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I'm a regular on HF and I've found the community to be welcoming and I've learned a lot from people with half a lifetime more experience than I have. Retired do

I'm a regular on HF and I've found the community to be welcoming and I've learned a lot from people with half a lifetime more experience than I have. Retired doctors, aerospace engineers and other interesting fields. There are many younger contesters who move very quickly and just work to make contacts. Bad actors? There are a handful, but FCC has taken enforcement action against several. https://www.fcc.gov/general/amateur-radio-service-enforcement-actions https://www.fcc.gov/general/amateur-radio-service-enforcemen... Weak signal modes have been around for a while. And voice is a different part of the spectrum.

AWildC182 8y ago
You're definitely right that there are a lot of really cool people out there. I had a similar experience joining an EAA chapter to discover that a whole bunch of them had worked on Hubble. That said, the FCC in my experience has been pretty lax about policing the amateur bands. You can go to any online SDR and tune around to find obnoxious, toxic, and illegal behavior within minutes. I've also found that if you're lucky enough to find someone under 50 on the airwaves, there's a >25% chance they're a crazy prepper.
- tormeh 8y ago
  > You can go to any online SDR and tune around to find obnoxious, toxic, and illegal behavior within minutes Ah, so 4chan for old people.
  - AWildC182 8y ago
    This...is strangely accurate. Minus the anonymity since some of them will still ID with their callsign which links to a public database with their name and address.