Amateur Radio. Anybody here a ham?

[bejohnson]

Just thought I'd see if we had any hams in our midst.

Ed KE4PVE

[egarrard]

I wish. I studied it for a while, but never took the test. Still have my code tape around here somewhere.

I'm more into shortwave. I still have my radio in the closet, but it needs a little work. I probably just need to get a new one. I got hooked on shortwave back during the first Gulf War. Listening to the radio out of Israel, then hearing a Scud warning and the announcer obviously putting on a gas mask, really brought it home for me. Radio Havana was good for a laugh, too.

[Xenomorph]

No, but my Godfather is, if that counts. :lmao

I took an interest in it for a while...but that interest kinda...yea. maybe later on tho :cool:

[wazman]

I've always wanted to, but I never had the money to get the stuff...

[mrman_3k]

My cousin is very entertaining. Also, ThePerson here on these message boards is very entertaining when he gives his opinions to things, it might upset a few people since it is not PC, but that is what I love, I hate all the PC crap in the world.

[egarrard]

Riiiiight...

[egarrard]

Originally posted by bejohnson
Just thought I'd see if we had any hams in our midst.

Ed KE4PVE What class license do you hold?

[bejohnson]

Originally posted by egarrard
What class license do you hold?

Technician. I've never took the time to learn the code.

[egarrard]

Originally posted by bejohnson
Technician. I've never took the time to learn the code. Yeah, that held me up too. I almost got it, but my mind kept wandering. If I could have managed it, I think I would have gone ahead and got a General. The theory stuff was pretty easy. (Or it was way back when...) I should have gone ahead and got a no-code Tech.

[bejohnson]

Originally posted by egarrard
Yeah, that held me up too. I almost got it, but my mind kept wandering. If I could have managed it, I think I would have gone ahead and got a General. The theory stuff was pretty easy. (Or it was way back when...) I should have gone ahead and got a no-code Tech.

I'f I could borrow brandi's brain for about an hour I could be an Extra.:) I can't talk her into it...yet.

[WazLady73]

I hope I don't come across too dumb here...

But what is HAM radio really???

What do you do with it?

Why do people have their HAM radio call ID(I guess that is what you would call it) on their license plates???

I always thought it would be interesting to learn:)

[Maniacmous]

I'd love to run my own radio station if that counts...dunno if you can do that over ham radio though...still, I think it'd be a blast to do something like that, even if it isn't like a normal radio station...though if I remember right, isn't ham radio really shortwave, designed to enable communication and news passing in the event of world catastrophe?

[egarrard]

Originally posted by WazLady73
I hope I don't come across too dumb here...

But what is HAM radio really???

What do you do with it?

Why do people have their HAM radio call ID(I guess that is what you would call it) on their license plates???

I always thought it would be interesting to learn:) Think of it as an early version of a chat room or maybe forums.

http://www.arrl.org/hamradio.html

[ZeRrk]

Hmmm... I was about 4 weeks into the course when the teacher gave us a preview of what it was all about.... I don't know.. When I seen that it was just basically a bunch of old men talking on there at night, and sometimes he couldn't reply cause of the skip zone, I descided this sh*t wasn't for me and I'd rather shoot the sh*t in forums ;)

[bejohnson]

Amateur radio (Ham radio) is more than talking (rag chewing).
It deals with everything from talking to the leading edge of electronic communications. Though not so much now most innovations in communications (including a lot of the communication protocols used with computers) had there inception in amateur radio. There's something for everyone. The big thing lately even before 9/11 has been emergency communication. When any kind of large emergency occures the cell phone system is one of the first things to fail. In natural disasters the entire communication infrastructure maybe compromised. Hams step in with portable equipment and provide essential communications as needed in a disciplined enviroment.
When 9/11 happened the loss of the world trade center resulted in the loss of a major communication hub for NY. Amateur radio step in and did a wonderful job of providing back up communications. Hams do this with little fanfare all the time.