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Hello, my name is
Martin, I have been a licensed radio ham since
1977 and am a keen radio enthusiast, I currently
operate on most of the ham radio bands HF 160 to
30mhz, 6m, 2m and 70cm plus I am also active on
the echolink system and the hamsphere virtual ham
radio system.
What is Ham Radio or
(Amateur Radio) as it's also known. Firstly it is
a hobby enjoyed by thousands of people worldwide,
it is described by many organisations as a means
of self-training in radio communication, but today
Ham Radio has many uses including emergency and
disaster communication where normal lines of
communication have failed, and in countries
such as the US for example where severe weather
systems have in the past caused devastation
bringing down power lines and causing severe
flooding, Ham Radio is taken very seriously and is
very much appreciated by first responder services,
as it is in some areas of the uk, but these are
not everyday occurrences thank goodness and radio
hams don't sit around waiting for some disaster or
other to happen, some radio hams also use mobile
radio equipment to provide communications on
events such as marathons and endurance horse rides
etc, but for most operators ham radio is used as a
means to make new friends all over the world, with
high power transmitters and elaborate antenna
systems radio hams work other stations from many
countries
Where does Ham
Radio have its roots and where did it start, ham
radio goes back to the very beginning of
radio as we know it, it can be traced back to the
19th century See Wikipedia ,some of
the early experimenters and pioneers of radio were
described as amateurs. As late as the 1960's and
70's operators built their own transmitters and
receiver's from either kits or parts from the junk
box of old radios or used PMR radios
retuned to work on the Ham bands. It was also
around this time that the first serious purpose
built ham radio equipment appeared (Black Boxes)
as we called them mostly built overseas they
offered the radio ham that didn't want to spend
hours sweating over a hot soldering iron an
easy option to get on air quickly.
Today this equipment
is highly sophisticated and costs hundreds even
thousands of pounds to buy, but offers the ham
radio operator a very professional approach to the
hobby. |
