Amateur radio is a community of people that use radio transmitters
and receivers to communicate with other Amateur radio operators.
The things that amateur radio operators do with their radios are
diverse as the people themselves.
Amateur radio operators are often
called ham radio operators or simply "hams." (The origin
of this nickname is for all practical purposes lost. Although some
people still speculate about, few agree and even few care. Amateur
radio operators proudly call themselves hams and nobody
knows why.)
Ham radio operators are licensed
by Government and enjoy a far more priviledges of radio operation
than "CB" radio operators do. With these priviledges come
responsibilities and rules for the operation of an amateur radio
station. Specifically, there are a few things that hams are not
allowed to do:
1) Hams are not allowed to do anything
with their radios that makes them money in way. Bummer. Ham radio
is a hobby, but that doesn't mean it's completely frivoulous. (Read
on!)
2) Ham radio operator cannot `broadcast' to the public. This means
that ham radio transmissions are meant to be received by other ham
radio operatators. While a short-wave radios or scanners will allow
you to listen to the ham radio bands, what you will hear is hams
talking to other hams and not music or other radio programs of `general'
interest.
Within these (and other) guidelines,
however, hams are empowered to do just about everything that goverment
and private radio stations are allowed to do.
- Talk
around the world - With HF radios hams can talk to other hams
in literally any part of the globe.
- Talk
around town - With small portable VHF and UHF transceivers hams
enjoy extremely reliable communications within their local community.
- QRP
- Communicating with "very low power" is a challange
that many hams enjoy. QRP is usually practiced on the HF bands.
- Packet
radio - The internet over ham radio? Not really ... but ham
radio operators enjoy a digital network of their own, all without
wires!
- Internation
morse code - Forget it ... You can get a license without knowing
one beep or boop of morse code. If you want to, though, it's
still allowed.
- Amateur
television - It's just like real television because it is real
television.
- Slow
Scan TV - Send pictures around the world for little or no cost.
- Contests
- You can put your radio operating skills up against other hams
and teams of hams.
- Order
pizzas - It used to be a long standing joke around ham radio
operators about what you
can not do over ham radio
... Now it's perfectly legal! You can call you favorite pizzaria
on your ham radio and order take-out dinner on the way home
from work. Hopefully you'll use your radio less for calling
your doctor, the police, emergeny road-side assistance, 911
and other telephone-linked services.
- Emergency
and other volunteer services - Floods, huricanes, mudslides,
earthquakes, ice storms ... when ever `normal' communcations
go out, hams are ready to use their radios to provide emergency
communication services to their communites.
- Satelite
communications - Hams have their own satelites ... really! (Amateur's
satelites are easy to use too.
- Traffic
handling - "Ham telegrams" are used to send messages
to people around the world at no cost to the sender or the recipient;
all done by ham radio operators volunteering their time and
resorces.
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