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You probably already know this, but for the information for anyone else interested in becoming a Ham, you don't need to learn Morse to get an amateur radio lice
by Johnny555 7y ago
You probably already know this, but for the information for anyone else interested in becoming a Ham, you don't need to learn Morse to get an amateur radio license - that requirement was dropped in 2007.
In all of the disaster drills or other ham volunteer events I've participated in (like providing radio support for a race in an area with little cell phone coverage), Morse was not even a part of it -- it was all VHF/UHF voice communication.
That's not to say that morse is useless or completely unused, but don't feel that you have to learn it to become a ham.
- missosoup 7y agoAlso there are morse modem apps you can get on the smartphone and just put it next to your radio. It's a non-issue these days.
- HenryKissinger 7y agoI don't really care if it's not a formal requirement. At least I can flex on my friends :)
- melling 7y agoI think Morse code was dropped in the 1990s. I got a license without Morse code back then. Never really use it though. I always thought packet radio might be interesting, but no one in my local group was interested. Did it ever become popular.
- loeg 7y agoPacket radio doesn't allow encryption so its utility for most applications is pretty limited.
- testis321 7y agoNeither does hackernews* (the threads are readable by the public). *yes, yes, https, username, passwords... i know.. but you write a block of text, post it, and it's shown here... no encryption needed for that.
- jeffdavis 7y agoWhat did you want to do with packet radio? That's probably somewhat of a special interest since it requires a smart device.
- samplatt 7y agoPacket radio doesn't support encryption to any meaningful specification, and also is intolerably low-bandwidth for any real-world applications outside things like instrument telemetry.