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Joe Speroni
(AH0A) has an excellent web page (linked below) that lists US amateur license
statistics from 1997 to the |
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present,
derived from the FCC's Universal Licensing System web site. Unfortunately,
data from the pre-ULS era is not |
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generally
available. It was recently pointed out to me that the old callbooks had some
of this data, and it didn't require |
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me
to actually count each of the listings. So I have reproduced below some of
the data that is available from the old books. |
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The actual
data available changed over the years as follows: |
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-
Starting with the Winter 1960-61 issue, the cover of the callbooks listed the
total number of US amateur licenses. |
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-
Starting with the Fall 1967 issue, there was a "census" page that
listed amateur licenses broken down by both |
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license class and by state. I have listed
below only the totals by license class (similar to Speroni's data). |
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Note that this census page did not always
include all 50 states and all US possessions. This means that |
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the
totals of the license classes listed understate the actual number of US
amateurs in those classes, |
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by excluding AK and HI (1967 to 1969), PR
(1967 to 1976) and the other possessions (1967 to 1979). |
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Starting with Winter 79-80 the census data
included all licensees. |
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-
Starting with the Summer 66 issue, a "world census" page was
included, showing licenses by country. That data |
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is not included here. |
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-
Starting with the Winter 87-88 issue, a second US "census" page was
included, showing US licenses by state and |
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(three-digit) zip code. That data is also not
included here. |
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P.S. Please
forgive the ugly presentation of this web page. Given the nature of the data,
it seemed that Excel would |
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be a natural format for the raw information,
and I just used Excel itself to save this as HTML. Note that |
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the raw .xls version of this page is available
from the links section below. |
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Callbook Issue |
Total US |
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Winter |
1960-1 |
225,000 |
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Spring |
1961 |
225,000 |
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Summer |
1961 |
225,000 |
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Fall |
1961 |
231,000 |
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Winter |
1961-2 |
237,000 |
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Spring |
1962 |
239,000 |
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Summer |
1962 |
244,000 |
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Fall |
1962 |
249,000 |
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Winter |
1962-3 |
252,000 |
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Spring |
1963 |
255,517 |
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Summer |
1963 |
258,347 |
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Fall |
1963 |
263,370 |
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Winter |
1963-4 |
266,202 |
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Spring |
1964 |
268,113 |
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Summer |
1964 |
264,804 |
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Fall |
1964 |
265,858 |
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Winter |
1964-5 |
264,810 |
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Spring |
1965 |
265,067 |
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Summer |
1965 |
269,402 |
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Fall |
1965 |
270,878 |
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Winter |
1965-6 |
271,422 |
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Spring |
1966 |
270,567 |
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Summer |
1966 |
275,414 |
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Fall |
1966 |
277,604 |
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Winter |
1966-7 |
280,306 |
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Spring |
1967 |
280,016 |
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Summer |
1967 |
283,400 |
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Callbook Issue |
Total US |
Novice |
Tech |
Tech Plus3 |
Cond2 |
General |
Advanced |
Extra |
Club |
Military |
Multiple4 |
Rptr5 |
Fall |
1967 |
288,892 |
13,860 |
61,797 |
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42,732 |
113,371 |
38,980 |
5,080 |
3,435 |
1,529 |
3,655 |
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Winter |
1967-8 |
294,191 |
15,894 |
62,974 |
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42,896 |
115,049 |
39,084 |
5,201 |
3,520 |
1,539 |
3,445 |
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Spring |
1968 |
292,914 |
12,467 |
63,693 |
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42,825 |
116,005 |
39,040 |
5,875 |
3,583 |
1,543 |
3,229 |
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Summer |
1968 |
295,111 |
11,820 |
64,870 |
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42,963 |
116,822 |
39,406 |
6,104 |
3,703 |
1,562 |
3,179 |
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Fall |
1968 |
290,460 |
13,124 |
63,505 |
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41,626 |
116,513 |
39,638 |
6,436 |
3,554 |
1,267 |
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Winter |
1968-9 |
284,674 |
10,882 |
61,157 |
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40,159 |
110,915 |
44,595 |
7,747 |
3,455 |
1,040 |
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Spring |
1969 |
282,330 |
12,142 |
59,357 |
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38,920 |
107,388 |
46,859 |
8,538 |
3,384 |
927 |
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Summer |
1969 |
287,063 |
14,591 |
59,948 |
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38,949 |
106,976 |
48,180 |
9,047 |
3,480 |
933 |
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Fall |
1969 |
286,026 |
17,467 |
57,958 |
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37,668 |
105,182 |
48,873 |
9,520 |
3,452 |
880 |
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Winter |
1969-70 |
287,214 |
19,855 |
56,764 |
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36,773 |
104,325 |
50,116 |
9,953 |
3,443 |
839 |
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Spring |
1970 |
287,105 |
21,582 |
56,476 |
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36,873 |
103,096 |
52,149 |
10,497 |
3,540 |
923 |
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Summer |
1970 7 |
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Fall |
1970 |
289,879 |
22,747 |
56,256 |
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36,013 |
100,322 |
55,029 |
11,206 |
3,574 |
904 |
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Winter |
1970-1 |
289,004 |
22,613 |
56,364 |
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35,579 |
99,076 |
56,447 |
11,600 |
3,586 |
889 |
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Spring |
1971 |
289,942 |
23,217 |
56,304 |
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35,257 |
98,493 |
57,113 |
11,780 |
3,631 |
874 |
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Summer |
1971 |
291,782 |
25,322 |
56,247 |
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34,654 |
97,933 |
57,800 |
11,999 |
3,666 |
836 |
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Fall |
1971 |
287,655 |
23,650 |
55,796 |
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33,882 |
97,039 |
58,604 |
12,195 |
3,644 |
796 |
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Winter |
1971-2 |
286,444 |
22,503 |
55,780 |
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33,661 |
96,280 |
59,316 |
12,391 |
3,640 |
772 |
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Winter |
1972-3 |
286,684 |
22,607 |
55,570 |
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32,214 |
93,448 |
61,572 |
13,063 |
3,664 |
712 |
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Winter |
1973-4 |
283,957 |
21,684 |
54,631 |
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30,927 |
91,308 |
63,600 |
13,754 |
3,705 |
653 |
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Winter |
1974-5 |
277,593 |
20,453 |
53,074 |
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29,352 |
89,769 |
64,942 |
14,278 |
3,458 |
586 |
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Winter |
1975-6 |
280,919 |
21,518 |
54,239 |
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27,975 |
85,140 |
69,194 |
15,200 |
3,475 |
534 |
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1,975 |
Winter |
1976-7 |
305,590 |
31,282 |
62,218 |
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26,207 |
84,697 |
73,144 |
16,483 |
3,948 |
489 |
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3,279 |
Winter |
1977-8 |
348,679 |
58,794 |
67,248 |
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19,311 |
94,452 |
78,577 |
19,794 |
4,232 |
472 |
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4,446 |
Winter |
1978-9 |
374,487 |
64,526 |
70,977 |
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13,394 |
107,493 |
84,709 |
23,602 |
4,208 |
441 |
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4,429 |
Winter |
1979-80 |
393,353 |
75,036 |
71,833 |
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125,559 |
87,127 |
25,506 |
3,855 |
386 |
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4,051 |
Winter |
1980-1 |
398,829 6 |
76,161 |
72,075 |
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126,115 |
90,165 |
27,063 |
3,589 |
345 |
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3,283 |
Winter |
1981-2 |
406,417 |
78,586 |
75,915 |
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123,692 |
92,577 |
29,594 |
3,351 |
302 |
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2,400 |
Winter |
1982-3 |
421,732 |
87,479 |
79,620 |
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123,161 |
95,509 |
31,782 |
2,627 |
253 |
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1,301 |
Winter |
1983-4 |
433,921 |
95,785 |
80,084 |
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122,231 |
96,799 |
34,072 |
3,379 |
276 |
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1,295 |
Winter |
1984-5 |
438,007 |
97,316 |
82,979 |
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120,544 |
97,903 |
35,550 |
3,384 |
279 |
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Winter |
1985-6 |
436,793 |
89,297 |
86,028 |
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120,836 |
99,110 |
37,848 |
3,384 |
290 |
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Winter |
1986-7 |
442,136 |
87,943 |
89,835 |
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120,307 |
99,881 |
40,486 |
3,394 |
290 |
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Winter |
1987-8 |
455,642 |
91,830 |
96,503 |
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119,953 |
100,505 |
43,171 |
3,390 |
290 |
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Winter |
1988-9 |
459,635 |
88,459 |
103,642 |
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117,330 |
100,200 |
46,493 |
3,221 |
290 |
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Winter |
1989-90 |
466,511 |
86,333 |
112,344 |
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115,979 |
100,418 |
48,948 |
2,280 |
209 |
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Winter |
1990-1 |
494,260 |
93,634 |
124,600 |
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118,368 |
102,949 |
52,166 |
2,313 |
230 |
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1992 1 |
524,782 |
96,914 |
146,893 |
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120,165 |
103,332 |
55,008 |
2,307 |
163 |
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1993 |
575,146 |
99,193 |
184,392 |
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122,735 |
106,964 |
59,382 |
2,315 |
165 |
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1994 |
614,398 |
101,934 |
214,076 |
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124,432 |
108,887 |
62,601 |
2,316 |
152 |
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1995 |
656,726 |
99,720 |
244,824 |
5,039 |
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126,611 |
111,735 |
66,343 |
2,315 |
139 |
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1996 |
691,775 |
98,305 |
237,868 |
40,559 |
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127,856 |
113,963 |
69,781 |
3,293 |
150 |
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1997 |
715,462 |
90,173 |
235,640 |
71,681 |
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126,978 |
113,240 |
73,064 |
4,534 |
152 |
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Notes: |
1 |
Up through 1991, callbooks were listed as the
"Winter" edition for the following year. Starting in 1992, |
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the Winter designation was eliminated. |
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2 |
All Conditional licenses were merged into
General by the end of 1979. |
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3 |
Tech Plus
licenses were first listed separately in 1995. |
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4 |
I'm not sure, but this could have been
referring to secondary station licenses. |
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5 |
Repeater stations were separately licensed
beginning in 1975, but weren't renewed after 1980. |
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6 |
I can't explain the 33 license discrepancy
between the total listed and the sum of the license classes. The data on this |
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callbook's census page is obviously defective,
but I can not figure out exactly what the error is. This data is exactly as |
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given in the callbook's summary line. |
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7 |
Unfortunately I don't (yet) have a Summer 1970
callbook. (Contact me if you have one to sell!) |
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Color Code |
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Data includes only the lower 48 states and D.C. |
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Data includes only the 50 states and D.C. |
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Data includes all 50 states, D.C. and Puerto
Rico |
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Data includes all 50 states, D.C., Puerto Rico,
and all other U.S. possessions |
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Links: |
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AH0A
Web Page |
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FCC ULS |
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Excel version of this
page |
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Return
to W3HF home page |
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Date: |
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3 August 2007 |
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Contact: |
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W3HF |
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