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Showing posts from February, 2017

The Origins of the SOTH (State of the Hobby)

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This survey started out as simple curiosity.

While browsing Reddit on the amateur radio subreddit I began to notice several users posting surveys for highly specialized topics. I completed the surveys and began to wonder what the results were. I then decided to host my own survey, to collect the opinions from the community on topics that I cared about. I wanted to make sure I made the results widely available for anyone to consume for whatever reason. Again, this is not meant to be an exhausting study of the hobby, but about the nagging questions I had about the community as a whole.

I hear time and time again things like "the hobby is growing, just look at the licenses being issued!", which is but one figure that can indicate the growth of amateur radio. It's not the only factor however, and I wanted to know more about that. I also wanted to know about new, emerging facets of an already diverse hobby. Lastly I wondered about perceptions of operators, which can indicate…