Polls
(#1-10 July 1999-May 2000)
#10 - When were you first licensed?
Date: 4/16/00-5/15/00 --- Voters: 82
When Nr %
1960-1969 20 24
1950-1959 15 18
1990-1998 13 15
1980-1989 11 13
1970-1979 11 13
1999-2000 10 12
1940-1949 1 1
Before 1940 1 1
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I thought that most folks using the internet were younger, but this poll proves otherwise. It surprises me that I got so many responses in my age group (mid-50s) and even older. While the poll didn't ask for an age, it can be inferred from the license date. Also I'm surprised the percentage of newcomers (1999-2000) was so low. As a result of the poll, I'm not going to make any wholesale changes to my site. However, I do intend to do something over the coming months to try to induce recently licensed hams to use Morse Code in their operating. Thanks for the great response to this poll.
#9 - What is your best antenna (highest gain)?
Date: 3/16/00-4/15/00 --- Voters: 54
Antenna Nr %
Dipole, Inv V, etc. 26 50
Long/Random Wire 6 11
Yagi or LP 5 9
Full Wave Loop 5 9
Vertical or Inv L 5 9
Quad 4 7
Mini-Loop or Whip 2 3
Stacked Beams 1 1
Phased Verticals 0 0
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It looks like most folks are in the same boat as I am, and aren't able to have anything better than a dipole as their best antenna. Personally I thought there would be more folks with some type of beam antenna.
#8 - Which award are you most proud of or would most like to earn?
Date: 2/16/00-3/15/00 --- Voters: 27
Award Nr %
DXCC 16 59
WAS 5 18
WAZ 3 11
USACA 3076 2 7
WAC 1 3
WPX 0 0
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My personal choice was WAZ. Why? Well, you've got to be able to contact virtually every portion of the Earth to earn this one. Here in the USA, you can probably get DXCC by only working NA, SA, and EU or at least come very close. However DXCC is the clear winner among my visitors. WAS was a rather distant second Those two awards are the most well known and longest established so they deserve the win and place positions.
#7 - In which range is your top copying speed?
Date: 1/15/00-2/15/00 --- Voters: 67
Range Nr %
11-20 WPM 23 34
21-30 WPM 19 28
31-40 WPM 15 22
6-10 WPM 5 7
41-50 WPM 3 4
51-60 WPM 1 1
1-5 WPM 0 0
Above 60 WPM 0 0
I can't copy 1 1
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CW is alive and well, at least among those who responded to this poll. This is pretty much what I expected when I thought of this poll. Perhaps I expected a couple other folks to join me in the 51-60 WPM bracket though. I guess the high speed operators do everything fast and don't have time to answer a poll. HI.
#6 - What percentage of your operating is done using QRP?
Date: 12/15/99-1/14/00 --- Voters: 36
Percent Nr %
90-99 7 20
1-24 7 20
50-89 6 16
100 4 11
25-49 4 11
0 8 22
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It's interesting to note that 22% of the hams responding have apparently never tried the challenge(?) of QRP while 31% have QRP as their prime method of operation. One thing that pleases me is that so many hams who seldom if ever use QRP also find my web site useful even though it is aimed primarily at the QRPer.
#5 - How many pieces of homebrew gear do you have?
Date: 12/1/99-12/15/99 --- Voters: 14
Pieces Nr %
1-4 8 57
5-9 4 28
10 or more 2 14
0 0 0
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Not many responses to this poll because of the difficulties I was having with my poll provider. The sparse number of responses does show that homebrewing is alive and well. That's encouraging because homebrewing, along with CW is still the backbone of amateur radio. That's what distinguishes us from CBers. The commercial gear is great, and I now use a commercial transceiver, but I still enjoy building gear. I just finished a new antenna tuner and switching system to work with the Kenwood TS-570D.
#4 - Which of the following most closely describes your favorite on-air activity?
Date: 10/16/99-11/15/99 --- Voters: 82
Activity Nr %
Rag Chewing 35 43
DXing 27 33
Contesting 8 10
Award Hunting 3 4
Antenna Testing 3 4
Traffic Nets 3 4
County Hunting 1 1
Moonbounce 0 0
Satellites 0 0
Other 2 2
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This poll provided some results that were surprising to me. I thought I would have more visitors interested in contesting because of my contest calendar. Perhaps the fact that I list only CW contests has something to do with that. Also I thought the County Hunting total was a bit low. Perhaps because many county hunters only go to the county hunting section and don't explore the rest of the site and find this poll. I'm surprised how many folks simply enjoy rag chewing as their primary interest. I guess the rest of the results were about as I expected. I wonder what the 2 voters who picked Other do on the bands. Did I overlook an obvious choice?
#3 - What percentage of your operating is done using CW?
Date: 9/16/99-10/15/99 --- Voters: 68
Percent Nr %
90-99 26 38
50-89 14 21
100 12 18
1-24 9 13
25-49 5 7
0 2 3
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I was very pleased to see how many hams still enjoy the greatest of all modes - CW. Just for the record 7 of the 9 votes for 1-24% came on the first day (one anti-CW activist who figured out how to bypass the single vote feature?) and one of the 2 votes for 0 percent came from a non-ham from the folks who host this survey who was checking out a bug in the survey.
#2 - What are your favorite features on my site?
Date: 8/16/99-9/15/99 --- Voters: 20
Feature Nr %
Links 12 60
Contest Calendar 10 50
Propagation Info 9 45
QRP Rigs 7 35
DX Spots 7 35
CW Procedure 5 25
Multi QSL Routes 4 20
DX Tips 4 20
Multi Log Search 3 15
Contest Tips 2 10
Q sigs, etc. lists 2 10
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A fairly equal distribution. I'm a little surprised and pleased about the popularity of my propagation info. Some time ago I was thinking of dropping this section, but rest assured it will continue. In fact, based on this poll there will be no major changes on my site.
#1 - What is your favorite HF band?
Date: 7/16/99-8/15/99 --- Voters: 22
Band Nr %
40 7 30
20 6 26
15 5 22
160 2 9
30 1 4
17 1 4
10 1 4
80 0 0
12 0 0
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About as expected with the three big bands on top - 15, 20, and 40. I was surprised at the 2 160M votes - more than expected. I also thought there would be a few 80M votes. Perhaps if the poll had been done in winter, 80M would have gotten some votes.
