Paul Coverdale, VE3ICV
RAC Special Advisor for World Radio Conferences
From March 3 to April 8, 2021, Radio Amateurs of Canada, the national association for Amateur Radio in Canada, conducted an online survey to find out how to better serve Canadian Amateurs.
The main goal of this survey was to understand the operating interests of Canadian Amateurs, in terms of what bands/modes are used, the amount of time spent, the operating focus, and other items of interest.
This information will help to guide future RAC programs and the content of The Canadian Amateur magazine, as well as providing valuable input for formulating Canadian positions into World Radio Conferences.
A total of 2,089 responses were received, of which 1,630 (78%) were from RAC members. Approximately one-third of all RAC members took the time to complete the survey and we are grateful for this excellent response!
The survey provided a wealth of useful data which will take some time to analyze. This report provides a short summary of some of the findings and is available in the PDF document provided below.
Age Distribution and Years Certified
Figure 1 shows the age distribution of respondents. Notwithstanding the actual age of Amateurs in Canada, it is useful to look at how long they have been certified as Radio Amateurs and this is provided in Figure 2.
Cumulative statistics are:
- Maximum: 73 years
- Mean: 26.4 years
- Minimum: 0.1 years
- Median: 27 years
Amateur Radio Activities
For future planning purposes, an important question to get information on is what specific activities Canadian Amateurs are interested in.
A number of categories were identified and the results are shown in Figure 3.
While the traditional voice modes of SSB/AM/FM still rate highly, it is interesting to note that the digital modes are now a close second. The experimental side of the hobby is also alive and well with many people enjoying homebrewing and antenna design and construction.
Use of Amateur Radio Bands
An important aspect of Amateur operations are the bands being used as shown in Figure 4. It is interesting to note that 2m is the most popular band, reflecting the wide availability of equipment for this band as well the simplicity of antennas required, especially for repeater operation.
In the VHF/UHF region, 430 MHz is also popular, now that many HF rigs are also including this band. The traditional shortwave bands of 80m to 10m remain popular, and it is good to see some activity on the LF bands of 630m and 2200m. Microwave band usage, although smaller than that for HF and VHF, is significant and is likely to attract more interest as more commercial equipment becomes available in the future.
Conclusions
This was the first survey of its kind conducted by RAC and, while much useful data was collected, much still remains to be analyzed.
In the process of implementing the survey a lot of experience was gained which will be useful for future surveys.
Thank you for participating in the survey.
Previous information | informations de base :
Bilingual survey now available / Sondage bilingue maintenant disponible:
Note: you do not need to be a RAC member to take the survey. If you are ready to take the survey please click on the following link. For more information about the survey please read the text below.
Remarque : vous n’avez pas besoin d’être membre du RAC pour répondre à l’enquête. Si vous êtes prêt à répondre à l’enquête, veuillez cliquer sur le lien suivant. Pour plus d’informations sur l’enquête, veuillez lire le texte ci-dessous.
The Canadian Amateur Radio Operating Interests bilingual survey ends on March 31.
Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC), the national association for Amateur Radio in Canada, is now conducting an online survey to find out how to better serve Canadian Amateurs.
RAC is a volunteer-based organization and we rely on the feedback from members and non-members to help us stay informed and up to date on Amateur Radio matters of interest to them. From time to time, we will be conducting various surveys to help us to achieve these objectives.
The current survey was prepared by Paul Coverdale, VE3ICV, RAC’s Special Advisor at World Radio Conferences, with the goal of “understanding the operating interests of Canadian Amateurs, in terms of what bands/modes are used, the amount of time spent, the operating focus, and so on”. This information will help to guide future RAC programs and the content of The Canadian Amateur magazine, as well as providing valuable input for formulating Canadian positions into World Radio Conferences.
Non-Canadian Amateurs may also participate in the survey, but we would appreciate it if you would please identify this in Questions 1 and 7. Some of the questions relate to specific bands and modes that may not be applicable to you, but you can simply leave these questions blank and move on to the next questions. If some of your Amateur Radio activities are done outside of Canada, please indicate only the portion that is done within Canada.
Your answers on our surveys are completely anonymous but we would appreciate it if you would please indicate in the survey if you are a RAC member to help us to use the information to serve you better.
The survey should take no more than 10 minutes to complete and it is available at:
Thank you for participating!
Sondage sur les intérêts des radioamateurs canadiens :
se termine en mars 31
Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC), l’association nationale du radio amateur au Canada, mène actuellement un sondage en ligne pour être en mesure de mieux servir les amateurs canadiens.
Ce sondage a été préparé par Paul Coverdale, VE3ICV, conseiller spécial de RAC à les Conférence mondiale des radiocommunications, pour connaître les intérêts des radioamateurs canadiens, en termes de bandes / modes utilisés, de temps passé, et ainsi de suite ».
Cette information fournira une précieuse contribution pour la formulation des positions canadiennes pour les conférences mondiales des radiocommunications. Certaines questions concernent des bandes et des modes spécifiques qui peuvent ne pas vous concerner, mais vous pouvez simplement laisser ces questions en blanc et passer aux questions suivantes. Si certaines de vos activités de radio amateur sont effectuées à l’extérieur du Canada, veuillez n’indiquer que la partie qui se fait au Canada.
Vos réponses à ce sondage sont totalement anonymes, mais nous vous serions reconnaissants de bien vouloir indiquer dans le sondage si vous êtes membre du RAC pour nous aider à utiliser les informations pour mieux vous servir.
L’enquête ne devrait pas vous prendre plus de 10 minutes et est disponible à l’adresse suivante :
Merci de votre participation!
Glenn MacDonell, VE3XRA
Président et chef de la direction de RAC