Amateur Radio
For those of you who don't know what amateur radio is, I will give you the technical definition:

Amateur Radio: A form of communications service that is licensed by the Federal Communications Commission for recreational or hobby use.

I won't go on about the differences between Amateur Radio and Citizens Band Radio here!
Nor do I want hate mail regarding such differences!

Suffice it to say that Amateur Radio Operators need to be more knowledgable of the technical side of telecommunications. There are many facets to the ham radio hobby. For example, digital communications, morse code, voice, repeaters, and volunteer work.

Like every hobby out there, ham radio has it's own organization. The American Radio Relay League is the voice of Amateur Radio operators in the United States. With about 600,000 licensed operators in the United States alone, Amateur Radio seems to be a very popular hobby. Most people have a misconceived idea that a ham radio operator is the "old guy down the street that interferes with the TV and has all those wires everywhere". This idea is not the way most ham radio operators like to be viewed. As a matter of fact, you may have one living next door to you and never know it.

I have been licensed since January 23, 1993. I have enjoied many of the different things you can do with ham radio. One of my favorites is called "Field Day". Field Day is a little hard to explain. Some view it as a contest, emergency preparedness drill, or just an excuse to get out and enjoy the outdoors. What happens on Field Day is that a group of operators get together and put up a station in the attempt to contact as many other operators in the given time period. Many view the setup process as the actual reason for Field Day.

Here are a few links to other home pages and sources of information:



American Radio Relay League


Federal Communications Commission


Twin Cities Repeater Club


QRZ! Callbook Software And Online Look-up





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