Beginners Guide to Ham Radio

What is Amateur Radio?

Amateur radio is a community of people that use radio transmitters and receivers to communicate with other Amateur radio operators. The things that amateur radio operators do with their radios are diverse as the people themselves.

Amateur radio operators are often called ham radio operators or simply "hams." (The origin of this nickname is for all practical purposes lost. Although some people still speculate about, few agree and even few care. Amateur radio operators proudly call themselves hams and nobody knows why.) There are about 600 thousand hams in the United States and about 5 thousand hams in the Finger Lakes region.

Ham radio operators are licensed by the United States Government and enjoy a far more priviledges of radio operation than "CB" radio operators do. With these priviledges come responisbilities and rules for the operation of an amateur radio station. Specifically, there are a few things that hams are not allowed to do:

1) Hams are not allowed to do anything with their radios that makes them money in way. Bummer. Ham radio is a hobby, but that doesn't mean it's completely frivoulous. (Read on!)

2) Ham radio operator cannot `broadcast' to the public. This means that ham radio transmissions are meant to be received by other ham radio operatators. While a short-wave radios or scanners will allow you to listen to the ham radio bands, what you will hear is hams talking to other hams and not music or other radio programs of `general' interest.

Within these (and other) guidelines, however, hams are empowered to do just about everything that goverment and private radio stations are allowed to do.

Things you can to do with amateur radio

• Talk around the world - With HF radios hams can talk to other hams in literally any part of the globe.
• Talk around town - With small portable VHF and UHF transceivers hams enjoy extremely reliable communications within their local community.
• QRP - Communicating with "very low power" is a challange that many hams enjoy. QRP is usually practiced on the HF bands.
• Packet radio - The internet over ham radio? Not really ... but ham radio operators enjoy a digital network of their own, all without wires!
• Internation morse code - Forget it ... You can get a license without knowing one beep or boop of morse code. If you want to, though, it's still allowed.
• Amateur television - It's just like real television because it is real television.
• Slow Scan TV - Send pictures around the world for little or no cost.
• Contests - You can put your radio operating skills up against other hams and teams of hams.
• Order pizzas - It used to be a long standing joke around ham radio operators about what you can not do over ham radio ... Now it's perfectly legal! You can call you favorite pizzaria on your ham radio and order take-out dinner on the way home from work. Hopefully you'll use your radio less for calling your doctor, the police, emergeny road-side assistance, 911 and other telephone-linked services.
• Emergency and other volunteer services - Floods, huricanes, mudslides, earthquakes, ice storms ... when ever `normal' communcations go out, hams are ready to use their radios to provide emergency communication services to their communites.
• Satelite communications - Hams have their own satelites ... really! (Amateur's satelites are easy to use too.
• Traffic handling - "Ham telegrams" are used to send messages to people around the world at no cost to the sender or the recipient; all done by ham radio operators volunteering their time and resorces.

How to become an amateur radio operator

Does Ham Radio (aka Amateur Radio) sound like something you would like to do as a hobby? Still not sure? There are so many things to do in Amateur Radio. Hams enjoy everything from talking around the world using shortwave frequencies to chatting it up with astronauts in the International Space Station! You can spend as little as $50 dollars for your station all the way up to tens of thousands of dollars. There are several easy ways of getting in on the action. One way is to buy ARRL's "Now You're Talking" book priced at $19. Or, you can go the route of Gordon West by paying $12 for his Technician Class study manual. Study materials can be purchased at Radioshack and Ham Radio Outlet stores.

There are a number of sites that have online practice tests. They will simulate real question pools and, at the end, they will grade it and provide you with a score. Here are some links to sites that have practice tests (be sure to select "Technician Class").: