Quite a few of the e-mail messages I've received about Section News and detailed contest score listings have mentioned the importance of seeing your callsign in QST. While everyone seems to want it to happen, I wondered just how many callsigns we print each month. I obviously have too much time on my hands, so I took out the February issue and started counting. After I finished I did some adjusting because there was only one small contest reported (UHF) and no DXCC Honor Roll listing (5 pages in August). While this may not be exact, it should give you a pretty good idea of how many callsigns there are and where they are concentrated. Perhaps useful at your next visit to a local club, or next July. Admin (masthead, Dir/VDir, SMs, Table of Contents) 174 Editorial content (articles) 1278 Feature articles 541 VHF column 250 PSHR 272 BPL 24 VUCC 55 SKs 75 Life Members 61 (runs twice a year) Section News 1655 Advertisements 208 Display ads 169 Ham ads 39 DXCC Honor Roll 460 (actually all 5520 are in August) Contest results 1500 (estimate based on 16000 logs, another 2000 in write ups) ===== Total number of callsigns printed in an average QST -> 5275 (my estimate is that about 10-15% are printed more than one time) So, it looks to me like the Field Organization (Section News) with about 5% of ARRL members, and contesters (detailed contest score listings) with 4% of members, are represented in QST by 60% (3155/5275) of the callsigns printed. A bit out of proportion. Notes: Some calls appear on multiple pages. A few are club, special event or DX callsigns. There is virtually no crossover between Section News callsigns and calls in contest results. -- Tom PS: Oh yes, while busily counting callsigns in 6 point type, I realized that the real workers we ought to be giving more PR to are seldom listed anywhere in QST - those who teach classes, give exams and Elmer new hams... ===== 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