Northwest ham populations

The ham radio ranks continue growing in the Northwest. Over the past several months I've analyzed the number of ham licensees as the basis for a class project in school. I found the analysis both interesting and challenging.





The ham population roughly tracks the general population in the Northwest (defined and Oregon and Washington for this purpose), although there are anomalous pockets.


The map above shows the high ham concentration in three Puget Sound counties. The Portland metro area and Spokane also have high ham numbers. Two counties in SE Washington and three in North Central Oregon have very low numbers. These counties might be places to operate during state QSO parties or during county hunter activities. I expect quite a few folks would appreciate a few stations operating from those counties.








I found the map below much more interesting. The map shows the number of hams per thousand in the general population (based on the 2008 US Census county estimates). On the low end, many counties with low ham numbers also have low numbers per thousand. This may simply be the result of few hams who talk about their hobby, so few folks in the county get interested.

On the other side, the coastal counties of NW Washington and NW Oregon stand out. I know several clubs along the coast actively seek out hams for emergency communications, and local newspapers wrote several stories on ways hams helped their communities during storms.


Both Oregon and Washington have some of the highest ham population growth over the past several year, surpassed only by Utah, Idaho, and Nevada.

DX serendipity

On my home from the Ham Basics workshop (see previous post), I turned on the radio in my car to see what stations might be on the air. I was pleasantly surprised to hear several European stations booming in. To say this is rare for my mobile station would be an understatement! I had heard a Finnish station once before a year or more ago, but none others.

I've also learned that my chances of working a weak station from my car (I have a hamstick mounted near the trunk with a line tuner between the antenna and radio) approach nil. Since the station was loud enough, I called DL7MEV (he was in a contest) and he even answered back. I now have exactly ONE European contact from Germany near the Austrian border.

Since that time, I have not heard any stations more distant than Texas and Minnesota (about 1500 miles). That magic of radio continues....

Postscript: I uploaded my German contact into Logbook of the World, and he verified the contact a couple of days later. I assume he needed some rest after a 48-hour contest. Now my trail towards DXCC advances to 14. Just for comparison, several of my friends have contacts with 337 countries verified, so I have a ways to go.

Ham Basics Workshop

Last weekend our radio club held a workshop entitled "Ham Basics" with the concept to teach beginning principles on a variety of ham radio subjects. I did most of the planning and prep work behind the scenes, but asked for help with publicity and logistics for the building. In all, we had nine instructors who taught 13 classes: one general session (45-minutes) and 12 50-minute classes. We all met together for the general session, then separated into four classrooms where the other classes were held. I am grateful for the willingness of the instructors to prepare material and teach to the attendees.

We started at 9 AM in a large hall with about 80 attendees who watched several of us solve a projector problem early in my session. Most attendees were licensed hams, but there were some who came to "kick the tires" and learn a bit about the hobby. Many of the presentation outlines are available at http://www.w7aia.org/class.htm in case you are interested in the subjects. [Note: the workshop web page is not well-organized yet, but hopefully I can negotiate with the webmaster to improve it.] The slide that shows how few hams reside in some counties surprised many folks; the large ham population in the Puget Sound area and in the Portland metro area should not surprise anyone.

After the general session, attendees were able to choose from four classes. During the first class session, we offered "How to get the most from your handheld", "Simple VHF/UHF antennas", "Communications during an Emergency", and "Getting started with HF".

During the second class period, we offered "Operating mobile and portable", "Connectors and grounding", "Digital communications", and "Simple HF antennas".

During the third period, we offered "Station types from handheld to HF", "Contesting", "Using your radio for public service", and "Care and feeding of batteries".

In all, we had between 85 and 100 folks attend for all or part of the workshop. Attendees ranged from unlicensed to extra, although I think most attendees held either technician or general licenses. We received numerous thanks for the session, enough to seriously consider doing it again next year. I learned from preparing the classes, and sitting in on one class.