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I was originally licensed when I was 12, and was active on HF, but slowed down in college a bit. A few years ago I got back into it and it's been incredibly fu

I was originally licensed when I was 12, and was active on HF, but slowed down in college a bit. A few years ago I got back into it and it's been incredibly fun. There is so much exciting stuff going on. My current "maker" interest in ham radio is designing a distributed SDR system using FPGAs. I'm still a ways out from a prototype, but the chips keep getting better. I do a fair bit of HF contesting and CW as well. When I was first licensed I had to take three separate CW proficiency exams, but these days it's no longer a requirement. The beauty of CW is the simplicity of it and the way it's a highly effective weak-signal mode. I strongly encourage anyone with an interest to dig deeper. It is a very broad hobby and so you might find an entire club doing things that you have no interest in, but keep trying, as there are so many highly active niche areas to choose from. There is also (thanks to the maker movement) a tremendous amount of great learning material about electronics. W2AEW has a superb youtube channel, and 4Z1UG has a great podcast for anyone getting into it (though he's currently interviewing the older people to capture their stories while they are still around).

criddell 11y ago
I tried to get my kids into amateur radio and failed miserably. When I described being able to wirelessly talk to people around the world they pointed out that they already do this - on their phones. The only thing I could come up with that they didn't instantly shoot down is being able to communicate in the event of an emergency when the cell system is down. It didn't really resonate with them.
- wrash 11y ago
  I think my inspiration for writing the story on the maker movement and ham radio was my daughter, who decided to get her ham license when she was 8. Since then she's become deeply involved in the maker movement and wearable electronics. These days she's an engineer. But what really motivated her wasn't the fact that she can talk to people around the world, but rather that ham radio is the only way she can build the gear that she wants to build. You can't do that with your cell phone or a WiFi router unless you have the right license.

criddell 11y ago

I tried to get my kids into amateur radio and failed miserably. When I described being able to wirelessly talk to people around the world they pointed out that they already do this - on their phones. The only thing I could come up with that they didn't instantly shoot down is being able to communicate in the event of an emergency when the cell system is down. It didn't really resonate with them.

wrash 11y ago
I think my inspiration for writing the story on the maker movement and ham radio was my daughter, who decided to get her ham license when she was 8. Since then she's become deeply involved in the maker movement and wearable electronics. These days she's an engineer. But what really motivated her wasn't the fact that she can talk to people around the world, but rather that ham radio is the only way she can build the gear that she wants to build. You can't do that with your cell phone or a WiFi router unless you have the right license.