91–100 of 153 posts
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There's a persistent belief among non-hams that it is an acronym or something. I don't get it either.
It infuriates me to see people spell it as "HAM". (Extra since 1977, also First Class Radiotelephone with Radar Endorsement, and First Class Radiotelegraph.)
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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?
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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 dispa…
They probably have, but using a communications medium that only they ever use, so no one else knows or cares.
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Anyone can use ham radio. Encryption is illegal on those bands though.
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.
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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.
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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 got my HAM license in the USA a while ago. I'm in it mainly for the emergency communications side of things: I live in a coastal community in California with three roads in and out, all three of which can be affected by affected by storms, earthquakes etc. I've joined ARES: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_Radio_Emergency_Servic... - which coordinates to provide HAM support for emergency communications. If a b…
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…
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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... Old guys? Tube radios? You got my attention.
Almost everything is now well beyond economic repair. It's all about emotions and nostalgia for almost all of the gear.
I no longer jump when something smokes or pops, and I know it's usually a good sign, as it helps you figure out where the trouble is. ;-)
I've learned to hate Silver Mica capacitors, and came up with a technique to help track down the noisy ones. (Take out all of the tubes, leave B+ on... measure the voltage across all the resistors, most of them will read 0 volts, if you do get a voltage, check the schematic and see if it's reasonable, if not... there's current flowing to a bad silver-mica cap through it. It really cut down on the time to find issues)
Collins 30S1 amplifiers.... those will always command fear and extreme caution. 3000 volts at a solid Amp will easily burn off limbs, and it will hurt like hell as you watch it happen to you. Or... it'll just kill you, and burn your corpse.
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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" I disagree, it's much more that, far too much to discuss here. A starting point would be to check the ARRL and RSGB handbooks which provide a reasonably comprehensive overview of AR. (Google each for more info.) There are many more specialist books if you want even more in-depth information.
[1] ARRL Handbook for Radio Communications 100th Edition Six-Volume Set:
https://home.arrl.org/action/Store/Product-Details/productId...