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Do You Still Find Amateur Radio Interesting?
Marcos Eliziario asks: "Soon, I'll be taking the exams for a Brazilian, Class-D, Ham Radio license (Equivalent to an American Technician License) and, as I was reading about the subject, I wondered what today's geek thinks about amateur radio. In the past, Ham Radio was very popular among nerds, however with the Internet boom it seems that interest on radio, among the younger generations, is becoming dimmer each day. A lot of cool things can be done with radio, like building your own equipment, digital modes (btw, few people know that Packet Radio was born on the amateur's rank), and long distance contacts. The gear is cool, there's a lot of things to be learned about propagation, and today's Hams even use satellites to talk. Do you think that we could see a renaissance of Ham Radio among 21st century techies?"
My friends and I use ham radio because our cell phones drop all the time. As long as we're a hundred miles or so from our local repeater we're good. The entry price wasn't too much for me. $180 for a 2-meter mobile and $170 for a dual-band ht.
It's neither hard nor expensive to get started. Just get your license and go on the air with a handy-talky. I bought my first one for less than $200. No big antennas or investmens are necessary.
This assumes you live close enough to a population center with folks to talk to, but that isn't a big deal in most areas. From there you can decide if you want to branch out into longer-distance communications.
KC5UVV. I have no idea when it lapses. It's just not useful for anything anymore and I don't even have equipment.
Have you ever used morse code? It is it's own language. There are so many abbreviations and prosigns that you can communicate through it if you don't share a common language with the guy on the other end.
Specialized equipment in order to listen? Just because Wal-Mart doesn't carry radio scanners (Radio Shack does, maybe Wal-Mart does I don't know) doesn't mean the equipment is specialized. One could listen to hams and also police, fire, EMT, businesses, and cell/cordless phones if you have the right models. You also don't need any sort of license to purchase one of these scanners.
You won't pick up all the frequencies that hams broadcast on, but you will hear plenty of local traffic. One can't just turn to an Internet station dial in the car either to listen to a podcast. Sure it's easier to use a computer than getting into ham. You don't need a license to legally use a computer or pass a test (which sometimes I think should be required) and the reasons for using each are much different. The typical person uses the computer to email familiars and to look up information plus entertainment. While people get into ham radio for the science of it. To use radio technology to talk with people basically around the world independent of phone lines or networks except for maybe a repeater.
If you have 'something worthwhile to spread' then ham isn't the technology to use. Ham shouldn't be looked on as like setting up a radio station. Its about 2 way communication, I believe broadcasting just to broadcast isn't allowed. Ham radio isn't about broadcasting to the public things to do in a disaster situation, it's about providing coordination thru communications for whoever is in charge of managing the disaster when traditional communication technologies fail.
I've been a ham for the last four years or so. I have the Technician class licence, which most slashdotters could pass with a little study. The internet does not replace ham radio..the net is infrastructure heavy, and everything must work. Ham radio needs an antenna and power source, which is why ham radio "reappears" after every major disaster. I have a ham radio in the car, which covers 1.8 mhz up to 470 mhz. Last night on the way home from work, I listened to Radio Austraila, the highway patrol, and truckers on channel 19. This radio (Icom 706) is my secret weapon traffic avoiding device. I chatted with some hams on 2 meters, too ! I've also found myself in the middle of a running road Rally, as a radio op for the Rally organizers, clearing stages for competition. Since this rally is over public roads, they must be closed prior to running-I'm a motorsport nut too, but ham radio literally got me on the course. Ham radio is a great vector to meet interesting people. Our secret geekdom comes from all over...had a good talk with my oil delivery guy, a fellow hammy. Eventually, morse code requirements will be dropped in the US, as they have been almost everywhere else in the world, and the technically inclined will be able to avoid the "hazing ritual" that is morse code. The amount of knowledge ham radio gives, from knowing how radio really works (WiFi is only a small part of radio...very small), to the people you meet, makes it a lot of fun. The cost is up to you...a used transceiver for HF, $400, a basic 2m rig and antenna for the car, new, $350, and it lasts forever. Ignore the flame wars on eham and QRZ.com, they don't represent real hamming. for a laugh, check out hamsexy.com ! Casey K2FIX
Sure, packet radio learned me a lot about TCP/IP and networking in general, something that became very useful lateron.
SV2AGW wrote something that does what you were interested in. I have not personally looked at it, but I hear it works.
It seems like more of the software-homebrewing amateurs were active in the Linux world, where it is easier to create something like this. Packet radio is a part of the Linux kernel, although it seems to be non-maintained for a long time and could drop out.
Remember all the excitement over PSK31? It was the first taste of what people could do with a sound card and the processing power of even a crummy computer. I first ran it on a Pentium 233MMX (my 486/66 couldn't quite do it). With Linux, of course. :-)
People have now built stripped down little radios that plug in to a sound card and use software to make all sorts of interesting noises.
I'd be surprised if even one ham in 1000 could tell you exactly how PSK31 works, but that's other matter...
...laura