4 ms·
A timely blog post for me: A close friend who is the same age as me (and an EE) has been trying to get me into Ham for over 10 years. I finally became intereste
by nipponese 6y ago
A timely blog post for me: A close friend who is the same age as me (and an EE) has been trying to get me into Ham for over 10 years. I finally became interested and bought a $25 radio (BaoFeng UV-5R) on Amazon ... only to learn that I couldn't talk to my friend on Day 0 because 1. he lives >20 mi away, 2. no line of sight and had to learn about repeaters, and 3. I have to learn technical and cultural nuance of Ham before being allowed to speak. The proposition value that Ham is not an "old IM client" and instead a toy for analog protocol nerds took a long time to understand.
Edit: added radio model, fixed price
- blnqr 6y agoI remember somebody saying Ham is just a bunch of grumpy old retired guys complaining about the government. Someone else said wait, we aren't all retired!
- jimhefferon 6y ago> 3. I have to learn technical and cultural nuance of Ham before being allowed to speak Could I ask what this item means? That you needed a license, or is it possible that the repeater somehow enforced a class?
- wycy 6y agoThere's no technical enforcement of this. I think this is just referring to the general conventions of the way people speak on ham radio, which is different.
- creeble 6y agoAnd varies widely. Our club/repeaters don't have any obvious "cultural" norms or rules. Announcing your call sign as required by FCC ham rules is about the only obvious rule.
- generalizations 6y ago> I have to learn technical and cultural nuance of Ham before being allowed to speak. That just sounds like HAM culture hasn't yet had their Eternal September - which could be a really good thing.
- Animats 6y agotoy for analog protocol nerds That's a great phrase.