Seems that lately, my attention has been on interconnection, with specific regard towards being connected to each other through technology in some way or another. Most people that I’m around have some sort of cell phone, and a majority of those, a smart phone. I’ve been going a lot further than that.
Being a radio amateur gives me the privilege of playing with technologies a little bit more; such as creating extra strong WiFi networks over large areas, monitoring weather, to help give real time in-the-field observations to the National Weather Service, or playing with the raw materials, such as building antennas, all in hopes of making my radio ability and effectiveness better.
Being up on these skills means that, when we need it, I’m there to help establish radio communications, understand basically how they work, and perhaps even be able to help reestablish radio systems. With a general class amateur radio license, I have many frequencies, including high frequencies (HF), available for use, which essentially means that I can more easily communicate over short or “long” distances, such as state-to-state, region-to-region, or country-to-country.
With the first level of amateur radio license, the technician level, one has privilege to transmit on one HF band of radio, similar to the Citizens Band radio service, which is 10-meters in length. It has potential to travel long distances, such as from Ohio to Florida, or even further, to Costa Rica, during times of minimal and moderate solar activity, and has been known to take world paths, circling the globe due to extra good propagation conditions. It’s also good for local contacts, especially via ground wave propagation, where the radio signal travels from your antenna, usually vertically, along the terrain, and is received at the other station’s antenna. That’s how the common CB effectively works.
I’m hoping that I can encourage more people to become aware of the hobby and take advantage of it as a way to constructively relieve stress, learning a skill that can certainly be used towards helping the general good of man. We’re helping to experiment and advance wireless technologies.
To go further, check out my page for those who are New to Radio.