One of the pressing issues facing all amateur radio organizations in the modern world is what appears to be a rapidly aging set of participants. We mostly base this belief on various observations at in-person amateur radio activities since licensing bodies rarely ever collect or release birth dates with their license data. (Not all release actual license records themselves.) The issue is whether we are simply seeing ham operators who participate in these venue events or is the ham population actually aging as much as our eyes tell us? I present national data on the aging patterns of Canadian amateurs in addition to projections for the future. The results are sobering for they are predicated on a clear demographic pattern in the developed world itself.
“..there simply will not be enough members of these youngest cohorts to replace their current age segment even if all parties went into recruitment modes with their “hair on fire”.”
From every data source that I have seen or analyzed, the population of amateur radio licensees worldwide is substantially graying.1 RAC Survey 2021 respondents were asked what is your age group and given a choice of mostly decade-length age ranges. The 2021 Census of Canada age-by-year data were extracted from Statistics Canada and collapsed to fit the same age ranges (see Final Report). These data are presented in a population pyramid in Figure 1. The Canadian population (left) and RAC Survey 2021 of amateurs (right) add a further confirmation of this aging amateur radio population. Ham operators in the survey are far below the population at less than age fifty but increasingly over the population distribution after the half-century mark. In the sixties and above, amateur operator percentages are over double that of the population at large.
What does this population distribution comparison mean for amateur radio in Canada? There are at least two elements to the demographic equation here. If we think of amateur radio as a behavior, a hobby or a pastime that occurs over the life course of individuals, then the behavior of being a ham operator may be age-related regardless of the historical period.2 Or, alternatively, it could be an historical period behavior that is prominent during an age range (or birth cohort) of one or more adjacent periods in history. In simpler terms, is amateur radio mostly a Baby Boom-era hobby that is scheduled to recede into a much smaller pursuit? There are many behaviors that do largely fade away as the participants age through other stages of life. Some, however, begin at later stages without younger groups joining the activity until they reach that age range. I will show evidence of both through my analysis of this national Canadian survey.
This life course perspective recognizes the effects on hobby behavior that are frequently revealed by hams themselves: work, marriage, family formation, competing interests, and others. Additional investigations with relevant data are required to answer these questions. But one aspect that is critical involves the future Canadian population itself. How is it scheduled to age over the next several decades? This will indeed shape the hobby in significant ways, given current circumstances in the hobby.
Statistics Canada has published age-specific population projections for the nation. These have been used to prepare Figure 2 with various projection scenarios (left) and age-specific projections from 2021 to 2050 (right). As is common, the “medium growth” scenario was selected to present the scheduled growth of age groups. Shown in the purple line (left), this set of assumptions for population growth fall in the middle of those with high-growth or slow-aging models versus low-growth or fast-aging parameters. They are generally the most reliable to use for analyses such as this.
The results in the right panel for each age group that were configured to match the RAC Survey age groups tell us that the population in Canada will grow in the middle-age categories and in the most senior ones. Those in the twenties through fifties will top the age pyramid by 2050, followed by those most senior residents in their seventies and over. The youngest population of teens (10 through 19) will be far smaller. This is a significant signal to policy-makers in Canada with two clear implications for amateur radio in Canada.
One is that the age groups of 60-80 years of age, now dominating amateur radio as the RAC Survey suggests, will simply disappear as they age-out to infirmity or becoming Silent Keys. Yet, the projected number of persons in these age groups are scheduled to actually grow in number over the forecast period.
A second implication is that teens will be a relatively scarce recruitment commodity in terms of the age pyramid. There will simply not be enough of them to replace those Baby Boomers now dominating the hobby. The much higher rates for the recruitment of younger people are significantly higher than has been the case in the recent past. Compare Figure 1 Canadian population versus estimated amateur radio population for these age groups to also see this imbalance as follows. The ratio of the population percent to the amateur operator percent tells us what recruitment improvement would be necessary to actually fit the population.
To aid in illustrating what the demographic patterns for the Canadian age structure mean for amateur radio, consider what rates of “recruitment” would be necessary to simply replace the current share of licensed hams by age group. I’ve summarized a simple table (Table 1) of this “additional recruitment success” that would be needed to just maintain what we have today in Canada for those below age 50.
While it would only take recruiting 1.5 times the current number in the age 40 range, it becomes increasing more challenging as each age group gets younger. For those in their thirties, when typical family obligations are most demanding, it would require 4.6 times the current number to be recruited base on the future population projections for this age segment. The dramatically higher rates are for those in their twenties (16.7 times) and teens (20 times) make it simply unfeasible to realistically believe that current methods of age-specific recruitment will come close to securing these levels of required newcomes into the hobby. To repeat, in practical terms, there simply will not be enough members of these youngest cohorts to replace their current age segment even if all parties went into recruitment modes with their “hair on fire”.
Demography can be destiny. But it does not have to be so.
While the population demography reflects a challenge for the future of amateur radio in Canada, it is important to more fully understand how the hobby is pursued over the ham’s “career” as a licensed amateur operator. There is a notion, perhaps rooted in the Baby Boomer and preceding generations, harkening back to the emergence of amateur radio itself, that young people get exposed to amateur radio, get licensed and continue their amateur radio careers in a continuous fashion. (For more and an empirical investigation, see Howell 2021) This would make the teen years the principal period in the life course for recruitment into the hobby. In the survey, however, there is only modest evidence of this pattern.
RAC Survey 2021 participants were asked how many years they had held a license as well as have been active in the hobby. The graphic in Figure 3 displays histograms of the frequency of hams in each year bin. On the left is length of holding a license (tenure). The right panel is the same display except for years of activity. The average years of license tenure is about 26 while 22 is the average of years active. The variation in each measure is about the same, a standard deviation of around 17-18 years. The experience levels among Canadian amateurs are lengthy but it is also quite variable.
There are two things to hold out as important from this graphic. One is that survey responses bunch around newcomers (or zero to 4 years) or 25-30 years of holding a license. Activity is about the same pattern except the bunching of respondents is not as pronounced as license tenure. The “careers” of activity in amateur radio tend to vary quite a bit. A second is that these two variables are not linked to the same amateur. How many have activity periods that last for most of their license tenure? What lengths of active periods characterize Canadian hams?
Hams who are in the most senior age groups report years of license tenure suggesting that the teen years were when they became licensed. Moreover, a large number of them say they have been “active” all of their licensed years.3 This notion, however, does not fit many respondents in the survey. The latter are large enough to beg the question of how valid is this traditional idea with which we often characterize all amateurs. Like many stereotypes, there are significant popular examples that fit but it also mischaracterizes a larger share of ham operators.
We have visualized this linkage through a scatterplot of ham radio activity by license tenure with age groups identified (see Figure 4). A scatter plot is an X-Y plotting of individual data points along the data values of each variable. The age group for each survey respondent is shown by a distinct color.
There are no respondents above the line in this plot since activity is predicated in this survey upon holding a license. The diagonal line of hams reflects those who have been active their entire careers in ham radio. Only among those in the most senior age groups (e.g., 70 and over) supports the commonly held pattern of getting licensed at a teen or young adult and staying the course. There are many of these amateurs but they are far from being the dominant group.
The large number of data points moving away from this diagonal (toward the lower right) reflect hams who got licensed and have not been “active” nearly as long as those on the straight diagonal line. The most senior groups reveal many who were not licensed early in their lives but significantly later. Thus, these data illustrate that our conventional image of the amateur who gets licensed early in life and maintains that hobby activity throughout is largely a stereotype that nevertheless fits a smaller share of the population. These patterns of activity are directly pertinent to policies for recruitment into the hobby. They illustrate clearly the significant market for late-in-life hams. See Howell (2013) for another U.S. survey with data on late-in-life ham operators.
To further illustrate inactivity over the ham’s career, Figure 5 uses box plots of the simple difference between years licensed and years of activity (i.e., years licensed – years active). It’s broken out by age group. Box plots show the data around the center point of the median at the middle of the box. In this case, zero provides a bounding so that there is only one end of the distribution of survey respondents.
These data are highly skewed toward higher periods of less activity (“inactivity”). The median lines in the boxes are barely visible. There is a trail of hams who report a growing gap of inactivity as age increases. Some get licensed but drop out of the hobby, at least for some periods of time. For example, for the most senior group, some have been licensed-but-inactive for 40 or more years. Over their license tenure, a significant group of hams fall away from practicing the hobby.4 This licensed but inactive segment represents a ripe market for recruitment back into amateur radio activities. I will note in passing that we do not have any consensus for what “active” in the hobby means.
These results describe an emerging demographic shift in Canada that will affect the amateur radio hobby. There will simply not be enough younger people to replace those Baby Boomers now dominating the hobby. But what is the fundamental reason behind these population projections leading to fewer younger people in the decades ahead? It is now something unique to Canada but common to all developed countries. In Figure 6, I’ve reproduced a graph showing the total fertility rate (TFR) over time among a number of countries. This was recently published in the highly respected demography journal, The Lancet. The gray line at the fertility rate of 2.1 is the replacement level for a given population. High income countries include Canada, the U.S. and the UK, among others. They have been below replacement level since around 1980. Thus, the issue of why official Canadian population projections show that younger age groups will be diminished in the near term is due to this falling total fertility rate among high income countries around the world.
Returning to the issue of these demographic patterns for amateur radio, the rates for the recruitment of younger people to achieve mere replacement are significantly higher than has been the case in the recent past. This should not be misconstrued to suggest that it would be a waste of time to expose young people to amateur radio as a recruitment method. It may well be an incubator effect of planting the seed that will be sown later in the life course. The short-term efforts should not ignore middle-age prospects for the hobby. They have three key characteristics that make them prime targets for marketing. One, they tend to be “empty nesters” without dependent children. Two, they are at or near their peak-earning years with perhaps the highest discretionary income they will ever have. Three, they have more time on their hands for the pursuit of hobbies. The demographic fact is that there will also be more of them in the near term for effective recruitment into the hobby.
These results encourage strategic and efficient methods for RAC and its membership clubs and associated organizations to reach both the youth population as well as later-in-life adults. Demography does not have to be destiny if these actions are taken soon. But it will be if heads are placed solidly into the sand.
Notes
1.For other data on the aging ham operator population in the United States and the United Kingdom, see https://k4fmh.com/2021/08/28/the-secret-storm-approaching-cw-contesting/ or https://k4fmh.com/2021/03/31/uk-regulator-ofcom-releases-ham-licenses-by-age-compares-favorably-with-us-estimates/.
2.The “life course” is the routine and mostly orderly progression of the transition of individuals among various recognized stages of life. The broadest definition is “The entirety of individual’s life from birth to death and the typical set of circumstances an individual experiences in a given society as they age.” (Source: https://sociologydictionary.org/life-course/).
3.This question wording leaves the definition of activity up to the respondent. I’ve asked many hams what being “active” in the hobby means. I received a wide-ranging variety of responses that do not identify a singular coherent defining concept.
4.In analysis not shown, there is virtually no distinction in reported inactivity during the amateur career and current RAC membership. We cannot determine whether past membership patterns is linked to periods of inactivity during the full period of license tenure.
References
Frank M. Howell. 2013. “Survey of Members 2013.” ARRL Delta Division Report. Online resource: http://arrldelta.org/dd-final13.pdf.
Frank M. Howell. 2021. “The lost Tribe, the Pied Piper and the Executive.” The Spectrum Monitor October, 7-12. Available for download as a PDF here.
Frank M. Howell and Scott Wright. 2021. https://foxmikehotel.com/aging-and-radio-contesting/
Results from the RAC Survey 2021
In a previous blog post, I showed the popularity of some 39 specific operating activities among Canadian hams using the national RAC Survey 2021. There were very small age differences in the average total number of activities. However, there are indeed clear age patterns in specific operating activities. This article presents those patterns as well as in the overall themes of operating.1 There are telling distinctions in these age-related operating preferences, ones that will likely follow the hobby over the next few decades.
Age Group Patterns in Specific Activities. Age differences occur in the adoption of some of the newest technologies emerging in the hobby. It is not surprising to the reader that this was by younger hams. Conversely, some long-standing activities with traditional appeal hold lower levels of engagement by younger amateurs. The line charts in Figure 1 compare a set of traditional activities with more recently-emerging ones, like digital data modes, that have become much talked about in the hobby. These represent some key age patterns in the RAC Survey of 2021.
If it’s portable and digital, these younger hams are more likely to report that they are doing it.
Frank K4FMH
Using traditional voice modes, whether SSB, AM or FM, has been a staple of ham radio for decades as has the original transmission mode, CW. Both are used at lower rates among young Canadian hams while they reach their respective zenith among the most senior group. Comparing this top panel with that on the bottom, there is a corollary with digital modes and mobile or portable operations. Younger hams say they do these activities at higher rates than older hams. The trend, like the comparable ones in the top panel, are mostly continuous and downward.
Chasing DX becomes more appealing during middle age and continues until senior status. The same is true for HF rag-chewing. These two activities may well typify many senior hams to the extent that these survey results reflect the country’s population of amateurs. By sharp contrast, it’s the data modes of all stripes, including satellites (including ARISS), drone operations, and telemetry that have higher participation rates among younger age groups. If it’s portable and digital, these younger hams are more likely to report that they are doing it.
This begs the question of Elmering activity. There is a higher percentage of teens that report this activity of coaching other hams than any other single group. But this age group is a small sample size (n=8) so it’s not a reliable estimate. The more conservative interpretation is that Elmering is mostly for those successively older in age. Peer teaching by young hams, however, is a clearly desirable goal.2 This survey just did not capture it due to the lower response rate among younger hams.
A strikingly age-graded activity is CW operating. Up to the age of 49, CW use is lower than 20 percent, or one-fifth of the full survey respondents. This increase to almost one-third for those in their fifties, and increases to a majority among those eighty or over. While there is anecdotal evidence that CW interest and practice is growing among younger groups in Canada and the U.S., this new data on activity participation casts a pall on any broad generalizations from those “feel-good” media stories. CW operation does appear at-risk of becoming more of a niche activity over the next couple of decades based on these demographic patterns.3
A final traditional activity, the restoration of classic radios, seems very fitting to be something that connects a younger period in life with an older one. This trend is found in the top panel but just not as dramatic as one could expect. It rises past ten percent during the fifties, increasing until the seventies among survey respondents.
Age Patterns in Themes of Operating. Because a number of these activities appear to overlap, such as DXing and Contesting or Public Service and Emergency Communications, I created summaries of homogeneous operating themes from them (see full report for details). These are illustrated in Table 1.
Because of the concern about age in the amateur radio space, I have constructed line charts by age group for these themes of operating activity in Figure 2. I separated more conventional activities into the left panel and newer activities in the right (except for Mentoring). There are clear age patterns in these graphs. They tend to confirm the age patterns in the individual activities but they give a broader picture to the overall patterns.
Younger hams tend to be engaged in QRP portable activities as well as digital modes more than older operators. They tend to not get involved in competition, in contrast to much social media to the contrary. In addition, younger hams do not report traditional building activities or operations (CW) nearly as much as middle-aged or more senior amateurs. These are important findings for they fly in the face of some contemporary thinking by many in amateur radio.
The activities of competing against other hams as well as traditional experimental work and operations do not go above average activity levels until these hams reach age 50 and above. Traditional activities remain at these levels by age group. Competition tends to trail off after age 80, a result also observed in twenty years of U.S. ARRL Sweepstakes Contest data (Howell and Wright, 2021). They tend to be average or below in QRP portable activities and digital mode operations.
In the right panel of Figure 2, mentoring is something engaged in by all age groups above the average score with the exception of the twenty-year-old group. Younger operators report much higher participation in remote control operations as well as satellite work. Balloon operations are the third above average activity for younger operators. Super HF band work is above average for those from the twenties until the seventies. For the most senior hams, no activity reaches an average score except mentoring.
The findings shown here for younger hams versus those in the older Baby Boomer generation are much talked about in amateur radio. These national survey data from Canada confirm some of those observations but in specific ways. Younger hams are engaged much more in computer-based digital and portable operating activities that are newer developments in the hobby. The converse is true for more senior hams who say they operate in traditional ways but not as much digital or portable. The practice of CW mode is a rather clear example. Only some 15 percent or thereabouts of younger operators use CW while over 40 percent do among senior hams. Note that these are patterns for which some individual exceptions on the margins can also be true but the overall patterns remain. There is a clear age-graded transition afoot in behavioral practices within the amateur radio hobby.
Age-graded activities identify sectors of the hobby that may grow or decline in the future. Advocacy and Elmering can perhaps change those patterns but these baseline data are important to benchmark such future impacts. The irony is that the very activity of Elmering exhibits these same age-graded patterns: senior hams engage more in coaching than do younger hams. Thus, will relative youth reject advice to engage more in traditional operating activities when they themselves tend to embrace newly-emerging ones? Comparisons of the 2021 survey with another in the future will tell the tale of such potential change.
References
Frank M. Howell and Scott Wright. 2021. “Generational Change in ARRL Contesting: The Pending Demographic Cliff Ahead.” Retrieved at https://foxmikehotel.com/aging-and-radio-contesting/.
1. The full report of my analysis, along with data from Statistics Canada and ISED, is published on the FoxMikeHotel.com website as Operating Patterns Among Canadian Amateurs: Results from the RAC Survey 2021. Please see that report for details of this national survey of Canadian hams.
2. In Appendix B of the full report at FoxMikeHotel.com, there is a chart (Figure B2) illustrating that participating in organized youth training activities (JOTA, YOTA) kicks in during the late twenties, peaking during middle age. Thus, the youngest hams do not appear to be engaged in peer teaching per se but younger adults do get involved in increasing proportions until their fifties.
3. Evidence from 20 years of the ARRL Sweepstakes Contest participation appears in Howell and Wright (2021). These results show a clear parallel of an incipient CW contesting decline in the ARRL Sweepstakes CW Contest.
Results from the 2021 RAC National Survey
Author’s note: a version of this appeared in the May 2024 issue of The Canadian Amateur, available to members only. I retain copyright to the material. After numerous requests from non-members of RAC, I have posted the material here for all to read.
What are the most popular activities among Canadian hams? Each one is likely to say it’s what they do. Now we have national survey results to give us a more complete picture rather than a collection of comments at the local ham radio club or convention.
The Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC) periodically conducts surveys to obtain objective information on the current status of amateur radio in Canada. The national RAC Survey of 2021 focused on operating patterns among radio amateurs, including how active they are in various specific aspects of the hobby and some key demographics. Paul Coverdell VE3ICY constructed the survey instrument (see his TCA article in the January 2021 issue). I completed a full report of my analysis of these data, along with data from Statistics Canada and ISED, which is published on the my FoxMikeHotel.com website as Operating Patterns Among Canadian Amateurs: Results from the RAC Survey 2021. This article is taken from that full report. Future papers will contain other elements of this survey.
Here I show how central some operating activities are and how others, and while ardently pursued by some, are much more niche concerns in the overall ham radio community. These results are important for both RAC and the rank-and-file amateur in Canada to know. It also helps define markets for product manufacturers (e.g., satellite equipment, etc.) as well as provide a benchmark for survey data collection in other countries on their amateur radio population.
A total of 39 operating activities were presented to respondents during the survey, asking the respondent for a declaration of their involvement. These specific activities widely ranged from casual operating to sophisticated telemetry data modes.
I sorted these responses into a bar chart from highest to lowest percent participation in the survey (Figure 1; click image for larger version). Here are the results by importance to hams in the survey. Note that individuals engage in more than one activity.
Dominant Operating Activities. While the median percent participation in all these activities is about 17 percent, the activities with the highest engagement are clear relative to this baseline. It should be little surprise that casual operating and voice modes are the top activities. Three activities reach a majority level of participation: casual operations, using traditional voice transmissions, and digital modes. This is not shocking but the level of use in digital transmission might be a surprise to most readers.
Over two-thirds (70%) operate in what they consider a casual style. Traditional voice modes, like SSB, AM or FM, are second (59%). What may be a surprise is where digital modes rank: in third place (52%). Fully one-half of Canadian amateurs now operate digital modes. This considerably out-ranks the venerable and original mode of CW (32%) where only a third say they now use Morse Code for communication. With local (46%) and HF rag-chewing (37%) registering at double the median participation rate, it is clear that hams in Canada, at times, just enjoy chatting with others. A more formal style, Net participation, is engaged in by some 43 percent.
Contesting and Chasing DX. Contesting as a pursuit is popular among a smaller group of less than one-third in size (29%). But new forms of “contesting” have emerged through portable operations such as POTA, SOTA and related activities outside the usual shack (37%).1 Fox-hunting is followed by almost one-in-ten (9%) Canadian hams. Low power QRP operations, regardless of location, is popular in about one-fifth (23%). Mobile operation is on par with local rag-chewing in popularity (47%). Operating Special Event Stations gets about 15 percent (14.9%) engaged. Thus, the emergence of portable operating, especially in combination with formal log-submissions via Parks or Summits on the Air, has surpassed in numbers of practitioners in the traditional contesting operations. This may be a shock to some in the contesting community who have been part of the establishment of amateur radio activities for decades. These objective survey results document evidence to the contrary.2
Pursuing distant contacts (DXing) is as popular as, for instance, checking into various Nets. Some 42 percent identify as DXers. The related activity of collecting QSL cards per se falls in at only a 20 percent level of engagement. (The electronic QSL records, such as LoTW, eQSL, etc., may have supplanted paper cards for many hams.) As could be expected with the investment in money and time commitment, being involved in DXpeditions themselves is rare (5%).
Public Service. Public service in emergency communications engages about a third (37%) and more general similar activities (30%). Related to this includes weather and storm monitoring (14%). Formal traffic handling (6.2%) maintains a small but dedicated group. Drone operations might be considered in the public service arena. While it’s a new technology for amateur radio, there is a nominal set of hams in the survey (5%) who say they use it. The venerable APRS network is used by a quarter of operators (25.2%).3 Taken together, there is a significant share of Canadian amateurs engaged in emergency and related public service activities.
Building Devices.Designing and building amateur radio equipment, especially antennas, captures a surprising share of activity. Antenna construction is the third most popular activity result at 47 percent. Homebrewing and kit-building is an activity of over a third of these respondents (36%). The restoration of classic rigs and putting them on the air attract a small group (13%) but one more highly attractive to hams than a dozen other aspects of the hobby. The homebrewing roots of the hobby appear to remain alive and well.
Elmering and Coaching. The mentoring and coaching of other hams, especially newly licensed ones, is a practice that takes time. It may not be for every amateur operator. Only 17 percent (17.3%) report engaging in this activity. Related engagement for youth involves several activities, such as JOTA, TDOTA and YOTA, and garners about 8 percent of hams in Canada into their support.
Space and Satellites.Various aspects of amateur radio in space are popular. Contacting the International Space Station (ARISS) is now an attraction for many (14%). Satellite operations in general are comparable in their share of practitioners (16%). Bouncing signals off of the moon (EME) is a specialty of some 5 percent of these hams. Using amateur radio for radio astronomy, a crossover field for astronomy proper, has a small contingent (3%) of followers.
Shortwave Listening. Many amateur operators began as shortwave listeners. Over a quarter (27%) in this survey report being engaged in SWL activities. This is on par, by comparison, with formal contesting or QRP operations. Perhaps the reader is somewhat surprised by this result. SWLing is nonetheless as or more popular than contesting, public service or QRP operating.
Niche Activities. A number of miscellaneous activities may not fit into these broader sets of activities. These include: remote operations (10.2%), VHF/UHF weak signal operations (17%), off-road communications (8.2%), high altitude ballooning (2.6%) and telemetry (2.4%). Each of these may fit into other larger activities but stand on their own in this survey. These results serve as a baseline for future surveys repeating these activity questions so that their growth may be objectively determined.
A related question is just how many different activities do Canadian ham operators engage in? In other words, how specialized is the hobby? The total number of activities that RAC Survey 2021 participants reported reflects just how active each ham operator is regardless of the activity’s specific focus. It can theoretically range from 0-38 in total.
Total Number of Activities. A sum of all activities by age group is shown in the accompanying chart as a histogram (left) and by age group (right) in a bar chart (Figure 2; click image for larger version). Since we have no data with which to compare the total portfolio of an amateur operator’s activities, it’s important to examine how Canadian hams vary in pursuing them.4
Survey respondents say they participate in as few as one and as many as 29 different activities. The median number is nine. The left panel shows that there is a skew to the right side of the distribution where the most highly active hams are located. This shows that may hams do just a few things while a smaller group do very many activities. One might ask is this extreme activity related to the age of the amateur operator?
The right panel shows that the medians (dark bar in the box) do not vary much across each age group. There is some change from the teens to the thirty-year-old group but the pattern smooths out from there.
These hams are not followed as they “age,” so we cannot truly speak about more specialization occurring from the teen years into middle age. It could be the historical period in which each ham got licensed and socialized into the hobby, perhaps by an Elmer coach, that shapes the specific activities. The results here, however, show little change in the overall average portfolio of activities by hams of all age groups. The top group (at 10) is only three higher than the bottom group (at 7). This is a good sign for continuing engagement regardless of age as measured in 2021.
These nationwide survey results show that amateur radio activities in Canada are more than simply alive and well. Some hams are very highly engaged in a wide variety of activities. While it is often remarked that ham radio is a hobby-of-hobbies, the well-entrenched activities of casual QSOs with fellow hams is clearly a common core pastime. These are predominately using voice or digital modes although CW operation is practiced by one-third. Building things, especially antennas, is a very popular activity so the homebrew culture remains active today. Emergency communications and contesting tend to round-out the traditional operating areas.
It also seems clear that Canadian hams may be a diverse lot in terms of how they spend their time in the hobby. Some engage in many more activities than others. I will examine the amount of time spent in the hobby in a future article.
The overall activity levels are not lower among older age groups than younger ones. Age does not appear to impact the average of the simple number of reported activities. But it may be that Canadian hams of different ages do vary in the specific sets of activities which may shape the contours of the hobby in the decades to come. That will be the focus of my next article using these national survey data collected by RAC which will provide a clearer picture of how age-graded some activities are today.
Notes:
1. It is debatable by many as to whether these constitute “contesting.” The participants and supporting organizations do keep score of contacts and submitted logs. They issue milestone awards. I consider them akin to contest activities because of these shared characteristics regardless of their recognized status as such.
2.In the Appendix of the full report, it is shown that about two-thirds of QRPers operate portably (64%) but a similar percentage of portable operators say they do not operate QRP (62%). We cannot be sure within this survey instrument whether these are simultaneous activities or not so keep that in mind.
3. We note that, somehow, the oft-heard critique that an amateur activity “isn’t real ham radio” if the Internet is involved skips over APRS. This activity is not possible without the Internet’s role in the system.
4. I will examine the time spent on specific modes by frequency band in a following article. This will complement this section on activity participation.
Listening to the shortwave commercial stations (along with CB radio) has been a key gateway activity for entry into amateur radio. That was back when commercial shortwave was vibrant and perhaps in its heyday. There is still a very active set of SWLs contributing to the popular SWLing.com website and the legacy work by the well-known Van Horn family to just name a couple. The Spectrum Monitor publishes information about shortwave listening, too. Of course, the Grand Daddy publication, the World Radio TV Handbook is still around. But do amateur operators still listen to the shortwave radio bands? In this article, I want to address the question I just raised with a clear answer: They still do in Canada!
The Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC) fielded a national survey of Canadian hams in 2021. A total of 2,089 responses were received, of which 1,630 (78%) were from RAC members. Approximately one-third of all RAC members took the time to complete the survey. This is an example of “voluntary response sample” and is not a probability survey. The final report compared responses to known population characteristics which suggested that the realized sample data is generally representative of Province and license characteristics. I’ve just completed a full report from the data which is available on my FoxMikeHotel.com website. The results on shortwave listening are the focus of this article.
The results show that indeed Canadian amateurs listen to the shortwave frequencies outside of ham radio bands. Out of 38 specific operating activities, over a fourth (28.8%) of Canadian amateurs said they are involved in shortwave listening in a typical month. This was ranked 16th out of 38, ahead of QRP operations, Elmering, weather spotting, and other activities thought to be popular in amateur radio. This result may be surprising to the reader. But my further analysis shows a clearer picture of how traditional shortwave listing activity is integrated with other ham activities.
I have included in Figure 1 a map of all license-holders in Canada from the amateur radio regulator, ISED. The provided licensee address was georeferenced to the street-level for the vast majority and city-level for the remainder. There is also a bar chart showing how SWLing varies by Province.
Amateurs in Canada are concentrated all along the Southern border and in the urban centers of the Southeastern seaboard. There is another concentration on the Western coast near Vancouver. For the survey results, the bar chart in the bottom panel of Figure 1 illustrates how shortwave listening varies. A majority of hams in Newfoundland and the Northwest Territory use shortwave radio for listening. Those in Saskatchewan and Manitoba round out those Provinces above the overall survey mark of 28.8 percent. Excluding Nunavut Province with only 2 survey respondents, the lowest engagement in SWLing is Alberta. The remaining Provinces are about equal, in the lower twenty-percent figure.
Do these results make sense? The physical isolation of the two highest Provinces makes using shortwave broadcasts very practical in many ways. But there is more to it as I investigated whether SWLing is a more obscure activity in ham radio or is it more integrated into portfolio of things that current amateur operators do today?
In Table 1, I summarize my crosstabulation of shortwave listening by other activities (some 37 tables). The three groups summarized in the table reflect whether there was a statistically significant relationship between the two activities and, if so, whether SWLing was greater or less when the ham said they participate in the comparison activity. If there is no significant relationship, then shortwave listening is about the same whether the other activity is engaged in or not. If shortwave listening is a surprising yet obscure activity, there would be few other activities associated with it. Or, perhaps there might be no relationship at all with a random assortment of hams tuning into to those bands.
What the results in Table 1 demonstrate is how significantly integrated shortwave listening is with a number of activities central to the hobby. There are only seven activities without an association and one with a negative relationship. Contesters tend to pursue SWLing significantly less. This is the opposite, however, of what DXers report. Ham operators who listen to shortwave bands also practice a variety of popular activities in their practice of the hobby. These findings tend to remove any doubt as to whether listening to shortwave radio bands is fully an integrated part of contemporary amateur radio in Canada.
Another question about these results is whether it is simply a residual activity of the large Baby Boom cohort? Should this be the case, SWLing is likely to age out of existence over the next couple of decades. If so, shortwave listening would be highest among the most senior survey respondents and lowest among the youngest.
In Figure 2, I constructed a line chart of shortwave usage by age group. There is a clear downward trend as SWLing is highest among younger hams than more senior ones. The significance test suggests that this overall age pattern is not significant. The result is that the survey result of a quarter or more of Canadian hams engaging in shortwave listening is not a holdover of amateurs from a previous era of the hobby as younger hams.
Even with there being a non-significant trend in opposition to the Baby Boomer remnant hypothesis, I examined how long these hams had been licensed (tenure) and a complementary question in the survey regarding long many years they had been active. Perhaps it is not age per se but length of experience as a licensed or active ham that might influence whether nor not shortwave listening is attractive. These results, too, showed almost no difference regarding shortwave listening and length of experience or activity in the hobby. This are positive findings for shortwave band usage outside of amateur radio.
To further assess how shortwave listening might be linked to other factors, I compared the rural-to-urban locations of amateurs in the survey. There are no significant differences even when compared within these Provinces. The rural-to-urban locale does not explain why some Provinces have higher shortwave listening levels than others.
To conclude, these are somewhat unexpected findings based upon the rhetoric that ham radio operators tell themselves in the public sphere. We frequently hear that shortwave listening is passe, that the commercial and government broadcasters are retreating, and so forth. These may be factually the case from the supply-side of non-ham shortwave transmissions. But the hams in Canada do listen to shortwave broadcasts or one type or another in addition to participating in the core set of activities that comprises amateur radio. Contesting is the sole specialty that is negatively related to such listening. By contrast, DXers are more likely to listen (30.2% vs 23.6%). There are Provincial variations in listening but no patterns within any of them that vary along the rural-to-urban continuum.
The relationship of SWLing to the rest of the amateur radio hobby’s activities appears well-integrated. While the broadcast sector of the shortwave industry is at a low ebb right now, amateur radio in Canada still embraces listening to the non-ham bands. We do not know how this national survey of Canadian amateurs may compare to those of other nations. However, it is the sole survey of which I am aware that measures the activities of amateur radio operators in such detail. Until we do have comparative surveys, the RAC Survey 2021 is our only objective insight into ham radio activities.
Some readers may view these surprising results through their own “personal windshield” of listening experiences. “Why, I don’t know any hams who listen to shortwave broadcasts,” they might say. Others could counter, “Well, we need some “good” survey data on this issue.” I’ve spent a career conducting surveys, teaching survey research methods to PhD students (and fellow faculty), and advising some of the largest survey organizations in the world, such as NORC at the University of Chicago, the SRC at the University of Michigan, and the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service to name a few. The RAC Survey of 2021 is not a high quality statistical probability sample costing a few hundred thousand of dollars. But it is the best one I’ve seen to date on a national scale with behavioral measures of amateur radio operators. So while the reader’s experiences on SWLing might indeed be differ, it is the aggregate picture that we have never had national level results like those in the RAC Survey 2021. Do they apply to the U.S.? Well, would you rather go just with your personal windshield to generalize or take the picture these results present as our best guesstimate for similar behavior in the States?
Since the previous blog post got out and syndicated via AmateurRadio.com, I’ve had inquiries about how to go about building an effective relationship with a local library system. Some clubs have already done this but focusing on emergency communications activities. The ARRL tends to call these “served agencies.” This may be with a local Emergency Management Agency, hospitals, area Red Cross agency, or local governments. As I’ve written here before, why not think of other organizations as educational “served agencies”? That might be a good start!
Back in January (2024), I led a Forum at the Capital City Hamfest in Jackson MS on developing strategic partnerships with public libraries. We had representatives from the Madison County (MS) Library System and the Director and Vice Director of the Delta Division of the ARRL on the Panel. Here is an updated slide deck of that Forum discussion. The interested reader might use this as a jumping-off point to take the ball and start dribbling (see last slide!).
Download PDF here.
Strategic-partnerships-with-public-libraries-by-ham-radio-UpdatesThe partnership of the Jackson (MS) ARC and the public library system in the northern suburb of Madison County took another step last month. JARC donated two 3D printers valued at $3,000 to the Madison County Library System in late May. This adds to the library system’s capabilities to serve patrons who are engaged in “maker” activities. The library policy is to only charge for the actual resin used to print the object file submitted by the patron. I’ve had custom shells for PC power supplies that I had converted to ham radio use as well as a number of other things. The most expensive thing I had printed was about $8 or so. Why would I buy a 3D printer unless I just wanted one? (If I could find the space….).
Back in February at the Capital City Hamfest, I chaired a Forum on building partnerships with public libraries. The MCLS technology staff was on that Panel, along with staffing a booth on the floor. It was easily one of the most visited booths at this hamfest of about 900 attendees. Building a relationship with an organization, I said in my talk, was more than just buying ARRL books and dropping them off. It’s about finding mutually-beneficial activities that help both the library achieve its goals as well as the goals of the amateur radio club. It’s too bad that so many ham operators tell me that they’ve not been to a public library in ___ number of years. Two groups that hams say they want to recruit — young people and women — do go to public libraries. So much so that it’s twice as frequently as they go to the movie theater in a given month, leading the Gallup Organization to call public libraries the most common “cultural crossroads” in America.
The Jackson ARC has taken another step in building this partnership between them and the MCLS. See the Press Release below. Can your club build something similar with your area library system?
JARC-3D-Printer-Donation-MCLS-Press-ReleaseOur first Get S.M.A.R.T. @ the Library event last Saturday (March 2, 2024) was a success. The Jackson ARC is holding quarterly Get S.M.A.R.T. events at the Madison (MS) Branch over 2024. Held at the Madison (MS) Branch of the Madison County Library System, we had 13 participants. Four declared that they were committed to getting their Technician license. After Library staff welcomed the group and introduced me as ARRL Assistant Director for the Delta Division and JARC President, Jim AK5J, Board Member Clay AC5Z served as the EmCee for the session. As the picture below illustrates, some were on the edge of their seats learning about today’s amateur radio story!
We used the ARRL slide deck for the basic overview during the first hour. This material is very good for introducing amateur radio to the public from my reading. We did not use the video but will use that to review in our third event, as explained in more detail below. Clay AC5Z was the lead speaker for the first hour’s information. He began with a personal “war story” but his details made the point of our theme: this is NOT your father’s radio! Here’s a snippet of that segment.
This broad overview from the ARRL material was followed up in the second hour by localizing amateur radio to the Madison area. Using the map of hams created by Ross KT1F, we first showed the famous Herman Munster segment operating in his basement as a ham. All in attendance had some recollection of this cartoon-ish description of hams. Afterwards, the point was made that licensed operators aren’t likely to be very scary. Many live nearby, often in an audience member’s own neighborhood! While all knew that Herman was a fictional character, this attacked head-on the notion that hams are “different” in negative ways. But no, they are a lot like you and may well live next door. This map localized the some 250 licensed hams in Madison County in a way that is not possible with mere words alone. It clearly and emphatically made the point that we needed to make with a high degree of audience enthusiasm. Here’s a screenshot of that map, centered on the Madison Branch Library.
This second hour was largely spent on several hams giving brief explanations on one of their respective specialties. Mike K5XU, a blind since birth ham of over 50 years who has a career in broadcasting, explained his use of Morse Code in his CW operations. He related his early experiences in the Mississippi School for the Blind where a librarian helped him get amateur radio materials to learn CW. Rick N5ZNL extolled his love of working satellites as the audience piled on the questions about this segment of the hobby that is growing in popularity. Rick’s enthusiasm was contagious in the group in attendance. I (Frank K4FMH) discussed my activity in building things, emphasizing transceivers packaged for portable operations. These include various transceivers, ranging from QRP-ish rigs to a 500w station in a Gator Case, and battery boxes to power them. Clay AC5Z discussed his using Arduino-based tools to construct an automatic satellite tracker device for a light-load satellite antenna. This set of brief (and I emphasize brief) comments about various specialties that local hams participate in were very effective tools to give public attendees a clear sense of what we do. Many had questions, asked with enthusiasm. I believe that they will tell others before the next meeting.
In addition to hosting these Get S.M.A.R.T. events, the MCLS has announced a goal of having at least one library staffer at each county library branch licensed in the near future. Coinciding with this licensure plan, they will be obtaining a ham station at each branch with a licensed amateur radio operator on staff. We hope to assist MCLS in obtaining equipment for operating on both VHF/UHF as well as HF as this effort matures over the year. This addition to their “maker space” facility development is huge.
This commitment by the Library System was unexpected on my end. But it underscores the interest by libraries to catalyze their STEM programming efforts. With homeschooling being a significant and growing trend, local public libraries are also school libraries for some. STEM programming is a “thing” these days for public libraries as they try to better serve their market. In Madison County (MS), they see a local amateur radio club like JARC being a highly valued partner in this effort. So much so that they are willing to get staff licensed, equipment acquired and installed, and give demonstrations for library patrons. Add bringing in JARC members for enhanced instruction and there’s a winning combination.
In our next Saturday Morning Amateur Radio Time (S.M.A.R.T.) event at the Madison Branch Library, we will conduct an activation behind the library using their Garden area. It has a permanent Gazebo and fixed picnic tables with seating. There are tall trees. This is planned for early May when the weather is more predictable here in Central Mississippi. We may promote this as a field test for “Libraries on the Air (LiOTA)” but I haven’t firmly decided on that. This activity will give attendees a chance to see amateur radio in action and participate themselves under a control operator. We will have HF stations operating CW, SSB and FT8 along with a VHF/UHF rig talking to local repeaters and Rick N5ZNL waving his Arrow antenna toward the sky for satellite contacts. Rumor has it that hot dogs, potato chips, and a cold drink may be available. Hmm. Should the event be titled, “All that Ham Radio—and a Bag of Chips“?
The final two Get SMART events will be back in the Library meeting room during late summer and fall. I’ll have a better sense of the topics that will be most effective then, after the activation event. We hope to have a summer Technician training and testing class in the Library, as four declared their commitment as well as library staff who are interested.
This year-long cycle, managed by the Jackson ARC in concert with my efforts as ARRL Delta Division Assistant Director, will tell us a great deal about how to partner with public libraries as a “served educational agency” to reach the public. Thus far, I could not have asked for a better partnership than with the MCLS and the JARC.
Churches and Chapels on the Air (CHOTA) 2024 will be held on Saturday, 14th September, 2024. John G3XYF, organizer of CHOTA in the UK, has announced the date for this year. For a roster in an Excel spreadsheet of the churches in the UK and US that were registered in 2023, go to this link.
Churches and Chapels on the Air (CHOTA) 2024
https://wacral.org/chota-2024/
will be held on Saturday, 14th September, 2024
In 2023, I took a leadership role in promoting participation in this low-key event here in the U.S. John G3XYF welcomed this idea. We had about a dozen on this side of the Pond to join in the fun. For 2024, I’ve floated this idea to John for his review and consideration.
What if, at a specified time each hour, every church team QSYed to a specified 20 meter frequency and tried to work each other across the Pond? Of course, propagation and equipment will rule the day. But by incorporating this 10 minute or so period into the framework, it will continue to build a bridge between the two sets of ham operators, no? I’ll post later if this idea has merit with the organizer.
Consider fielding a team at an area church this year! I’ve had several inquiries that I’ve sent along to John G3XYF as the organizer of the event. This has been underway in some fashion since 1957 so isn’t it high time we got in gear on this? Pass this webpage along to other hams whom you might think would be interested.
My church Senior Pastor and Church Administrator quickly button-holed me after the event to please organize it again in 2024. It was a great activity with the stress-to-fun ratio definitely being in the operator’s favor! Food availability tends to draw a crowd…
I’ve included a previous story I published on the Vicksburg (MS) ARC website below so readers can see how it went at my church in Ridgeland, MS for the 2023 event.
Some of our members participated in the first annual special event of CHOTA in the United States. This was at the Highlands Presbyterian Church in Ridgeland, MS on Saturday, September 9, 2023. CHOTA is Churches and Chapels On The Air, an event of the World Association of Christian Radio Amateurs and Listeners. That organization began in 1957 in England by the Huddersfield South Methodist Radio Club. It’s been ecumenical since 1978. (See https://k4fmh.com/2023/07/12/chota-2023/ for details on CHOTA and planning for this event.)
The Jackson ARC managed the Welcome Tent uponr the invitation of event organizer Frank K4FMH and his church administrator, Larnie Shinnick. JARC invited members of VARC to attend, operate and exhibit satellite communications. Eddie Pettis N5JGK was joined by an area ham, Rick Largent N5ZNL to showcase this activity. All area hams were invited to attend the event through the dissemination of an announcement flyer and ARRL MS Section emails.
Four stations were set up to work Phone, CW, FT8, and satellites. The HF stations used wire antennas hung from trees on one corner of the church’s sixteen-acre campus. Stations were limited to these to avoid RF interference. The SSB and FT8 stations each had bandpass filters to help in this regard. VARC member Eddie Pettis N5JGK used his HT and Arrow antenna, as did Rick Largent N5ZNL, to work satellites. Mike N5DU used his Xiegu G90 station at 10 watts to work FT8 on 10 and 15 meters, reaching Europe, South America for several contacts that really excited TV reporter Walt Grayson in his story. Frank K4FMH brought his HF station built into a large Gator Case featuring an Icom 7300, Ameritron amplifier, MFJ ATU, Array Solutions Bandpass System, and BHI DSP speaker. Tom Brown AE5I brought his Yaesu FT-897 transceiver and CW bug where he and Mike Duke K5XU worked the meager options available on a very ragged 40M band. A total of over 100 contacts were made throughout the US as well as around the world. Two SSB contacts were with other activated churches in the US although those in England were not heard here.
The church provided a food truck on site and added ice cream. Both were free to those in attendance. We greatly appreciate Highlands Pres for being such a gracious host for this event! Truly, a good time was had by all in attendance.
The news media was present and gave great coverage of the event, including a front-page story in the Jackson Clarion-Ledger on Monday (see pic). The Clarion-Ledger has a gallery of pictures taken by reporter Ed Inman with a front-page story in the paper’s Monday, September 11th edition. Legendary TV news reporter Walt Grayson of WJTV Channel 12 in Jackson published a video feature story for the Monday evening newscast. Jim Armstrong AK5J said that for as long as he has been a licensed ham operator, he has not seen as much publicity for amateur radio as this event has received.
Here is the coverage by Walt Grayson of WJTV Channel 12 in Jackson:
Below are some additional pictures of the event for you to enjoy.
It’s taken me months longer than I anticipated but my full analysis of the national survey that the Radio Amateurs of Canada fielded in 2021 is now in completed form. RAC President Phil McBride VA3QR and Regulatory Affairs Officer Dave Goodwin VE3KG are reading it now.
Dave Goodwin had asked me to drop everything and do an extensive analysis of the 2023 RAC survey on amateur call signs for the regulator in Canada. They have published that report and the raw data themselves on the RAC.ca website. I hope they do the same with this one. It reflects RAC’s commitment to transparency in their work as the national organization for amateur radio.
I have placed a March 2024 date on the “final” version after any corrections in the final draft are completed. RAC will publish the report on their main website afterwards. I’ll put a copy at my complementary website, FoxMikeHotel.com, under this link.
There are some very significant findings in this report for amateur radio in Canada. These data are, from my experience, the most detailed measurements of operating activity for a national survey that is publicly known. Alan Griffin, Editor of RAC journal The Canadian Amateur, is interested in my submission of papers for their consideration. Stay tuned…
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