Denver!)

In ham radio, at least back then, we did not rush through DX contacts, since "DX" often meant a nation no further away than say Arkansas is from Ohio. There was a lot of ragchewing. Most of it was on CW, probably due to expense (France was a very poor nation) and also restrictions on bands and modes. But DX ragchews were the norm.

I do not believe there is any possible way we can say we "promote international goodwill" by saying UR 59 TNX 73 QRZ.


Ed

[VE7TKO]

Quote[/b] (kd5vjn @ Aug. 23 2005,10:15)]Quote[/b] (w5aox @ Aug. 22 2005,15:26)]Joe / kg5yr

Almost everyone I show my radios and setup to would like to become hams....
most of my friends try to steal my radios[/QUOTE]
Show me who your friends are, and I will show you who you are.

Perhaps we should reflect on things,

have you tried this piece :

THE HAM PRAYER

Lord, thou knowest better than I know myself that I am growing older and will someday be old. Keep me from the fatal habit of thinking I must say something on every subject and on every occasion.

Release me from craving to straighten out everybody's affairs.

Make me thoughtful but not moody; helpful but not bossy. with my vast store of wisdom it seems a pity not to use it all, but Thou knowest Lord that I want a few friends at the end.

Keep my mind free from the recital of endless details; give me the wings to get to the point. Seal my lips on my aches and pains. They are increasing and love of rehearsing them is becoming sweeter as the years go by. I dare not ask for grace enough to enjoy the tales of other's pains, but help me to endure them with patience.

I dare not ask for improved memory, but for a growing humility and a lessening of cocksuredness when my memory seems to clash with the memories of others.
Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally I may be mistaken.

Keep me reasonably sweet; I do not want to be a Saint – ( some of them are so hard to live with ) - but a sour old person is one of the crowning works of the Devil.

Give me the ability to see good things in unexpected places and talents in unexpected people. And, give me, O Lord, the grace to tell them so.

AMEN

73 HOWARD