Isn't ham radio a dying hobby? My grandfather did it, but with the Internet it just doesn't seem relevant.
Look at the numbers!
At the end of 2012 there were 709,500 Amateur Radio licensees in the USA. This is an all-time high and it continues to climb! One major driver of the growing number of licensees is Emergency Preparedness. People understand that when everything else fails, radio still works. Another major driver of this growth is the dropping of the Morse Code requirement to get a license. The written exam is all that's required now, and our team teaches several weekend-long courses throughout the year to go from no license to license in one weekend.
Here are the past totals for the USA:
2019 - 755,952
2018 - 747,349
2017 - 742,652
2016 - 735,023
2015 - 727,957
2014 - 726,275
2013 - 710,166
2012 - 709,500
2011 - 702,056
2010 - 696,041
2009 - 682,497
2008 - 663,564
2007 - 655,842
2006 - 656,068
2005 - 662,600
Also important...
Higher percentages of Amateur Radio licensees are going far beyond the initial Technician Class license and earning General or even Amateur Extra Class licenses.
There are approximately 2.5 million Amateur Radio operators in the world. The numbers, while believed accurate, can vary somewhat because different countries use different systems to count licensees.