There are currently 1,836 actively licensed hams in RI. Of that number how many do you think are one the air daily, weekly or even once a month?

I've heard it said that "if we don't use the bands we stand a chance to lose them". I'm sure that can be said about a number of other things in life as well.

Having said that, how many RI hams are registered users on this site? How often do you use this site? If you log on dail, weekly or monthly, how come?

Since I'm relatively new to the ham community I'm not sure if this has been discussed before, if it has and it's a dead horse then excuse me for bringing it up again.

However, if you'd like to see this become a must have resource for RI hams, what would you do or like to see to make that happen?

Wayne,

You raise good questions.

(1) I'll venture my guess on what the 1,836 licensed hams are doing in RI:
Daily user - 10%
Weekly user - 20%
Monthly user - 40%
Never used - 15%
Dead/Moved - 15%

(2) Usage of this site is ultra low but that's more a statement about how RI gov't at town/state levels view hams playing an emcom role. (Some towns are exceptions). RIEMA's 2006 Hurricane Op Plan has several references to amateur radio. HurricaneOpPlan2006 Unfortunately, current RIEMA leadership is not publicly concerned with "when all else fails" scenarios as might be experienced following a strong hurricane or coordinated cyber attack against our our utility grid and IP comm networks. Without the state's visible interest, it becomes easy for RI hams to move into more rewarding areas of the hobby. Hence, it may be some time before this particular watering hole becomes active.

73,

Mike K1NPT