An essential detail that you may be missing about Ham Radio is its incredible diversity. There is something in this hobby for almost everybody. Emergency communication is a big part of it, but so are things like:
meeting new people and making friends
new technology
discussing topics from router configuration to politics to psychology
The requirement for Morse Code has been eliminated and the hobby has seen a significant surge in new licensees. In the last week, I have talked to new operators from age 11 to 30 something.
Morse Code will be with us for a long time because there are good reasons to keep it, but there are also new digital protocols which support simultaneous voice and data transmission and the combining of old and new such as connecting repeaters together using the Internet and VOIP.
This is a very dynamic and diverse hobby. The rumors of its demise are extremely exaggerated.
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An essential detail that you may be missing about Ham Radio is its incredible diversity. There is something in this hobby for almost everybody. Emergency communication is a big part of it, but so are things like:
meeting new people and making friends
new technology
discussing topics from router configuration to politics to psychology
The requirement for Morse Code has been eliminated and the hobby has seen a significant surge in new licensees. In the last week, I have talked to new operators from age 11 to 30 something.
Morse Code will be with us for a long time because there are good reasons to keep it, but there are also new digital protocols which support simultaneous voice and data transmission and the combining of old and new such as connecting repeaters together using the Internet and VOIP.
This is a very dynamic and diverse hobby. The rumors of its demise are extremely exaggerated.