The 2020 State of the Hobby Survey is here!

It's time for the fourth annual State of the Hobby survey! Last year saw a huge increase in participation and I hope to continue that trend in 2020. Please take a few minutes to fill out the survey for this year and share with your radioactive peers. You can check out the survey link, along with previous results on my blog!

https://www.radiosoth.org/2020/05/2020-state-of-hobby-survey.html

The QRZ.com community continues to be an excellent source of data for this survey and I could not even hope to acommplish our goals without support from each and every one of you. I want to extend a HUGE thank you for this.

73!

 

Looking forward to the results again this year. You do a good job analyzing the results!

 

I got this far into your survey "This survey is important for hams around the world for a few reasons." Just curious if you will be (or have in previous surveys) posting the number of hams in the countries responding versus the number participating in the survey? This either by country or a sum total of all respondents.

Was curious about the sample size and how that affects the accuracy of the survey?
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/references/sample-size-surveys

What has your research indicated?

 

Just a note - when I kick the survey off I'm inundated with questions and comments. I will try to get back to everyone as quickly as I can!

 

Thank you for the survey. The question "In the last 12 months, what NEW repeaters have gone operational in your area?" may should have none as an option? You can leave it blank, which I assume will translate to none (at least it didn't yell at me about leaving the question blank).

 

Done!

 

When I was first licensed nobody referred to amateur radio as a "hobby".
It's actually called the Amateur Radio Service.
Last time I checked the federal government didn't license or regulate any hobbies.
And, Hobby Lobby doesn't sell radio gear.

 

The Amateur Radio Service is a great hobby.

 

Completed the survey...I focused on obtaining the young adults, this is the key...Go to any local Ham club and the average age are senior citizens. I used to promote Ham radio at the private schools, 1st grade to 8th grade and performed the "Show and Tell" (This is while my son attended to these schools / My son's calls are KI5FJE). That worked well...

Ham radio has to re brand itself, and market in a large scale across the USA to young adults, other wise, the Ham community will shrink. In the 1970 and 80, the CB was Ham radio farming grounds today, we don't have this channel. We all know how great Ham Radio is, we just have to expose this great hobby to the young adults, so they can have the same enjoyment we have today

NN2X, Tom

 

Those two sentences sum up a major issue with the present State of the ARS.

Chip @W1YW describes operating a BAND, while Harry seems comfy with one mode-CHANNEL.

Any & all ethically intended OTA operating is good, but there needs to be a better future vision projected and plan executed for more fully utilizing as much of our current Part 97 spectrum allocations as possible.

Use it or loose it!

73, John, WØPV

 

Only the quickest and shallowest of QST searches reveals this article mentioning "Our Hobby" from the 19th year of official government regulation of amateur radio.

DEC 1931 - QST (PG. 42)
Our Hobby
(The Communications Department)
Author: Moxey, Louis W., W3BFL
Article: QST Archive [PDF]

 

Amateur radio has been a hobby worldwide for much longer than the FCC has even existed.

 

Change is the only Constant and it applies to Ham Radio
G3SEA/KH6

 

I believe some folks in here have lost the "big picture" perspective about ham radio. We aren't even "drops in a bucket". We are less than a drop. The issues we face in the immediate future are becoming overwhelming to me. No matter what happens, I just hope to hang on to at least some parts of HF.

And if it weren't a "hobby," I wouldn't be participating in it. I don't know what I'd do in my spare time if I didn't have HF.