Why Should You Care About Amateur Radio?

"Wireless is a thrilling pastime. Fancy a boy sitting in his room at home with his fingers on a telegraph key and a telephone receiver to his ear listening-in to the news of the world as it is flashed out from the great coast stations or by ships far out at sea! It's a great experience. Yet thousands of boys are doing this wonderful thing every day and night of the year, and you, my young friend, can do it as easily as they, for any boy can own a real wireless station, if he really wants to."--A. Frederick Collins, The Book of Wireless, 1915.
Pioneering Amateurs

I received my Novice license in the mid 1980's because I was interested in emergency communications. A friend of mine, Lannie Carlin, had a huge amateur radio station in her back bedroom. She would pass messages from Utah to the next receiving station--California or Colorado. Sometimes she would let us talk on her radio.

In 1988, I joined the Navy and became a member of the MARS station (NIG) at Correy Station. I learned how to take voice messages over the air. These messages were Health and Welfare messages from sailors to their families.

Even with the advent of the personal computer and the internet, the beginnings of email, amateur radio did not die. There are so many facets to this hobby besides sending messages through the airways.

Here are a few aspects of amateur radio:

1. Learn electronics
2. Repair equipment
3. Contest dx (talk to operators all over the world)
4. APRS/GPS
5. Digital Communications over high frequencies
6. Emergency Communication
7. And much more

Amateur radio is only limited by your imagination.

Amateurs have bounced signals off the moon. They have brought their radios on space stations. They have sat on a deserted island with a ham radio and contacted the world.