Anyone from India? I was looking to apply for one but the site to apply is down and there seems to be no alternative. Do I just cycle up to the monitoring station? It's like 10km away from me.
Ask HN: How many of you hold an amateur radio license in your country?
31–40 of 109 posts
Re: Ask HN: How many of you hold an amateur radio license in your country?
#32I 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 feel…
Oh I love meeting and knowing people from different parts of the world, have curiosity about their human stories, about how they think, what they find funny, their food, their music, their culture, their interests. Oh yes their food, music and humor.
That's one reason I love New York so much.
However my pace is much slower. I take my time.
On the technical side, the added attraction is to do some homebrewed amateur radio astronomy.
Re: Ask HN: How many of you hold an amateur radio license in your country?
#33I 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.
Totally the same. I got my license 7 years ago just for fun. I challenge myself to have at least one QSO per year which always takes an hour of prepping myself mentally. But I love the technical side and am always happy to join practical meetups.
Re: Ask HN: How many of you hold an amateur radio license in your country?
#34Anyone from India? I was looking to apply for one but the site to apply is down and there seems to be no alternative. Do I just cycle up to the monitoring station? It's like 10km away from me.
We are all from India here sir
Re: Ask HN: How many of you hold an amateur radio license in your country?
#35US General since... 2008? Don't really use it for anything these days though.
Re: Ask HN: How many of you hold an amateur radio license in your country?
#36I have been licensed since the 90’s, but only rarely talk anymore. One day…
Re: Ask HN: How many of you hold an amateur radio license in your country?
#37I 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 peri…
If you are interested, find and go to an amateur radio club meeting. The licensing test makes sure you know the regulations and some theory. It does not help introduce you to "ham culture" which is definitely a thing. I learned all the practical stuff from talking with local club members. They are usually overjoyed for new members; if not just go to the next club. Youtube and whatnot helps but it's better to be able to ask someone a stupid question, and believe me, if you want to be overwhelmed with information, ask a ham a question. In my experience there are some assholes but more genuinely kind people, mostly older folks who just want to connect with someone.
Re: Ask HN: How many of you hold an amateur radio license in your country?
#38FCC Amateur Technician class and Marine Operator checking in.
It's taken nearly 30 years, from buying the study guide in high school to finally sitting the test in my 40s. But glad I finally got it done.
Re: Ask HN: How many of you hold an amateur radio license in your country?
#39UK Foundation licence holder here, M7HUB
Re: Ask HN: How many of you hold an amateur radio license in your country?
#40I hold both an amateur license and a conventional ‘itinerant’ LMR license good nationwide.
The LMR license is more useful to me than my amateur license - I can just hand my friends my pile of cache radios and get yapping at an event. As a plus, we can run encryption and other fun things on the LMR license (within the bounds of our emissions) like APCO P25 (Project25) data transmissions.