The Belgian Dutch-language weekly The Sunday (de Zondag) recently reported incorrectly that just 153 Amateur Radio licensees existed in the country, dramatically proclaiming, “Amateur Radio permits have dropped drastically in 5 years,” and asking, “Where have the radio hobbyists gone?” The error was based on a misunderstood parliamentary exchange. The facts are that 153 new licenses were issued in Belgium last year, and that 4,702 call signs have been assigned to individuals.
The magazine’s subsequent correction accurately reported “about 5,000 radio amateurs” in Belgium, but introduced another error by stating that the number 153 referred to the number of radio stations (free channels). The story appears to have been pulled from the magazine’s website.
Elsewhere in Europe, statistics in France show a declining ham radio population there, with 13,126 licensees in 2018, a 1.2% drop from a year earlier. That compares with 19,540 hams in France in 1996.
Germany reports 64,476 Amateur Radio licensees in 2018, about the same as a year earlier but reflecting an overall decline. In 2000, Germany boasted 79,380 licensees. — Thanks to Southgate Amateur Radio News and other sources
Source: ARRL
Antenna
ICOM AH-710 Folded Dipole Antennas AH-710
Wire Antenna, Assembled, Multi-Band, Non-resonant, 150 W, UHF Male, PL-259, 80.3 ft. Length, Each Wire Antenna Band Wire Antenna Frequency 160 meters... Read more
MFJ-1799X VERTICAL ANTENNA ,9-BD,2,6,10,12,15,17,20,30,40M
VERTICAL ANTENNA Highly efficient end loading 1/2 Wave vertical covers bands: 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12, 10, 6 and 2 Meters. Requires no radials,... Read more
MEF-330-1K Multiband EFHW Antenna Transformer for 8 Bands
MEF-330-1K Multiband EFHW Antenna Transformer, Covers 8 Bands / 80-10m / 1kW-max. / NO TUNER needed / wire not included/one End Insulator inc... Read more
ANTENNA ANALYZER , 1-60MHZ – MFJ 223
ANTENNA ANALYZER , 1-60MHZ – MFJ 223 1-60 MHz Color Graphic VNA AnalyzerPocket-Size, Incredible Performance! Truly accurate SWR, R, X and Z!Thi... Read more
Review
How Your Radio’s Final Amp Class Affects Efficiency
An Oggie asks why his radio draws so much more power than the 100 watts it puts out. The answer lies in using linear final power amps in the Class A,... Read more
My Wife Bought More Radio Gear On Wish and Ali Express
My wife surprised me at the end of 2020 with a new random box of goodies from Wish and AliExpress. Today we unbox some of these ODD radios and radio a... Read more
FTdx10 vs IC-7300 Comparison
This week Jonathan compares the new Yaesu FTdx10 and the Icom IC-7300. What are your comments on either? Read more
ICOM IC-705 Review and Full Walk Through
Here’s the complete and detailed review of the ICOM IC-705. If you are already an owner of this unit, this video covers the essentials of the op... Read more
Equipment
Icom AH-705 Announced on Christmas
AH-705 HF/50 MHz Automatic Antenna Tuner Features Covers the 1.8 MHz to 50 MHz bands, using a long wire element 2-way power sources using alkaline bat... Read more
mAT-705 Tuner Introduction
mAT-705 Tuner Introduction The MAT-705 is a very small and powerful tuner for portable shortwave devices, especially designed for the Icom IC-705. The... Read more
THE NEW MOUNTAIN TOPPER MTR-4B V2 BY LNR PRECISION
MTR-4B V2 Photos COMING SOON “The Mountain Topper” The LnR Precision MTR transceivers are designed to be efficient portable CW rigs. Whether climbing... Read more
NanoVNA SAA2 Version 2 Vector Network Analyzer – Ham Radio Antenna Analyzer
NanoVNA SAA2 Version 2 Vector Network Analyzer – Ham Radio Antenna Analyzer Read more
App - Mobile
SignalID – Automatic Radio Signal Identification for Android
There’s an incredible amount of radio signals. It’s impossible to know them all, let alone recognize them. So why not get help from Signal... Read more
EchoHam version v2.10 has been released
EchoHam allows Amateur Radio operators to use the Echolink network from their Mac. You must be a licensed Amateur Radio operator to use this software.... Read more
SatSat for IOS version 1.4.11 has been released
SatSat, by Fabrice Aneche is a satellite tracking software, for radio amateurs, scientists or hobbyists. It displays current and next passes for any s... Read more
GNU RADIO CODE FOR ANDROID NOW RELEASED
Supports the most recent version of GNU Radio (v3.8). Supports 32-bit and 64-bit ARM architectures (i.e., armeabi-v7a and arm64-v8a). Supports popular... Read more