{"id":1385,"date":"2010-08-02T00:20:33","date_gmt":"2010-08-02T06:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ishmaels.net\/blog\/?p=1385"},"modified":"2010-08-02T00:20:33","modified_gmt":"2010-08-02T06:20:33","slug":"my-experiences-as-an-amateur-radio-operator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ishmaels.net\/blog\/2010\/08\/02\/my-experiences-as-an-amateur-radio-operator\/","title":{"rendered":"My Experiences As An Amateur Radio Operator"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You will never know who you can meet through <strong class='StrictlyAutoTagBold'>Ham<\/strong> Radio.  It is also eerily strange that so many common links can come from a contact.  Such things like <strong class='StrictlyAutoTagBold'>one<\/strong> older ham (an I am old enough but his guy was in his  80&#8217;s) I worked on PSK this last winter.  He served in the merchant marines as did my Dad about the same <strong class='StrictlyAutoTagBold'>time<\/strong> during WWII.  Or the <strong class='StrictlyAutoTagBold'>one<\/strong> that now lives far away but had lived and worked in a town very close to <strong class='StrictlyAutoTagBold'>one<\/strong> I lived in and we knew all the same old places.  You just never know who you might make contact with?  An Astronauts, A congressman, or a famous singer.  Yes there are Hams that fit each of these titles, but on the <strong class='StrictlyAutoTagBold'>radio<\/strong> we are all &#8220;Hams&#8221; with a common interest.  &#8211; WD0AJG<\/p>\n<p>I have been a licensed <strong class='StrictlyAutoTagBold'>Ham<\/strong> or Amateur Radio operator for about 20 years. By some standards, I am still considered a newcomer. Some of my first experiences with the hobby was to work Morse code or CW down on the Novice part of the 15 and 40 meter bands. I made plenty of contacts and even more mistakes. For a <strong class='StrictlyAutoTagBold'>time<\/strong> I would imagine the old <strong class='StrictlyAutoTagBold'>time<\/strong> <strong class='StrictlyAutoTagBold'>Ham<\/strong> operator at the other end chuckling at me, thinking I was still wet behind the ears. Although many scoff at being a CW operator and it&#8217;s no longer a requirement for a license, my experience with this aspect of the hobby has always been <strong class='StrictlyAutoTagBold'>one<\/strong> of <strong class='StrictlyAutoTagBold'>fun<\/strong> and excitement. The <strong class='StrictlyAutoTagBold'>fun<\/strong> comes in when you can take a <strong class='StrictlyAutoTagBold'>radio<\/strong> that outputs 5 watts of power (same as a night light bulb), connect it to a chunk of wire strung between 2 trees and have a conversation with another operator thousands of miles away.<\/p>\n<p>Chatting or rag-chewing as it&#8217;s called with other Hams is always <strong class='StrictlyAutoTagBold'>fun<\/strong> and can be rather interesting. One fellow I worked who was well up in age comes to mind. He was a gentleman in his 90&#8217;s and included a short <strong class='StrictlyAutoTagBold'>letter<\/strong> with his QSL card. His <strong class='StrictlyAutoTagBold'>letter<\/strong> mentioned a few things about his life during World War II and a few of his Hamming experiences. One of those experiences was, when a young man, he built a spark gap transmitter. It just so happened that there was a power line which stretched between his parents house and their old barn. Since the power line was off 99% of the time, he decided to use it as his makeshift antenna. One <strong class='StrictlyAutoTagBold'>day<\/strong> as he was happily transmitting away, his father applied power to the antenna and blew his old Spark Gap transmitter to pieces! Well, we can all say a prayer that, due to modern science and engineering, <strong class='StrictlyAutoTagBold'>Ham<\/strong> Radio is nothing at all like that today. Although I still enjoy using a soldering iron on occasion, there is a world of difference between thousands of volts applied across the the grid of tube and today&#8217;s all solid state equipment which only require very low DC current under most circumstances.<\/p>\n<p>Of course there are some which would argue how tube radios have better quality audio. Others might say that Hams today are just appliance operators. Yes, these statements are also true to some degree. I can&#8217;t dispute that. But I can bet that a majority of these same Hams never leave home without their cell phones. I&#8217;d also imagine they would not complain much about slipping a credit card sized VHF transceiver into their shirt pocket before heading to their local Hamfest!<\/p>\n<p>In my opinion, the hobby is nearly as much <strong class='StrictlyAutoTagBold'>fun<\/strong> and exciting today as it was back in my Novice days. Of course there have been numerous advances to <strong class='StrictlyAutoTagBold'>Ham<\/strong> Radio over the past 20 years. The technological advances themselves are part of what makes the hobby interesting. Due to the commercialization of the internet, and good engineering on the part of Hams, you don&#8217;t even <strong class='StrictlyAutoTagBold'>need<\/strong> a <strong class='StrictlyAutoTagBold'>radio<\/strong> to get on the air. For example there is Echolink. You may not know this Windows software allows <strong class='StrictlyAutoTagBold'>Ham<\/strong> operators to communicate all over the world right from your <strong class='StrictlyAutoTagBold'>PC<\/strong>. the only equipment you <strong class='StrictlyAutoTagBold'>need<\/strong> is a sound card, speaker and a very low cost microphone. If you are a licensed <strong class='StrictlyAutoTagBold'>Ham<\/strong> or may be thinking about becoming one, visit the Echolink Web site. You will find all the information you <strong class='StrictlyAutoTagBold'>need<\/strong> to get started. At the moment that I published this article, there were over 3900 Hams on Echolink around the globe.<\/p>\n<p>So come on, investigate the world of <strong class='StrictlyAutoTagBold'>Ham<\/strong> Radio. There is so much to learn and explore. As always, a good place to start is right at the beginning. Find out much more about the Hobby, for example you may want to visit Hello Radio for a very well written, non-technical introduction.<\/p>\n<p>Gary Utz &#8211; ke2yk<br \/> Island Systems Engineering<br \/> the eHam Store<br \/> <a target=\"_new\" href=\"http:\/\/ehamstore.com\">http:\/\/ehamstore.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Author: <a href=\"http:\/\/EzineArticles.com\/?expert=Gary_Utz\">Gary Utz<\/a><br \/>Article Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/ezinearticles.com\/?My-Experiences-As-An-Amateur-Radio-Operator&amp;id=827713\">EzineArticles.com<\/a><br \/> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.myropcb.com\/services-capabilities\/pcb-capabilities\/\">Low-volume PCB maker<\/a><\/p>\n<p>[ad name=&#8221;Amazon-Hamradio1-300&#215;250&#8243;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One fellow I worked who was well up in age comes to mind. He was a gentleman in his 90&#8217;s and included a short letter with his QSL card. His letter mentioned a few things about his life during World War II and a few of his Hamming experiences. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ishmaels.net\/blog\/2010\/08\/02\/my-experiences-as-an-amateur-radio-operator\/\">&#8220;And Now the Rest of the Story &#8211; &#8220;My Experiences As An Amateur Radio Operator<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[23],"class_list":["post-1385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hobbies","tag-pages","odd"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>My Experiences As An Amateur Radio Operator - And That was How it Went<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ishmaels.net\/blog\/2010\/08\/02\/my-experiences-as-an-amateur-radio-operator\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"My Experiences As An Amateur Radio Operator - And That was How it Went\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One fellow I worked who was well up in age comes to mind. 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Ham radio operators (or amateur radio operators as they are known) use two-way radio stations from their homes, cars, boats and outdoors to make hundreds of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hobbies&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hobbies","link":"https:\/\/www.ishmaels.net\/blog\/category\/hobbies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1316,"url":"https:\/\/www.ishmaels.net\/blog\/2010\/08\/07\/amateur-radio-field-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":1385,"position":2},"title":"Amateur Radio Field Day","author":"Dave Glass","date":"August 7, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Working emergencies is one thing that almost every one that has been a Ham for awhile has been involved. 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Find a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hobbies&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hobbies","link":"https:\/\/www.ishmaels.net\/blog\/category\/hobbies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":660,"url":"https:\/\/www.ishmaels.net\/blog\/2010\/06\/14\/ham-radio-contesting\/","url_meta":{"origin":1385,"position":4},"title":"Ham Radio Contesting","author":"Dave Glass","date":"June 14, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Contesting on the Ham Radio can be fun no matter what mode it is in! 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