Slashdot Mirror
Hamvention
amateur radio buff writes "The Hamvention is coming up on May 16 - 18, for all you amateur radio people out there. This is the worlds biggest Ham fest held in Dayton, Ohio. With over 2500+ space outdoor vendor, and 500 inside exhibit spaces, find any amateur radio and electronic items there. Also the The 11th Annual Dayton Contest Dinner is held this year too! Dont miss it!"
When I was in scouts in Oz I remembered looking forward to the Jamboree On The Air in October each year.
;-)
http://www.scout.org/wse/jota.shtml
Off topic? No - about 48 or more hours (due to time zones) of talking to other scouts across the world. Pre-internet
At this particular event, every available piece of spectrum in the 2m and 70cm bands will be in use. CTCSS, DCS, and DSQ are all very helpful for filtering out what you want to hear from what you don't want to hear. And if at first you get stepped on (while transmitting), try, try again.
IMHO, physical crowding of bodies is a bigger problem than frequency congestion.
http://radio.linux.org.au/
And there are many other sites, too. I disagree with what someone stated earlier about being both into computers and amateur radio taking it too far. Believe it or not, there's a lot of overlap between the two. Hams often spend a lot of time tweaking their stations, building stuff, and completely customizing their equipment. Sound familiar to anyone on Slashdot?
73, KG6JBF
IAAL
I realise that most if not all of the people who read and post to this site are computer geeks in one way or another. (I am)
If you are into computers for the pure technical geek aspects, try out amateur radio. I guarantee that you won't be disappointed. There are so many different things you can do in ham that you won't be bored. I've done shortwave, packet radio, satelite, earth-moon-earth bouce, and microwave radio etc. etc. Amateur radio gives you an oppourtunity to delve into physics...
Oftentimes amateur radio is seen as an "old man's" game, as many of the newer geeks jump into computers immediately, and choose programming and networking as their fix of choice. I'd like to see more young people on the air! (I'm 25)
Anyway, give it a try, it doesn't cost much to get started.
No longer required to be skilled in CW? Perhaps not in the UK. In the States, however, one still needs to be proficient to 5 WPM CW to go any higher than a Technician-class license.
The dividing point is HF privileges (1-30MHz). If you want to work HF (with the possible exception of the 10-meter band), and you live in the U.S., you still have to pass a minimal CW test.
Bruce Lane, KC7GR,
Blue Feather Technologies
455fe10422ca29c4933f95052b792ab2
These days, you have to be into computers to operate using the newer digital modes available.
Before the Internet took off in the consumer sector, hams were using their computers to participate in TCP/IP networks via packet radio in the VHF bands.
It doesn't take a lot of money or effort to get started these days. There are plenty of used radios available cheap and anyone with half a brain can study and pass the license exam.
It's still cool to throw up a simple piece of wire in a tree and communicate with someone halfway around the world.
Check out http://www.arrl.org for more information.
I think a friend of mine said it best; "You can be into ham radios and you can be into computers, but being into both is taking it just a little too far".
Problem is, it's getting harder and harder to be into ham radio without being into computers. Digital modes are used more and more, and computers are used for a lot of related things, like satellite tracking, timekeeping, logging, transceiver control, beam headings, etc. True, a lot of these things can be done without computers, but they are ideally suited for computers to manage.
It's kind of a shame ham radio has for being such a nerdy pursuit. It can be a lot of fun, and it has a lot of depth as a hobby.