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Amateur Radio is an exciting and fun avocation!
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So, you've heard about Amateur Radio, sometimes called "ham" radio,
and you're curious. Maybe you know something about it from a friend
or relative, but you're really not sure what it's all about. This
is hopefully a useful introduction to Amateur Radio that tells you
not just what Amateur Radio operators do, but also tells you why
they do it, and gives you some idea of the history behind this
avocation.
From my perspective, there are three great traditions in Amateur
Radio. Almost all Amateurs participate to some extent in all three
of these traditional activities, and all three can provide enormous
personal satisfaction and growth in the hobby. Each of these traditions
goes back to the roots of Amateur Radio history, even as far back as
Marconi himself.
The Traffic Handling Tradition
The original motivation for the formation of the
American Radio Relay League (ARRL),
the national
non-profit organization that represents the interests of Radio Amateurs
in the United States, was traffic handling. In the 1900's and 1910's,
the state of the art long and medium wave radio equipment and
antenna designs were capable of interstate communications, but not
yet capable of transcontinental communications. Radio Amateurs
organized their efforts into "nets," where they would meet at specified
times on well-known frequencies to exchange "traffic" or radio
messages intended for delivery in distant locations. Through these
cooperative, volunteer efforts, messages could be delivered from one
coast to the other in a matter of hours rather than weeks, at essentially
no cost to the users of the system, who were usually friends or
neighbors of the Radio Amateurs involved. While this
National Traffic
System exists even to this day, few people know about it, because
the national communications infrastructure of postal mail, telephone,
and now the Internet has evolved and become convenient,
affordable, and (somewhat) reliable.
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When natural disasters strike, Amateur
Radio still gets through... (Jarrell, TX, 1997)
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But the tradition of traffic handling lives on. To the traffic handler,
it is the content of the communications that is most important. Making
sure that the information gets through and is accurately relayed and
efficiently handled is the most important thing. Today, many
Radio Amateurs are active in public service and emergency communications
organizations. The Amateur Radio
Emergency Service (ARES) is a
nationwide organization dedicated to providing communications in the
event of natural disaster or in civil emergency situations where existing
data and voice networks are either inoperative or insufficient. When
Hurricane Andrew devastated the Miami, Florida area in August, 1992, and
left a quarter million people homeless, some of the first communications
out of the disaster area was carried on Amateur Radio. When tornadoes
struck the central Texas towns of Jarrell and Leander in May, 1997, the
Williamson County ARES provided the only communications in and out of
Jarrell for several hours, and provided much-needed supplemental
communications for disaster relief organizations such as the American
Red Cross for days afterward. When Iraq invaded and occupied Kuwait in
the summer of 1990, a lone Kuwaiti Radio Amateur was able to stay on the
air during the entire occupation, smuggling information about the
plight of his people to the outside world using reliable data passing
forms of radio teletype (RTTY). When disaster strikes, Amateur Radio
is many times the only means of communication.
Most day to day Amateur Radio communications is not so serious as
natural disasters or civil emergencies, of course. The traffic handling
tradition lives on in the simple act of passing the time of day with
someone on the radio. It lives on in those Amateurs who build and
establish repeater stations, which can enable users with small handheld
radios to extend their effective range and reliability of
communications. It lives on in those who provide free communications
to public service events like marathons or bike races or parades.
Learning how to make radios and power supplies that are reliable and
ready, and how to choose and effectively use the appropriate radio
frequencies for the needs at hand is important. The traffic handling
tradition develops Radio Amateurs who can engage in reliable
communications, be it a simple conversation, or civil emergency traffic.
The DX Tradition
Since the invention of radio communications by
Gugliemo
Marconi in 1894, Radio Amateurs have always been interested in
extending the envelope of the radio communications state of the art.
From the very beginning, Amateurs have been interested in seeing how
far away they could contact other stations. Marconi himself set
numerous distance records in the early days of radio, constantly
improving the transmit range and reception capabilities of his
equipment. Today, Amateur Radio operators routinely use High
Frequencies (HF) to communicate with stations around the globe. They
even use Very High Frequencies (VHF) and Ultra High Frequencies (UHF)
to establish contact with other stations by using the moon to reflect
their signals!
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Amateur Radio operators work hard to build
great stations for working DX!
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The term DX comes from an abbreviation for "distance" that has been used
by Morse code operators for over a century. A DXer is someone who
seeks out contact with stations in distant or exotic places. The
original DXers, like all other Radio Amateurs, used the Morse code
to communicate. They know that because the Morse code requires only
a narrow bandwidth, it can maintain signal integrity over longer
distances than
any other mode of transmission. In many cases, the use of Morse code
instead of voice or data transmissions can be the difference between
being able to establish contact or not being able to at all! Many other
factors can also contribute, including propagation conditions, antenna
type and direction, radio design and much more. DXers are known for
giving the extra effort to improve their chances of "working" that
next DX station.
To the DXer, it is not the nature or content of the communications
that is really important; it is the ability to establish two-way
communications in the first place that is important. Many of these
contacts are made under extreme difficulty or in adverse conditions
that try the Amateur's ability and equipment to the utmost. Maybe
it's a station 1,500 miles away that can be contacted on 432MHz only
because a weather front is "ducting" the signals back to earth instead
of out to space. Maybe it's a rare Caribbean station on 50MHz that
can only be worked when sporadic clouds of ionization in the
atmosphere develop in just the right place and time. Maybe it's
a shortwave contact from Texas with a
small expedition on
an Antarctic island in the south Atlantic Ocean. Maybe it's working
another station via "moonbounce" or knowing when the "long path"
on the HF bands might be "open."
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Even with the best antennas, distant stations can be weak.
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In many ways, DXers help push the state of the art in understanding
how radio signals propagate. Amateur Radio operators have studied
the relationship between the sun and shortwave propagation for decades.
Amateurs were among the first to attempt "moonbounce" and "meteor
scatter" communications. Amateurs even discovered certain forms of
"transequatorial" propagation of VHF frequencies that are still not
very well understood. DXers have provided enormous contributions to
the general body of knowledge on antennas, antenna modelling in software,
receiver design, using digital signal processing, and many other
aspects of radio communications necessary to effectively chase DX.
Many DXers especially like to collect
QSL cards from other Amateurs.
These cards are a way of extending written confirmation to another
Amateur Radio operator about a particular radio contact. Ask a DXer to
show you their QSL card collection sometime, and you may be pleasantly
surprised to see cards from all over the world - from exotic islands,
to remote desert lands, arctic regions, places you've read about and
maybe imagined visiting some day. DXing is a fun and challenging
way to experience the world.
The Experimenters Tradition
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This electronic Morse code keyer was built from a kit
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The very first Radio Amateurs had to build all of their own equipment.
While that is no longer the case, quite a few delight in the ability
to build hardware, write software, modify gear, and otherwise
experiment with radio equipment. The Amateur Radio Service is, in
fact, the only personal communications service in the country where
licensed operators are allowed (and even encouraged) to modify, build,
and otherwise experiment with their own hardware!
Most Amateurs no longer face the need to build their own
equipment, as many commercial companies sell equipment designed
specifically for the Amateur bands. But that doesn't mean that there
isn't plenty of opportunity to design, build, and modify! It doesn't
even need to be radios themselves. Many builders start out learning
how to solder connectors on coaxial cable, or how to assemble a new
antenna. Kits are availble to build many station accessories, such as
switch boxes, interface cable, electronic Morse code keyers, amplifiers,
test equipment, and attenuators.
Building a radio or station accessory from a kit can be a very rewarding
experience. Kits and designs range from the very simple to complete to
much more complex projects. Most have been designed by fellow Radio
Amateurs and many offer features not available from any other source.
In addition to kits prepared with components and instructions, there
is a wide variety of published plans for building all sorts of things.
In fact, there are whole
books
on the subject! Many hams also modify
existing radio equipment for use on the Amateur bands. This can be
as simple as changing a crystal or adding an audio output connector
or as complex as replacing whole sections of a radio with
newer design componentry. Almost every Radio Amateur at some
point has dabbled in building or modifying equipment.
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Assembling an antenna for world-wide HF communications
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One area where Amateur Radio operators are well known for experimenting
and building is antenna design. It seems like almost every issue
of the popular Amateur Radio magazines feature articles about new
antenna designs or construction techniques. Many Amateur Radio
operators have also experimented with modelling antennas using their
computers. This involves complex software that predicts an antenna
design's performance in the real world. Amateurs are constantly
improving our understanding of both antenna design theory and
practical computer modelling of antennas.
Digital communications are another area where extensive Amateur Radio
experimentation is taking place. Digital communications over the air
extends all the way back to the introduction of radio teletype (RTTY),
but today includes a wide variety of protocols and encoding schemes.
There are literally dozens of digital modes in daily use on the
Amateur bands - many of which were pioneered by Amateur Radio
operators who sought to improve the state of the art. Interested
in Spread Spectrum? Interested
in Digital Signal Processing? Want to build or join a wireless network of
computers? One that includes stations around the globe? Many
hams are experimenting with these and other digital techniques that
can enhance communications.
The Amateur Radio experimenter is a builder who loves radio and loves
to make things work. While "plug and play" may be fine for some
activities, the radio experimenter really enjoys the challenge and
excitement of building or modifying or trying out new ideas.
An Avocation for Everyone
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The sky's the limit in Amateur Radio!
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As you can see, the Amateur Radio Service encourages a wide range of
interests and activities. The above three traditions, which I
believe represent the heritage of Amateur Radio over the years, are by
no means mutually exclusive or even entirely representative. One
activity that crosses the traditional boundaries is radiosport
contesting. Radiosport
contesting challenges participants to establish two-way contact
with as many different stations in as many different locations as
possible in a given time period, and reliably exchange certain
information with them. Succesful contesters draw from the traffic
handling tradition that emphasizes reliable, efficient communications,
and the DXing tradition that emphasizes the desire to contact many
different places. Contesting can be quite competitive, quite fun, and
certainly a challenge to the skills of the radio operator. Many other
activities in Amateur Radio draw upon and help develop a mixed radio
operations skill set.
Amateur Radio is a gateway into a new and exciting world. It is an
avocation you can follow the rest of your life and continue to find
something new and interesting to do. It doesn't take a large investment
to get started, and just because some Amateurs talk with their
friends in Singapore or Argentina on a regular basis, or spend their
entire weekend contesting, or are always building things that never
seem to work just right, doesn't mean that that has to be the kind of
Amateur Radio you take an interest in. There's plenty of room for
everyone, and plenty of activities to choose from. You may even find
that your interests change as you explore new terrain in the world of
radio. But that's just another part of what makes Amateur Radio so
rewarding...
DE WM5R
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