Ham Radio

[Jacqui]

Is there anone else on Optiboard that is interested in ham radio?? I'm trying to get my license after an absence of almost 20 years and would like to hear from others, if there are any.

[harry a saake]

I have been a licensed ham radio operator since 1959, orginally WV2JVG, then WA2JVG, then WD4KNQ, then N7GRR, then N4OOI and now finally and forever K2MMX, iunstructed CW in the navy.
.....Noted speaker and good friend of mine, Phernell Walker and his lovely wife mary are also ham radio operators.
.....I don,t have the least idea anymore of what the requirements are as there has been such a radical change in the way licensing of ham radio operators is now done as to when i took my tests over 40 years ago. The easist way to find out, would be to go on line to the ARRL, which is the American Radio Relay League, based in Connecticut. Hope this helps 73,s

[Spexvet]

I'm not a ham radio guy, but I heard about the "Conet Project". It's a 4CD set of "number station" recordings. Short wave stations that play only tones and people reading numbers and letters. It sounds eerie. Apparantly, it was one way that spy organizations communicated, during the cold war. Have you ever run across a number station?

[Bev Heishman]

My Dad is a Ham for years....KE3AM contact him. He hasn't been on forthe last 3 weeks as he has been ill and had a serious operation. I miss his daily e-mails. I think he has been a ham since the 50's when he was a teen. He also did a stint in the Air Force Reserves as a radio operator.

[chm2023]

Why do they call it "ham" radio? What's the origin of that?

[Jacqui]

chm: Don't know where it came from, maybe because we like to get on the air and "ham" it up

[harry a saake]

actually its an insult left over from the old days of morse code, when local stations were very powerful and would wipe out a lot of other stations, so they became referred to as hams, meaning poor operators, but as time went buy the name stuck and the interference problem became better and the name just stuck, truly we are amatuer radio operators, we use both terms