Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The rich history of ham radio culture

thereader.mitpress.mit.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 153 posts

Re: The rich history of ham radio culture

#111

Post by dghlsakjg »

giraffe_lady wrote: post #65
dghlsakjg wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I have an amateur extra license and think pirate radio is awesome. It is a rich, important, culturally & politically influential tradition in its own right.

Me too (well my ham ticket is expired), but my point is that ham and pirate radio are very different things. And even if you think its cool, I really doubt if your would tolerate a pirate stepping on your local repeater frequency.

Re: The rich history of ham radio culture

#112

Post by [deleted] »

BenjiWiebe wrote: post #105
simonw wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that understanding the restrictions on HAM usage - including the ban on encryption, and strict rules on what kind of material can be broadcast (since anyone can hear it) - is really important. You don't have to pay ongoing fees: the initial outlay in the USA is $35 for the license (you have to pass the exam) plus the cost for your equipment (~$70 for the cheaper HAM radios on Amazon), but after that there are…

There is a renewal fee for the license, every 10 years. But it's negligible.

[deleted]

Re: The rich history of ham radio culture

#113

Post by tcmart14 »

justin66 wrote: post #101
BobbyTables2 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jus curious, respectfully, is ARES still relevant? These days it seems like a few portable cell towers should outstrip what a motley group of HAMs can humanly do. About 30 years ago, the people I met who were into ARES seemed a bit weird — sorta a radio version of “preppers”. Maybe I was just in an area not prone to earthquakes…

"If a big earthquake temporarily disables a chunk of communications infrastructure." OP is talking about the kind of thing that kicks in if that cell phone network, or 911 response, or what have you is compromised.

I do believe there have been instances where ham radio operators were able to deploy recently and get comms up in some areas faster than others would. These were disasters where they took down the towers, because it happens. And the local hams are faster than the cell phone company is to deploy something.

Re: The rich history of ham radio culture

#114

Post by dang »

pbj1968 wrote: post #92
fortran77 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It infuriates me to see people spell it as "HAM". (Extra since 1977, also First Class Radiotelephone with Radar Endorsement, and First Class Radiotelegraph.)

[flagged]

Can you please stop breaking the site guidelines? You've unfortunately been doing it a great deal lately. We have to ban such accounts, and I don't want to ban you, so if you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here, we'd appreciate it.

Edit: on a closer look, your account has been breaking the site guidelines so consistently that I think we have to ban it and I've done so.

If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. They're here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

Re: The rich history of ham radio culture

#115

Post by nobodyknowin »

BenjiWiebe wrote: post #105
simonw wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that understanding the restrictions on HAM usage - including the ban on encryption, and strict rules on what kind of material can be broadcast (since anyone can hear it) - is really important. You don't have to pay ongoing fees: the initial outlay in the USA is $35 for the license (you have to pass the exam) plus the cost for your equipment (~$70 for the cheaper HAM radios on Amazon), but after that there are…

There is a renewal fee for the license, every 10 years. But it's negligible.

Does one have to take a test for renewal? Or is it a one and done type thing?

Re: The rich history of ham radio culture

#116

Post by vogt »

My grandfather, Dick, was a Korea war veteran who founded a manufacturing company. He was a grizzly, old school guy with a bit of a drinking problem. As the legend goes HAM was the only thing that brought him joy. He had an entire room of the house with equipment that nobody was allowed in, until I was born (first grandchild privileges).

I always think of him when I see ham crop up online. The dish in their back yard was enormous. But yeah, in my head, ham is basically populated with guys like this, cranky old men who start ball slide part companies and smoke 2 packs a day

Re: The rich history of ham radio culture

#117

Post by simonw »

nobodyknowin wrote: post #115
BenjiWiebe wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a renewal fee for the license, every 10 years. But it's negligible.

Does one have to take a test for renewal? Or is it a one and done type thing?

You don't have to take the test again. I believe you only have to take the test if your license expires at the end of the ten years AND you wait more than two years before renewing it again.

Re: The rich history of ham radio culture

#118

Post by drmpeg »

pclmulqdq wrote: post #86
howard941 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No I have an extra. I thought they did away with the advanced when the privileges were realigned couple or 10 years back. I haven't kept up with the class privileges.

They did away with advanced more than 10 years ago.

Time flies. It was actually April 2000, 24 years ago.

Re: The rich history of ham radio culture

#119

Post by jamiek88 »

fortran77 wrote: post #87

I had a great time on ham (not HAM) radio today, talking to people participating in a "Summit on the Air" event from Mount Umunhum. Then I spent some time building a "Class D" PWM AM radio transmitter using a circuit a guy from Bulgaria posted to a forum a few months ago. I take a little portable "truSDX" with me in my travels, and enjoy making contacts on FT8 and CW with it using a wire I hang out of my hotel window…

> and enjoy making contacts on FT8 and CW with it using a wire I hang out of my hotel window. In the past year, I've done this from Tokyo to Tel Aviv.

Ever worry about being of interest to foreign intelligence I ask only half joking!

Ever done it in Moscow?!

Re: The rich history of ham radio culture

#120

Post by nobodyknowin »

simonw wrote: post #117
nobodyknowin wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does one have to take a test for renewal? Or is it a one and done type thing?

You don't have to take the test again. I believe you only have to take the test if your license expires at the end of the ten years AND you wait more than two years before renewing it again.

Thank you for your response.

I did get my novice license (or whatever the lowest license is called) but never got an old borrowed radio to actually transmit. Then life kind of got in the way.

I keep meaning to get back into it, the sstv and various data networks are really cool. I really dig the analog tech.

Post reply on HN