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The rich history of ham radio culture

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Re: The rich history of ham radio culture

#131

Post by JR1427 »

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?

You can also easily cause interference, which might not be directly dangerous, but can certainly be problematic if you're causing problems on important communication channels.

Re: The rich history of ham radio culture

#132

Post by wkat4242 »

0xEF wrote: post #129
wkat4242 wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

English only? Not in Europe, everyone speaks their local language. Callsigns are generally spelled using the nato Alphabet though.

That's not in keeping with my experience, even ignoring the fact that I am in North America. I've made hundreds of contacts in the EU during contests and only English was used. Do they perhaps use their native languages on local repeaters? If that is the case, I would not hear it since contesting is done on HF.

Ah ok yes I'm never on HF. On HF it's more English only due to the many languages here in Europe. Especially during contests of course.

However people do have local chats and ragchews in the local language. It's more the contests that are English only (but that doesn't go any further than "59 good copy. Next."). Which is why I hate contesting, I find It so boring that nobody has time to speak. I have no drive to be a "winner" so I never care about the number of contacts.

In fact most people in the ham demographic here would speak very limited English anyway due to not learning it at school in their days.

Re: The rich history of ham radio culture

#133

Post by hilbert42 »

misstuned wrote: post #121
hilbert42 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, I'll have to accept that expansion. Was it mostly on VHF (would seem more likely)?

You hear it in the UK on 160m, there are a couple of nets that deal in that kind of "non politically correct" stuff, I don't tune in.

Hum, OK. I'm in VK, seems it's quieter here. Thought they'd use VHF to keep it local, but I suppose 160m is the next best thing (it's not the best look, you ought to keep that traffic local if possible).

PS: Sorry about that damn typo, I must kill autocorrect.

Re: The rich history of ham radio culture

#134

Post by kayfox »

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…

> pay for membership

Not in every country or even always in the US. In Canada there is no government fees for ham radio, if the test giver wants to charge a fee, they can, but most do not.

In the US there are clubs that pay for new hams fees out of a fund for that purpose.

Re: The rich history of ham radio culture

#135

Post by kayfox »

tkuraku wrote: post #24
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…

Anyone can use ham radio. Encryption is illegal on those bands though.

> Encryption is illegal on those bands though.

Depends on the band, for VHF, UHF and higher bands a country may make different decisions on what is not permitted. Canada has allowed encryption with published keys to be used for repeater access control in the past.

Re: The rich history of ham radio culture

#136

Post by vitaflo »

kragen wrote: post #95
bitfilped wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone can listen on a ham radio, you need a license to broadcast. FRS, CB and MURS are the unlicensed options in the US to my knowledge.

broadcasting is not permitted on ham bands in the us. i suspect you might have meant that you need a license to transmit

Can always spot a non-ham by use of the word "broadcast". It's a dead giveaway.

Re: The rich history of ham radio culture

#137

Post by vitaflo »

brightball wrote: post #6

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

While a lot of people will dismiss ham radio as just a bunch of old farts talking about their diabetes, a lot of the actual joy of being a ham op is from experimenting. Whether it's from building radios and antennas, to attempting to overcome difficult atmospheric conditions, or just trying to see how many (or far) contacts can be made on super low power.

This type of thing usually requires curious people. And the smartest tech people I know, are the ones that are the most curious.

Re: The rich history of ham radio culture

#138

Post by vitaflo »

stolenmerch wrote: post #30

I got my Technicians license about a year ago but have struggled to find much to do with it. I check into my local nets every once and a while, but the repeaters are nearly silent otherwise. The CW privileges are ok but hard to use. Seems you need a General to do all the cool stuff. Any other technicians here who have found a great use for the license?

I joined my local SKYWARN to get a license to do storm spotting which all happens on the VHF bands. We get a lot of severe weather where I live so this allows me to be on those bands more often than I otherwise would.

But I do agree, the real meat of ham radio is when you get your General and get on HF. It opens up the door to the rest of the world, not just your local city.

Re: The rich history of ham radio culture

#139

Post by vitaflo »

floren wrote: post #76
assimpleaspossi wrote: post #75

It's interesting how I read so often of people calling this HAM. Such as, "Is Ham that hobby?" below. I first got started in amateur radio with my novice license in 1966. We always called it "ham radio" or "amateur radio" or said I was a ham radio operator but no one ever called it HAM or spelled it in all caps. On HN, at least, I see it every time the subject is brought up. And it seems to be a fairly recent event.

There's a persistent belief among non-hams that it is an acronym or something. I don't get it either.

Probably a self fulfilling prophecy. You see it a few times and if you don't know any better, you assume that's how it's supposed to be.

The same as people talking about hams "broadcasting". It's very obvious anyone talking like that is not a ham, but they don't know why that's incorrect. Basically you don't know what you don't know.

Re: The rich history of ham radio culture

#140

Post by vitaflo »

mordae wrote: post #58
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 s…

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

It's somewhat unfortunate (but understandable) that the rep ham radio gets is based on a few old dudes talking on HF. Whereas the reality is that the most popular mode in ham radio by far is digital, not voice (namely FT8).

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