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The rich history of ham radio culture

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Re: The rich history of ham radio culture

#51

Post by gh02t »

ianburrell wrote: post #23
CalRobert wrote: post #12

As the internet gets more balkanized, censored, and controlled by a few giant companies, it makes me think that it's time for a different hobby. Something that can be used to subvert censorship (remember the whole "interprets it as damage and routes around it" conceit?) and is more hobbyists and less corporate sounds appealing. Is Ham that hobby? I am genuinely asking. A few days ago a thread here had lots of people…

Amateur radio is not that hobby. There are significant restrictions on what it can be used for. And providing uncensored communication for others is not allowed. Amateur radio is not for public use like public park. It is like a public golf course, where have to pay for membership and can only use it for certain things. Also, amateur radio does not have that much spectrum for the bandwidths we expect for internet. Th…

> where have to pay for membership and can only use it for certain things

Just to clarify for people who might be interested-- this is not a perfect analogy in that you don't have to pay to participate in amateur radio. You have to pay a fee to take the license exams but it's a token amount, and you don't have to pay regularly to use any ham services that I know of. Apart from buying a radio, of course.

Re: The rich history of ham radio culture

#52

Post by chinchilla2020 »

brightball wrote: post #6

I have noticed a correlation where the smartest tech people I know are also Ham operators.

Technical hobbyists also have a genuine interest in technical work.

Contrast this with the flood of new college graduates who have minimal interest in engineering, yet want the high salaries that tech was famous for (until recently).

Re: The rich history of ham radio culture

#54

Post by password4321 »

Related recent discussion yesterday:

Taking a Radio Camping

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41084061

And not as recently (4 months ago):

UV-K5 is the most hackable handheld ham radio yet (including via WebUSB)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39850972

$30 https://amzn.com/dp/B0C9TVSYYM + $10 cable https://amzn.com/dp/B0B9S7N2LQ

Re: The rich history of ham radio culture

#56

Post by 9659 »

howard941 wrote: post #50
AlbertCory wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Further details: > For higher rungs of the achievement ladder like "advanced" or "extra" you needed to pass an exam about electronics as well as receive and send Morse code at a fast clip. The General license (which I got) required 13 wpm. I think I read somewhere that they still broadcast Morse code practice every night. The Extra was 20 wpm. I don't remember "Advanced."

The advanced class had the same 13wpm code requirement as the general but added a difficult technical element to the exam suite. When I took it back at an FCC office I found it to be the hardest test of all.

Do you still have an Advanced class license? I think that Advanced class is the only license that is currently around (and able to be renewed) that required a code test.

The Novice test was something else. 20 questions. 5 WPM code. I was thrilled when it came in the mail. 40 Meter CW, look out.

Re: The rich history of ham radio culture

#57

Post by dghlsakjg »

h00dinberry wrote: post #53

[dead]

Ham radio is not pirate radio. Ham radio refers to government licensed amateurs (amateur simply meaning not paid) communicating on frequencies they are explicitly allowed to use. Hams very much don’t tolerate pirate radio.

Pirate radio is unlicensed use of radio frequencies, sometimes commercial, sometimes political, sometimes amateur.

Re: The rich history of ham radio culture

#58

Post by mordae »

CalRobert wrote: post #12

As the internet gets more balkanized, censored, and controlled by a few giant companies, it makes me think that it's time for a different hobby. Something that can be used to subvert censorship (remember the whole "interprets it as damage and routes around it" conceit?) and is more hobbyists and less corporate sounds appealing. Is Ham that hobby? I am genuinely asking. A few days ago a thread here had lots of people…

It's mostly old guys erecting large antennas to connect their boat anchor tube radios to, from what I read online.

It's a great hobby if you are in it for the actual tech itself. Check out e.g. https://pysdr.org/ for a nice introduction. There is https://www.rtl-sdr.com/ to get you started and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Radio for more advanced stuff.

You don't need a license to listen!

Also, people are doing some crazy stuff: https://pietern.github.io/goestools/guides/minimal_receiver....

Re: The rich history of ham radio culture

#59

Post by dghlsakjg »

eh_why_not wrote: post #19
Dalewyn wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hams are the quintessential "know just enough to be dangerous" people. Don't get me wrong, I've come across a lot of wonderful, truly smart hams; but I've also witnessed many hams who really never should have gotten half-smart. Hams are amateur electricians, hilarity /will/ ensue and it won't all be funny.

What's dangerous about ham radio?

Lots of people hurt themselves when falling off a ladder trying to put up an antenna.

Joking aside, there is a minor risk of RF burn if you do really stupid things that you have to learn not to do to get a license. I can’t really imagine someone getting hurt by the radios themselves.

Re: The rich history of ham radio culture

#60

Post by hilbert42 »

bityard wrote: post #29
CalRobert wrote: post #12

As the internet gets more balkanized, censored, and controlled by a few giant companies, it makes me think that it's time for a different hobby. Something that can be used to subvert censorship (remember the whole "interprets it as damage and routes around it" conceit?) and is more hobbyists and less corporate sounds appealing. Is Ham that hobby? I am genuinely asking. A few days ago a thread here had lots of people…

I think you're getting unfairly downvoted so I'll try to answer your questions. I've had an interest in radio since I was a kid but have only had my license for about the past decade. The fact that you can have a box full of electronics send information to another box full of electronics _around the world_ without any wires in between still kinda blows my mind. Ham radio is a great hobby. But like all hobbies, you ge…

""Old dudes being boring" for sure are a staple of the ham radio community, but if you come into it with prejudice, you probably won't have the experience you want or make many friends."

Ha, one of the great modern (and unsung) ironies of Amateur Radio can only be seen from today's perspective.

When I first got my amateur license decades ago long before the internet, amateurs would find themselves on the end of disparaging or pejorative jibes from those who weren't radio amateurs (but who—more often than not—were also family members) that went something to the effect 'heaven only knows how they manage to gabber and yabber on about such inconsequential garbage for so long' and other like comments.

Now Amateurs can revenge that wrong with a vengeance beyond comparison. All they have to do is to point to the almost infinite tons of inconsequential garbage on Social Media that far exceedes the sum total of all utterances ever made by Radio Amateurs by many orders of magnitude.

I've often wondered why Amateurs don't rub this fact home to the Great Unwashed with much glee

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