The stats for the ARRL DX Contest are all positive, too, I believe.
I think contest participation is pretty high now thanks to our Baby Boom
generation (born 1946 to 1964), especially those of us born in the first 10
years of that period -- we first licensed from about 1960 to 1970. Scan your CW
SS logs for the CK numbers if you don't believe it.
It was almost cool to be a teen-aged ham in the 1960s because it was almost
cool to be a math or science or even chess nerd, headed for engineering school
to design space rockets (or weapons systems). We were a generation raised to be
competitive, even if some of us chose not to.
Technology has helped increase activity as well. Although I am (now) relegated
to an apartment, I'll probably be on till I drop. By earlier standards, I have
little invested in ham gear (a transceiver and an antenna tuner). Thanks to
telecommunication techology, I don't have to worry about interfering with a
neighbor's over-the-air TV reception, or landline telephone, or component
stereo system. In fact, the opposite is true -- I hope none of my close
neighbors has a plasma TV set.
We are very, very fortunate to find outselves in this time and place.
Jim Cain, K1TN (b 1948)
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