YouTube video by N4JAW Jim "Ham on a Bike"

YouTube video by Tim G5TM

YouTube video by Patrick Verdonk

Python listens to the radio.

Table of contents

#blogpost about #hamradio and studying for your #amateuradio license. Because I get asked a lot. https://n1cck.us/blog/how-to-study-for-your-amateur-radio-license/

#blogpost about #hamradio and studying for your #amateuradio license. Because I get asked a lot. https://n1cck.us/blog/how-to-study-for-your-amateur-radio-license/

**Table of contents** * What is amateur radio * The communications enthusiast * The emergency communications enthusiast * The science enthusiast * The young person who is interested in science * The scouts * The outdoors enthusiast * The stargazer * The digital modes fiend * The maker * The electronics geek * The morse code crowd * Conclusion # What is amateur radio According to Wikipedia, Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is a non-commercial hobby and service where licensed operators use radio equipment to communicate for recreation, self-training, and public service. This definition, although correct, does not convey what amateur radio really is. The reason for this is that amateur radio is in reality a meta hobby. Or if you like a hobby of hobbies. It is a chameleon. Depending on who you ask, they will present their own personal perspective, and that perspective is guaranteed to miss several parts of the hobby. In this document, we will attempt to present some of these aspects of amateur radio through the eyes of several different personas with different perspectives. This will allow us to demonstrate the wide nature of the hobby and, in doing so, highlight the fact that what is presented in this document will not be by any means exhaustive. Of course, a person may combine more than one of the perspectives that will be presented below. # The communications enthusiast The communications enthusiast is a person who loves to talk to other people. They are by definition an extrovert. They love to talk to people all over the world and learn about their culture and their lives. Amateur radio is a natural match for this type of person. A large part of the hobby is talking to people, either by using a microphone, a morse code key, or by exchanging photos. For this person, their primary focus is operating, and they might or might not be interested in the technical aspects of the hobby. Often they will purchase their equipment from professional vendors in order to ensure maximum efficiency in their operation. Amateur radio can bring together people from all over the world, and it can be a great companion. It is a great medicine for loneliness, and you know that you can always find someone to talk to. We have examples of people having a radio in their retirement homes and making contacts all over the world. # The emergency communications enthusiast This person is interested in being able to respond to emergency situations. Usually these people are interested in contributing back to their community by providing emergency communications as well as helping out with relief efforts. These people participate in volunteer organisations that can be called in during a disaster to assist with relief efforts by providing communication channels in areas that are hit by a natural disaster. Usually these people have experience in these matters, and they follow specific protocols that allow them to be prepared in case of a disaster by having auxiliary power, weather resistant equipment, fast response capabilities and operational knowledge during emergencies. These people are interested both in operational procedure and the tech part of the hobby but with a special focus on emergency and resilience. Usually you will find that these people have strict protocols in place about communication and equipment maintenance that allow them to be ready at any time with spare batteries, portable stations, tents and/or caravans 4x4 vehicles and everything else needed in order to help during an emergency. # The science enthusiast Amateur radio is a scientific hobby. Lots of people are interested in it because it is one of the best way to understand how nature works. It is a natural fit for physicists, mathematicians, electronic engineers, communication engineers and computer scientists. It is impossible to be a flat earther and an amateur radio enthusiast. We have plenty of scientists who use amateur radio as part of their research, and there are special communities such as HamSCI who are actively promoting this connection between amateur radio and academic research. There are also conferences such as the HamSCI workshop. # The young person who is interested in science This section is dedicated to children who are interested in STEM. Amateur radio is an excellent introduction to several scientific fields, and the full UK licence is also recognised as knowledge on electronics by some colleges. We have had children as young as 7 years old pass the Foundation licence exam in the UK. Amateur radio is a hands-on hobby, and it can help a child get a good understanding of advanced concepts about radio propagation, electronics, as well as the mathematical foundation of all these concepts. # The scouts The scouts are a very special category for amateur radio. Scouts combine many of the other categories, they are young, they love the outdoors, they are learning about survival in difficult conditions and about being ready for emergencies. They have a whole section for emergency communications. There is a lot of common ground between scouts and amateur radio operators, and this is why it is natural for a lot of scouts to be interested in amateur radio and vice versa. There are a lot of contests and events dedicated to scouts learning about amateur radio and participating in various activities such as direction finding (fox hunting), Youths on the air, Jamboree, Scout Radio and more. # The outdoors enthusiast A lot of licensed amateur radio operators are outdoors enthusiasts. There are several organised competitions that promote operating in forest or mountains. These are designed for people who love nature and hiking who can pack their portable gear and visit remote areas where they can operate from. Summits on the air (SOTA), Parks on the air (POTA), Islands on the air (IOTA) are some of these contests. There are also several expeditions on remote areas where people go and live for several days with the sole purpose of operating from there. # The stargazer There is a whole category of amateur radio operators that are interested in space. They like to chase satellites and communicate with other amateurs through them all over the world. They use either dedicated satellites for this or ISS. In ISS some of the astronauts are amateur radio operators and there are regular events during which schools contact them through amateur radio. There is also a seasonal event every year, during which ISS astronauts operate Slow Scan TV (SSTV) and transmit images from ISS to the earth every December. You can find more on AMSAT website. We also have operators that like to bounce signals on the moon as a passive communication satellite. This is called Earth Moon Earth communication or in short EME and finally there is a whole society of amateur radio operators that are interested in radio astronomy with their own specialised conferences. # The digital modes fiend Digital modes are relatively new in the amateur radio world. Digital modes rely heavily on Digital Signal Processing (DSP). The DSP software is responsible for converting the audio signals from the radio into digital data that the computer can process. The process involves analog-to-digital conversion, filtering to remove unwanted noise, and decoding to retrieve binary data that becomes readable text or audio. This results in more efficient communication that can succeed under very constrained environments with high noise floor and/or compromised antennas. This makes them very popular, the fact that depending on the mode the operator can make contacts across the world with very little power and the efficiency because this communication is controlled by a computer, has made them very popular. Depending on the mode we can do voice, text, email, BBS etc. It is not uncommon to find operators using a mag loop antenna from their bedroom and make thousands of contacts across the world with FT8. It is also a natural category for all computer nerds that are also amateur radio operators. # The maker This type of radio amateur operator likes to tinker. They like to roll everything on their own and with a handful of components they can design everything from scratch. They make their own radios, their own antennas, their own transformers. Quite often they are into additional hobbies such as 3d printing, and the combination gives us a lot of cool customizations for our various antennas and radios. Their skill set is usually not limited to radios, so usually you will find them working on other interesting projects, like custom solar panel charging controllers, custom home automation projects and all sort of other cool stuff. Really talented people who can build whatever they can see in their mind’s eye, and usually they can equip it with radio communication capabilities as well. # The electronics geek This type of amateur radio enthusiast really comes from an electronics background. They love tinkering with the radio hardware, improving its efficiency and its functionality, they usually have a better theoretical grasp than most of the other categories on how the radio electronics work and what are its limitations. Usually they can build their own radios, but can also repair off the shelf radios. There are quite a few radio kits and custom projects produced by people that belong in this category, one of which is truSDX an open-source HF mini radio kit that can be either purchased already completed or in kit form so it can be assembled at home. It is designed by DL2MAN # The morse code crowd This type of amateur radio enthusiast loves morse code. Morse code although it might seem archaic has some unique properties. It can work well under very bad conditions, it can perform really well with low power, and CW (morse code) transmitters can be extremely portable, so many find them ideal for field operations. These are the reasons that morse code has a dedicated following, even during an era where you can do so much with amateur radio. CW still holds a special place in the hearts of so many amateur radio enthusiasts. # Conclusion This is a non enhaustive list. In most cases people fall in more than one categories, and as people move forward in the hobby they may be interested in categories that they did not care about in the past. There are also some political and philosophical reasons why someone might be interested in having the ability to communicate with other people without any intermediate organisations. The purpose of this article is to show the breadth of amataur radio hobby and potentially inspire people to pick it up and maybe join one of the categories mentioned above. Through this hobby i have met amazing people, the talent of the sophistication of which i have only found in open source software communities, but in this case it is even more wider than that.