For as long as there has been radio, there have been people who wanted to do it themselves. These people were called "hams." The first question that pops into anyone's mind is "Why 'ham?' " There are several theories, but the one that makes the most sense is this:

"Long before the advent of radio communications, there were people who went from place to place entertaining, simply because they enjoyed it. Since they had little to invest in constumes or makeup, they made their own. Makeup was made from a base of ham fat, and so they were called hamfat actors. This monicker was later shortened to ham actors, and the name has stuck to this day. When radio came along, the term was passed on to those who improvised their own equipment from whatever they could scrounge, and managed to get on the air on a non-commercial basis. From that day to this, we have been known as hams." (exerpt from How to Be a Ham, 3rd edition by W. Edmund Hood, p.1)

Nowadays, hams usually don't make their own radios, but they do often make their own antennas. Hams operate on frequencies between the AM and FM broadcast bands, and on frequencies above FM broadcast up into the gigahertz! The lower frequencies, which are in the shortwave area, enable hams to talk to one another worldwide, while the upper frequencies, VHF and UHF, are great for local communication.

A note on VHF and UHF (which I use most often). Transmitting from one VHF radio to another has a range of somewhere around 25 miles, though it can be more. But if you use a repeater, which receives and re-transmits your signal, so you can talk to someone 50 to 80 miles away. And if many repeaters are linked up to create a network (like the WB2BQW system in CT, NY, PA, and NJ), you can talk to someone over a hundred miles away! If you use one of the several amateur radio satellites orbiting the earth, you can talk worldwide on VHF.

Not only do amateurs communicate by voice (called phone), but they also can communicate with Morse Code, and digital modes such as radio teletype, packet, PSK 31. The digital modes require computers to operate.

Ham radio is a good way to meet people, keep in touch with friends, or stay up-to-date on what all the members of the family are doing. But hams also have a community obligation in emergencies when telephone communication is down. Granted, these emergencies rarely seem to happen, but amateurs are familiarized with how to conduct communication in such cases on traffic nets. (A net is a group of hams on one frequency for a specific purpose.)

On a traffic net, amateurs pass messages, called traffic, from one station to another. So making its way from one net to another, a message can even travel cross-country to reach its destination! Hams are also the ones who report details of stormy weather, hurricanes and such, when Skywarn nets are activated by the National Weather Service. And to be familiar with these situations, there are weather nets where hams report in with local weather information. Hams also participate in other nets where they may just talk, make announcements, give tips and information, etc., and they also engage in other fun amateur radio activities like foxhunts, Field Day, and Kids' Day.

It's easy to become a ham! There is no age limit. All you have to do is study a book for a month, or take a ham radio class for two days, then take a test. If you pass, the FCC issues you a license and a call sign something like KB1FOB (my call sign). The airtime is free, and all you have to pay is $10 for the test, and $150 or more for a new hand-held radio or perhaps less for a used radio.

If you are interested in getting into ham radio, you can contact the American Radio Relay League (ARRL)

• by snail mail:

ARRL
225 Main Street
Newington, CT 06111-1494

• by phone: 1-800-32-NEW HAM (1-800-326-3942)
• by E-mail: newham@arrl.org
• on the web: www.arrl.org