ham-radio-licenses/README.md

# Overview

Data and code for analysis at https://mastodon.radio/@W1CDN/111723969200676208.

Introductory blog post: https://w1cdn.net/2024/01/us-ham-radio-license-counts-over-time/

This is a work in progress. It is not intended to be immediately useful for
detailed analysis, but to act as a guide for further investigation. As we figure out
how to slice up and caveat data, it will get more organized.

# Resources (not all integrated yet)
- Various items in the [issue queue](https://amiok.net/gitea/W1CDN/ham-radio-licenses/issues)
- ARRL FCC counts: https://web.archive.org/web/20150905095114/
    - Added to Internet Wayback Machine daily: https://web.archive.org/web/20150905095114/http://www.arrl.org/fcc-license-counts
    - Scraped daily, periodically added to dataset
- W5YI Report FCC counts: https://archive.org/details/w5yi_report?sort=date
    - Screenshots to [issue queue](https://amiok.net/gitea/W1CDN/ham-radio-licenses/issues), then entered manually
- HamCall.net counts: https://hamcall.net/hamcallcounts.html
    - Added to Internet Wayback Machine daily: https://web.archive.org/web/20240000000000*/%20https://hamcall.net/hamcallcounts.html
    - Scraped daily, periodically added to dataset
- AE7Q counts: https://www.ae7q.com/query/stat/LicenseUSA.php
    - Added to Internet Wayback Machine daily: https://web.archive.org/web/20240000000000*/https://www.ae7q.com/query/stat/LicenseUSA.php
- AH0A data from FCC
    - Total stats: http://ah0a.org/FCC/Licenses.html ([Wayback Machine](https://web.archive.org/web/20240000000000*/https://ah0a.org/FCC/Licenses.html))
    - Main page: http://ah0a.org/FCC/index.html ([Wayback Machine](https://web.archive.org/web/20240000000000*/https://ah0a.org/FCC/index.html))
- FCC numbers as images of tables: https://sites.google.com/site/amateurradiodata/home
- K8VSY's per capita estimates: https://k8vsy.radio/2021/09/ham-radio-licenses-us-states-per-capita.html
- Post from KE9V that started this: https://mastodon.sdf.org/@jdavis/111720350879036543
    - Blog post: https://ke9v.net/2024/01/08/fading-away.html

# Contributing
I am trying to stage new data in the [issues](https://amiok.net/gitea/W1CDN/ham-radio-licenses/issues) list,
then copy that data into tabular format at a later date. 

If you want to help, here are some ways:
- look at the issues and copy data into tabular format, share back in CSV format or pull request
- find new sources and create an issue for each new chunk of data (use best judgement)
- download data and QC: look for potential errors and inconsistencies, share those in a new issue
- download data and run analyses: share your interpretations
- choose your own way to contribute!

# Rough Plots
These are geneeral plots that aren't perfected every time the dataset is updated.
All the data in these plots is in https://amiok.net/gitea/W1CDN/ham-radio-licenses/src/branch/main/data.
![Alt text](plots/total-over-time-y.png)
![Alt text](plots/total-over-time-2000.png)
![Alt text](plots/total-over-time-2-years.png)
![Alt text](plots/total-over-time-2-months.png)
![Alt text](plots/class-over-time.png)
![Alt text](plots/class-over-time-2-years.png)
![Alt text](plots/class-over-time-facet.png)
![Alt text](plots/states-over-time-freey.png)
![Alt text](plots/cities-over-time.png)
![Alt text](plots/cities-over-time-freey.png)