2W1ETN

Amateur radio, often called ham radio, is both a hobby and a service in which participants, called “hams,” use various types of radio communications equipment to communicate with other radio amateurs for public service, recreation and self-training. Well that’s what it said on Wikipedia at any rate.

Amateur Radio is about more than just communicating. After all anyone can grab a copy of Skype, MSN Messenger or YIM and start chatting with new people. In my view the Internet has meant that people become Radio Amateurs for very different reasons than a large proportion did say pre 1998.

Despite the efforts of the governing bodies to reduce the technical standard and exam burden on new amateurs with the introduction of easier licensing requirements Amateur Radio as I see it has no choice and is already becoming more technical. The end goal may well remain the same for many Amateurs but today it’s not just about making contact its far more about how you make contact. Perhaps infact we are returning to far more original goals and objectives of experiments and developing new technology.

Amateur Radio in all reality started at the dawn of the 20th Centenary, with the 1920s the hobby developed into what we know today as Amateur Radio with the introduction of voice. Its directly through the efforts of Radio Amateurs that a lot of technology was developed and therefore made contributions to very differing industries.

Today we see Radio Amatuers from almost every country on world, the exception being the odd closed state. Women, Children and everything inbetween is welcome and can often be heard onair.

In many countries, amateur licensing is a routine civil administrative matter. Amateurs are required to pass an examination to demonstrate technical knowledge, operating competence and awareness of legal and regulatory requirements in order to avoid interference with other amateurs and other radio services.  Generally there are a series of exams available, each progressively more challenging and granting more privileges in terms of frequency availability, power output, permitted experimentation, and in some countries, distinctive callsigns. Here in the United Kingdom we have for some time began requiring a practical training course in addition to the written exams in order to obtain a beginner’s license, called a Foundation License.