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Ham radio is not that hobby. For example, broadcasting is not allowed, one person-to-person comms. Subverting censorship? Not really. There's no cussing on the
by 0xEF 2y ago
Ham radio is not that hobby. For example, broadcasting is not allowed, one person-to-person comms. Subverting censorship? Not really. There's no cussing on the air, English only, make your contact to deliver info and move on. Maybe you get a rag chew on a local repeater, but that conversation will be about housework or health problems. Nobody is subverting anything in ham radio, though some of the tacticoolies might pretend they are.
Now, do you want a hobby that lets you explore the physics of antennas, how our atmosphere actually works, build your own experimental low power QRP rig just to see how far you can throw a CW(Morse) signal with a tiny bit of juice, or maybe help set up comms for local events or emergencies? Yes, ham radio is that hobby.
- wkat4242 2y agoEnglish only? Not in Europe, everyone speaks their local language. Callsigns are generally spelled using the nato Alphabet though.
- 0xEF 2y agoThat's not in keeping with my experience, even ignoring the fact that I am in North America. I've made hundreds of contacts in the EU during contests and only English was used. Do they perhaps use their native languages on local repeaters? If that is the case, I would not hear it since contesting is done on HF.
- wkat4242 2y agoAh ok yes I'm never on HF. On HF it's more English only due to the many languages here in Europe. Especially during contests of course. However people do have local chats and ragchews in the local language. It's more the contests that are English only (but that doesn't go any further than "59 good copy. Next."). Which is why I hate contesting, I find It so boring that nobody has time to speak. I have no drive to be a "winner" so I never care about the number of contacts. In fact most people in the ham demographic here would speak very limited English anyway due to not learning it at school in their days.