I believe that the general public was never well-informed regarding the availability of no-code Technician licenses. Over and over I have had groups of non-hams in recent years ask if the FCC was ever going to drop the code requirement. When I told them there was already a license that did not require a code test, the response was always the same --- surprise. -- Andy Oppel, N6AJO At 06:31 PM 1/15/2007, Mike Raisbeck wrote:

I'm not sure that any concentration on the Tech licensees is a good use of our time. Over the last several weeks I have had several encounters which lead me to think that what is going to happen over the next few months is a substantial influx of NEW hams. To be sure, there will be lots of upgrades, too, but I believe that we may be quite surprised at the number of newcomers.

The first encounter was New Year's day at a party which some old friends of mine hold every year. There were perhaps 25 people. Of these, 3 of them, independently and in conversation, told me that they were seriously planning to get licensed as generals. Two were boaters who wanted hf, and had little or no use for VHF. I don't recall the background of the third one. Two key points:

1 - a lot of non-hams have, in a very short time, heard about the code requirement going away 2 - a lot of people would like HF, and have no interest in VHF/UHF

I figured that this might be a fluke, but then at our New England cabinet meeting last week I heard similar stories from other club presidents. Several of their stories were about engineers who had always been interested, but never learned code

To top it all off, I've been approached at work by 2 people (out of 70) who have indicated their interest in no-code HF. Both are engineers who are well aware of the technology, but never wanted, or were never able, to learn code.

I conclude from that we can expect a large number of new hams, many with admirable technical backgrounds, to join the hobby. My take on the technician class hams is that many of them are interested in eComm and public service, and don't need HF. These people may not be the best candidates for our energy.

Let's focus on getting new hams now that we have a good story to tell about HF. The techs are already plugged in, and the ones that want to upgrade will do so without a lot of work on our part.

See you all Thursday, Mike K1TWF

----------------------------------- Michael N. Raisbeck

Phone: (978) 250-1236 Fax: (978) 250-0432 Email: k1twf@arrl.net

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This email may contain privileged and confidential information intended only for the above-named recipient. If you have received this in error, you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, or copying is strictly prohibited. In such case, please notify us by reply email and delete this message. -----Original Message----- From: Joel Harrison [mailto:w5zn@arrl.org] Sent: Saturday, January 13, 2007 3:58 PM To: arrl-odv Subject: RE: [arrl-odv:15135] Re: Thursday Evening

Actually, I said we would be focusing on the 200,000 Technician class licensees that will have, for the first time, HF privileges as well as new Generals & Extras.

New ham recruitment is something we should always concentrate on but the first rush will be the influx of current licensees that will automatically obtain HF privileges literally overnight.

I'm sure the information you've suggested can be made available.

73 Joel W5ZN

-----Original Message----- From: Tom Frenaye [mailto:frenaye@pcnet.com] Sent: Saturday, January 13, 2007 10:17 AM To: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:15135] Re: Thursday Evening

At 12:37 AM 1/13/2007, Joel Harrison wrote:

...

After consultation with the Vice Presidents, we believe the best use of the Thursday evening time would be to focus our group's thinking on the challenge of assimilating the new HF operators.

Excellent plan.

I do have one worry. While the intent of this Thursday night time is to focus on new Generals and Extras, I'm hearing there is considerable interest in getting licensed in the first place "out there" - based on input from SMs and club presidents at a recent cabinet meeting. The 2007 plan correctly focuses on upgrades, something more predictable than possible new hams.

Perhaps Dave and the HQ crew could give us some more information about the mix of questions asked and publication orders received during the last month, and their current thinking on the numbers of new hams we might see in addition to the upgrades.

I worry that we may be missing a great marketing opportunity to generate a lot more new hams. As far as I know, all we've done so far is a single press release about the FCC changes.

-- Tom

===== e-mail: k1ki@arrl.org ARRL New England Division Director http://www.arrl.org/ Tom Frenaye, K1KI, P O Box J, West Suffield CT 06093 Phone: 860-668-5444

Andy Oppel andy@andyoppel.com andy_oppel@alamedanet.net