Ham Radio Licenses Top 700,000, An All-Time High

Velcroman1 writes "The newest trend in American communication isn't another smartphone from Apple or Google but one of the elder statesmen of communication: Ham radio licenses are at an all time high, with over 700,000 licenses in the United States, according to the Federal Communications Commission. Ham radio first took the nation by storm nearly a hundred years ago. Last month the FCC logged 700,314 licenses, with nearly 40,000 new ones in the last five years. Compare that with 2005, when only 662,600 people hammed it up and you'll see why the American Radio Relay League — the authority on all things ham — is calling it a 'golden age' for ham. 'Over the last five years we've had 20-25,000 new hams,' said Allen Pitts, a spokesman for the group."

Comments

Obligatory

[Moheeheeko]

Looks like Ham radio manufacturers really...

/sunglasses

...bring home the bacon.

Re:What's the attraction?

[geekoid]

2 things:

People who want to prepare for a non-existent end of society
And people who don't want to be mainstream.

That right, being a HAM operator is the same thing as a hipster. Disagree? think about what annoys you about hipsters, and then thing about that at any HAM meeting.

Certain dress, attitude, and facial style gets preference for just those things.