Amateur numbers static - Do we face a decline?

The number of UK Amateurs broken down by licence category up until the end of March 2005 can be found at:

http://www.ah0a.org/UK/G-StationsSummarized.html
http://www.ah0a.org/UK/G-Stations.html

Unfortunately, it shows that the number of licences are just about static compared to the previous year.

The growth rate for the last 3 years are :

Year ending March 2003 +7.3% (+2.3% if dual Class B + Foundation ignored)
Year ending March 2004 +1.6%
Year ending March 2005 +0.5%

The figures for the year to March 2003 were skewed by some 3000 (5%) Class B Amateurs who also took out Foundation licences. The 2004 and 2005 figures inevitably contain an element of double counting with people holding both
Foundation and Intermediate for a short while when they upgrade.

Looking at the trend from those figures we could well be seeing overall numbers in decline during 2005.

Anyone have any thoughts as to the reason for this and how we can get the Amateur Service growing again ?

73

Trevor M5AKA

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