CompuServe Messages

Jacquie – Ham radio is a fascinating hobie. It is actually like having a whole bunch of hobbies rolled into one package. Hams do everything from just talking across town from their cars to talking around the world (your friend with the 70 foot antenna 🙂 ) to running BBS on the radio to running personal color television stations. Hams often provide the only reliable communications to and from disaster areas, like the SF earthquake last year or Hurricane Hugo, until normal communications (phone lines, etc.) are reestablished. We have an armchair seat into history, since Ham operators are often the last people on the air when revolutions or wars occur. King Hussein, of Jordan, is a Ham, as are Barry Goldwater, Arthur Godfrey, and a whole slew of other famous folks. Communicating with non-English speakers is quite possible. English, though often halting, is somewhat a Lingua Franca in radio. We also use a whole series of internationally accepted operating signals, which convey a surprising amount of information. Voice communications are probably the biggest piece of the Ham world, but we also use teletype, Morse code, television, and we've even had FAX for at least 40 years before it became common in the office place. Enough of the commercial! 🙂 If you want to learn more, contact your local Amateur Radio club. They can answer all your questions, and take the time to do it right, and even set up a study course and administer the testing if you decide to become a Ham yourself. I can't imaging your radio show being bad. We often are too hard on ourselves, and criticize small mistakes that most people don't even notice. I'm sure your show was quite good. The fact that it lasted 12 weeks is a good indication of that. Bill, K3OZM