Yes its one of the most diversified hobbies I can think of.  My sister and I
during high school taped a debate that was put on a local radio show about
a.m. vs. ssb hi hi.  And we've been traffic handlers for years.  So lots to
do in ham radio for sure.  


Barb K1EIR

-----Original Message-----
From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Ronald E. Milliman
Sent: Sunday, August 19, 2012 2:36 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: diversity of ham radio as a hobby

One of the really great things about ham radio as a hobby is its diversity.
 That is, there is something in it for everyone.  Over my 55 years in ham
radio, I have enjoyed at different times about every aspect of the hobby,
from Rag chewing on the 75 meter phone band, initially using a DX-40 on A-M,
to stepping up to SSB using a Central Labs 10A barefoot, to chasing DX on
all bands running QRP up to 1500 PEP with an Alpha linear, from HF to VHF
and operating field day and contests, Working All States and then, earning
the DXCC.  I have built several pieces of gear from scratch using my own
design to building kits from Heath Kit and Globe when they were still in
business marketing ham gear.  I especially enjoyed designing and building
all types of antennas.  It has been fun meeting people at hamfests that you
have QSO's with for a long time but never met in person.  I've burned my
fingers lots of times using the soldering gun while building equipment, and
you learn really fast that you can never have too much saliva on your
fingers when soldering connections.  I've had my share of failures, burned
up rigs, and antennas that I could never make resonate for some reason.
Speaking of math, I've found it necessary to use lots of math when designing
gear, figuring out the right values of parts that were needed for specific
tasks, and I have often used the Pythagorean Theorem to compute how high my
tower or the center of my antenna needed to be.  So, my point is that there
is something in it for everyone, and over time, you will probably do like I
have done and find different aspects of the hobby appealing to you at
different times of your life.  

My newest adventure is to figure out how to use Echolink and play around
with it.  Why?  Simply because it is just another aspect of the hobby to
check out.  No, it isn't ham radio in the traditional sense, but then, using
repeaters was very controversial when hams first started using them too
believe it or not.  When SideBand first showed up on the ham bands in the
form of double sideband, it was so controversial that it put the hobby into
a war, literally, a war between the -AM'ers and the sidebanders.
Double sideband didn't last very long because developers quickly figured out
how to filter out and suppress the unwanted sideband, either the upper
sideband or the lower sideband, depending on which band you were on.  There
has always been some sort of controversy; perhaps the most recent is the
debate over dropping the code requirements and in some ham's views, dummying
down the ham exams.  I'll have to admit to you that it was much more
challenging for me to take the General license exam back in 1958 when I had
to draw out all of the diagrams and schematics.  Since I couldn't see well
enough to draw them myself, it was even more challenging to try to describe
them to someone and have them draw them well enough so the FCC Examiner
could understand it.  To be perfectly honest with you, the Extra Class exam
that I took at the end of the 1990's was actually easier in many respects
than the General Class exam I took in 1958.  

I'm sharing all of this with you to encourage all of us to respect all the
different aspects of ham radio and the hams that enjoy all of these various
parts of the hobby.  I've heard some hams called "appliance operators," and
admittedly, I've used the term at times in the past, but some people just
don't have the interest in being ham techno-geeks like some of the rest of
us might be.  So, there is a place for all of us.

Ron, AC4HM