Emergency Communications: What is a HAM, Amateur Radio good for?
I get that question occasionally, people think we have "keys" and send Morse Code all day to who knows where. Being musically declined, Morse was really difficult - never learned it... never will. a Microphone and computer is typically what a HAM uses, Computer for logging contacts, microphone to talk. But... there are a LOT of computer programs in the last decade, that free you up from ever saying a word on the air!
July 2007, the FCC dropped the Morse Code requirement for all Amateur Radio Licenses. Having spend many, many years, decades with CB radio, finally 'getting legal' was 'wide open' - and many, many people took advantage of the opportunity, studied test materials, to become HAMs. Technician, General & Extra Class operators. One of my daughters passed the Technician & General class test the same day - of course, I did not. Eventually the whole family, 10 of us achieved the General class license, with 3 of us getting our Extra license. (Extra gives a few more areas / frequencies to operate. Technician class - lowest level, is quite restricted).
HAMs are the friendliest people I've ever met, and I've met thousands of them, in person and tens of thousands on the air. The neat thing about HAM radio, people WANT to talk / communicate with YOU! It can be very informal (rag chewing, talking about anything) to very technical & everything in between. We as a family like it all. HAMs operate at home (the HAM shack), on the road, remotes, in parks, on mountains, Islands, every nation on earth and try to make contact with every grid square possible in the world, every county in the USA. There are some awards for bragging rights from the ARRL (Amateur Radio Relay League) based on your log book, if the contacts match up. Which is why you want to log contacts, they add up to awards.
One afternoon, late, talking to Madagascar... I heard myself, a couple of second delay. I thought some kook was messing with us, but, he said he was hearing his echo too! Our signal was traversing the earth on the 15 meter band. We were the only ones on at the time, so it was really quiet, usually noise, man-made or atmospheric covers it up. Rare conditions for us! A few years ago, Christmas & New Years fell on the weekend. Being off-of-work, I spent both weekends, making contacts on a Digital Mode FT-8, which is quick and kinda impersonal, but works on really, really weak signals. In the end, every continent, including Iceland, Greenland, Antarctica, every EU state, Asia, all of the Americas - yeah, it was pretty neat. Since the computer was doing all the work & I was just pressing a key or mouse clicking, I didn't even have a microphone plugged in the entire time. Got all my meals, cooked, vacuumed, fed the animals (Wife & kids were visiting parents), The computer would >beep< when it needed me to click "ok" to save the contact it'd just confirmed.
So, there's all kinds of modes to have fun with.
HAM radio really came into it's own during WW2, and many forms of communications we use today are based on Amateur Radios Innovators & Inventors contraptions. Radar, was discovered by accident because of signal fading while airplanes flew through the RF (Radio Frequency) signal stream. Microwave ovens are an outgrowth of HAM Radio. AM & FM & TV broadcasting, Internet & Telephone encoding, error checking, FAX machines, all started with HAM radio basics.
What's neat about it, some guys still operate the oldest of the old gear, while others like the newest of the new gear. the Military is a very big user of gear invented & developed by Amateurs. It's one of those hobbies that's wide open to & actively encourages innovation & invention. The best & most interesting thing about HAM, it's the beginners, the new people who come up the best ideas, and there's always some geek who'll try to build it.
More later, if there's interest, I'll touch on the hows & whys, without getting technical. Did you know Dr. Bob Heil (Inventor of world class microphones from Heil Sound were used by Grateful Dead, The Who, Joe Walsh, and Peter Frampton. The talk box used on iconic live record Frampton Comes Alive! was of Heil’s design. - K9EID, just died 3/1/2024) Walter Cronkite - KB2GSD call sign.
There are many more famous HAMS - here's a few
https://www.qsl.net/w5www/famous.html
Take a moment and check this out! HAMS in space...?
Yes, we talk to them too at ISS, and satellites zipping overhead, meteor showers - you name it, and the means by which we get a signal out... equally amazing & fun.
https://www.ariss.org/contact-the-iss.html