While this is this week’s final #HamTalk question from me, feel free to stick around, answer at your leisure, ask your own questions, and have side conversations! Also remember to participate in the #APRSThursday net running until 23:59 Thursday.
Q5. What’s an aspect of #HamRadio / #AmateurRadio you talk about to get unlicensed and recently licensed people excited about the hobby?
@ingalls #HamRadio #HamTalk A5. HF! People always seem engaged when I talk about making contacts over long distances, with low power, sometimes using digital modes or even CW. Also homebrew equipment, SOTA, etc. As someone else said, a lot of people conflate ham radio with CB, and imagine you are just talking to local yokels. They are surprised to learn how much more there is to the hobby.
@literatesavant @ingalls Yeah, I've run into this enough times that I've retrained myself for it. Back in the 60s virtually everyone had heard of ham radio and knew that hams could talk directly with other hams all over the world. This is because ham radio was frequently in the news. Every time a disaster struck somewhere in the world, the first news came via ham radio operators. Often, the only communications in and out of a disaster area was by ham radio.
Today, nobody's heard of it. Nor are they aware of shortwave radio -- not aware that one can communicate over thousands of miles using simple equipment and nothing more. No satellites, no wires, nothing. Not aware that they can easily listen to radio broadcasts from countries all over the world, direct, in their living room.
