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Ask HN: How many of you hold an amateur radio license in your country?

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Re: Ask HN: How many of you hold an amateur radio license in your country?

#21

Post by [deleted] »

zikduruqe wrote: post #10
mitchbob wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ditto for me.

I hold an Extra Class license... the old 20 wpm kind. The cool thing is, I got my extra back when I was 19 years old and it set me up for a great tech career since I understood RF. Not going to dox myself here putting my callsign in a post.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How many of you hold an amateur radio license in your country?

#23

Post by montroser »

srean wrote: post #14

I find the technical side of the hobby very interesting but the thought that it requires having a conversation with strangers and that too synchronously, is a personal deterrent. I don't know if there are others like me. EDIT: Glad to see that there are others around. Happy to meet you. Async acks are great. So is the joy of engaging with something intellectually challenging.

There are dozens of us, friend. I got my license for the challenge and learning that came with. Tuned in to signals near and far but never sent my own voice over the air.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you hold an amateur radio license in your country?

#24

Post by olorton »

srean wrote: post #14

I find the technical side of the hobby very interesting but the thought that it requires having a conversation with strangers and that too synchronously, is a personal deterrent. I don't know if there are others like me. EDIT: Glad to see that there are others around. Happy to meet you. Async acks are great. So is the joy of engaging with something intellectually challenging.

I've been licensed for a couple of years. All my QSOs are short and sweet, mostly activating and hunting POTA/SOTA contacts, where the activator prefers to have short QSOs in order to activate the park/summit. I have no interest in having a conversation with the other amateur, at most I would exchange what gear I'm using and what power I'm running. That is it.

I like building kits, QRP, CW, and building my own antennas. I only make contact with other people to be able to improve my skills and validate my gear.

My father has been licensed for nearly 50 years, he loves the technical side of the hobby, I've made more contacts over the last 2 years than he has in 15 years. There are others like you.

Oliver, M7OCL

Re: Ask HN: How many of you hold an amateur radio license in your country?

#27

Post by any1 »

I did a course on antennae and wave propagation as part of my university studies. The professor told us that with just a bit of extra studying we'd be able to qualify for the license, given that we already knew the engineering and physics side of things. I got the license, but never did anything with it.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you hold an amateur radio license in your country?

#28

Post by opan »

I spent a couple months memorizing the test questions/answers with Anki, without learning the theory, and passed the second level test (the one below Extra, I forget the name). I got a cheap Chinese (ABBREE brand I think) radio but never learned how to use it, and am a bit worried about accidentally transmitting if I poke around on it, even if it is probably legal for me to do so (assuming I announce my callsign periodically and such). I'd been meaning to learn things properly once the test was out of the way but I kinda lost interest, I guess. I'll still renew my license if it's about to expire anyway. Might as well. Callsign not shared because I tied it to my real address and haven't gotten a P.O. box (also as previously stated I am not actually active).

Re: Ask HN: How many of you hold an amateur radio license in your country?

#29

Post by EL_Loco »

srean wrote: post #14

I find the technical side of the hobby very interesting but the thought that it requires having a conversation with strangers and that too synchronously, is a personal deterrent. I don't know if there are others like me. EDIT: Glad to see that there are others around. Happy to meet you. Async acks are great. So is the joy of engaging with something intellectually challenging.

Humans can be so different, it's fascinating and awesome. I'm quite the opposite. Where I wanted to talk to people from around the world and have some interesting conversations about everything, the fact that they are mostly "Hello, I'm calling from x, using radio y, and your signal is z. 73" is a big let down for me. I somewhat like the technical sid of it, but just calling to say "Hello, x, y, z, bye." ends up feeling like a waste of time to me (in the sense that I could be using this time for other, more interesting things. I still find it somewhat interesting though). But, if you enjoy the technical aspect of it, then I think it's fine, you can focus more on cw, or the digital modes where the contacts are automated.

edit: I know there are ragchews all the time, but it's still mostly about equipment.

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