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Ham Radio Interests |
When you say "Ham Radio" or "Amateur Radio," what typically comes to mind?
Your father or uncle working out of their garage, staring off in space for
hours listening intently to some large vacuum tube radio? Some old farm
house with lots of weird antennas all over and around it?
Well, Ham radio has, in the last few years, become more than that to a lot of
folks. Ham radio has been, almost from the first, one of the few methods of getting information from A to B when all other methods fail. As has been
prooven during virtually every major natural disaster and terrorist event, Ham
radios have meant the difference between communications and "working in the
dark."
This ability is part of what has lead the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) to allow Ham radio operators (also called amateur radio operators) to
have a place on the air-waves. Our status with the FCC, that of so called
"amateur" radio operators is a bit of a misconception. A better word might
have been "un-paid." That's right, we don't get dime one for our efforts.
When we are in the news for having helped get medicine and aid to those in
a disaster zone, none of those "amateur" radio operators are getting paid.
Virtually everyone who participates in disasters are doing it out of other
personal reasons...maybe they are supporting community, God, country...maybe
they are just being pulled into the fray to help whom they can in a purely
humanitarian vein. But whatever the reason, the goals are typically the same.
They all want to GET INVOLVED in helping people in need.
As to
who becomes a ham radio operator,
how to become a ham,
and
what you get out of it,
you are but a click away...
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Scientific Interests |
There are many interesting areas of ham radio that are more in the scientific
realm. From the earliest ham radio designs, most of them have been generated
by individuals interested in experimentation. That is reflected in the F.C.C.
rules that give to hams, and only to hams, the ability to legally research,
design, build, and operate their own radios.
SOARESSS members have partcipated in a number of different "do it yourself"
type projects. Some members have even went so far as to explain their efforts
in the pages below.
- Building Your Own Equipment
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- QRP Rigs
(interested in talking to California on a 9 volt battery?)
- VHF Rigs
- Various Modes
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- Antenna Design
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- Automated Position Reporting System
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- Direction Finding
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