CW contest entries on the rise, despite no code test requirement

In a forum thread somewhere out there on the interwebs, someone was moaning and groaning that ham radio isn’t dying because of its aging operators — instead, the writer insisted, ham radio was dying because the FCC dropped the morse code testing requirement and therefore it was “too easy” to get a license and CW was getting so scarce across the bands. After all, he said, no-code hams weren’t “real operators.”

Another member helpfully pointed out that despite the lack of Morse code testing, CW entries were actually on the rise. But for the life of me, I couldn’t find that thread or the statistics ever again through weeks and weeks of Googling with different keywords.

I e-mailed Sean Kutzko, KX9X, the ARRL Contest Branch Manager. About a day later, I got an e-mail back from him confirming that yes, there is an “upward trend” of CW contest entries in the last five years. Here’s the breakdown:

CW Sweepstakes entries have increased from 1,230 submitted logs in 2004
to 1,417 in 2008.

The ARRL DX CW Contest entries have risen from 2,567 in 2005 to 3,133 in
2009.

Field Day CW activity has gone from 503,205 CW QSOs in 2005 to 556,525
in 2009.

The sky isn’t falling, CW contesting is on the rise, and amateur radio ain’t dyin’. Today’s amateur radio operators are no less “real” than they were 50 years ago, whether they know code or not.