lunkie Messages: 14 Registered: January 2010 Location: Michigan
Chancellor
Ham radio, aka amateur radio. If you've ever listen to amateur radio operators talk on the HF bands than you'll know where the term "ham radio" comes from. Licensing is required. I had my novice license but it expired before I could renew. I have plenty of friends that are "hams" but I was never as interested in it as them.
I had a Technician license couple of decades ago, then I let it run out. I didn't go on the air much, I was mostly into building (and tearing down) gears.
I just started to think about taking the exam and get licensed again. Would love to get my hands on old Collins and Drake tube gears that I used to dream about owning way back when.
Is regular radio equipment enough for operating ham radio, or do you need specialized hardware? I imagine it must be difficult to get your hands on the hardware nowadays, since radio sets as we knew them are pretty much gone.
I do have a couple of friends who do radio shows. I didn't really know what was involved. They have some pretty technical equipment, but I never really have seen them in action, only listened in a few times.
gofar99 Messages: 1949 Registered: May 2010 Location: Southern Arizona
Illuminati (5th Degree)
Hi, I was one for many years. Rather neat at the time to be able to contact folks on a world wide basis. Back then you could either buy or build your gear. I bought the receivers and built the transmitters. Now you can still do it, but I suspect the components to build your own stuff might be difficult to obtain. Ham radio was restricted to certain bands and frequencies. At the time it was fairly easy to get a license. Now I have no idea what is available.