A Great Decade Before the Decline
Early 1970s

1970:  The ham population in the U.S. stagnates at about 250,000. 

1971:  FCC finally responded to ARRL’s 1969 proposal which it mostly denied.  Technicians were denied Novice privileges.  

1972:  Novices were permitted to use Variable frequency oscillators (VFO) but the VFO had to be FCC Type A accepted.  The “WB” prefix was exhausted in most call districts. 

1972 Novice Frequency Privileges: 

3.7 to 3.75mc CW.
7.1 to 7.150mc, CW.
21.1 to 21.145mc, CW.
28.1 to 28.2mc, CW. 

Note - the 40M Novice band moved down 50kc.  This may have been a hardship since Novices were crystal controlled.  The move was due to the bands being reallocated to increase the size of phone bands.  Incentive licensing created more demand for phone bands.  Novices lost all 2 meter privileges.  

1974:  FCC proposes a code-free “Communicator” license.  Electronics Industry Assn. proposes to take 2mhz from the 220mhz band to create a Class E CB band.  The proposals are not adopted.FCC begins assigning hams call signs from the N and AA to AL prefixes.
CB craze begins.  Prior to this the CB population was stable at 800,000.

1975:  Technicians were granted Novice privileges.