Amateur Radio: Challenges and Advantages

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Ham radio operators can keep in touch with friends and family without the cost of phone bills. PHOTO:FOTOLIA/ NOEL MOORE

As a former amateur radio ticket holder, I'd like to comment on Copthorne Macdonald's article about using ham radio to keep in touch with like-minded people. And my comment will have to be, "Forget it." Cop, I think, glosses over the difficulties and inadequacies of this means of communication.

First, all the bands on which hams are allowed to operate are heavily overcrowded (were so already in the late 1950's when I was active). You may be involved in an interesting discussion, and all of a sudden — ZAP! — another amateur with a more powerful rig tunes in on your frequency and knocks out your transmission or prevents your copying the signal from the person you were talking to. This happens frequently. The more crowding, the more difficult it is for everyone to carry on a conversation, so you find yourself wanting bigger and bigger transmitters to outpower the next guy. (A never ending race for power ... sound familiar?)

"An advantage for country folks," says Cop, "is that they can operate during weekday daytimes when lots of people are working and crowding of the bands is minimized." What homesteader has time to sit inside and gab on the radio during the day?

All your problems, of course, don't come from other operators. Cop mentions being able to talk to the States (from New Zealand) with a walkie-talkie due to his signal's bouncing off the ionosphere. Great, but that helpful "skip" can suddenly disappear right in the middle of your nice conversation.

If you're just getting started with ham radio, you should also remember that you can't talk at all — with or without interruptions — for the first year or two. You're restricted to Morse code, which is a pain and takes time, patience and plenty of practice to learn.

One hassle Cop doesn't bring up is that your activities on the air may interfere with your neighbors' television reception. This is generally due to poor design and construction of their receivers, and is cured by installing a filter on the TV set. (Many hams build and fit these devices for the families around them, just for the sake of good will.) Even so, relations with the fellow next door can be rough when you try to convince him that it's his set and not your transmitter that's causing the problem.

And don't forget that you'll have to deal not only with your neighbors, but with the federal government, which has strict rules governing amateur radio. For instance, you'd better watch your language on the air, the FCC uses some pretty sophisticated gear to track down violators.

That same organization, of course, is the one that sets the licensing exam, which is a drag in itself. All the electronics and radio theory you'll have to study can get pretty boring and remote from the realities of life, and the whole business is a lot of trouble to go to when we've got institutions like MOTHER EARTH NEWS to keep us all in touch. Matter of fact, I'd like to see an article by Cop on the stone houses he saw and photographed in Peru.