Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is a hobby where ordinary people communicate with one another using radio signals. Many sections of the radio spectrum, ranging from 1.8 MHz (160 meters) up to 241 GHz (1.2 milimeters) and beyond are allocated specifically for non-commercial use by licensed amateurs and defended jealously by an international alliance of hackers and geriatrics who would like to continue playing with their toys. Regulations vary from country to country, but are generally aligned to allow for international communication. In the United States, amateur radio operators are permitted to transmit using up to 1.5 kilowatts of power and there are no certification requirements for the equipment. This is 3000 times the amount of power used by a typical department store (FRS) walkie talkie, and 375 times the amount of power used by a legal, unmodified (lol) CB radio.

Radio communication is a broad discipline which contains a multitude of niches. Common forms of communication used by amateurs include 'continuous wave' pulses (used for Morse code), analog voice modulation (AM, Single Side Band, FM), and a plethora of digital modes including commercially developed systems like Motorola DMR, novel weak signal schemes like FT8, slow scan television, the Automatic Packet Reporting System, and many more.

The practical applications are just as varied, from casual ragchews, to organized check-ins, to RC aircraft and weather balloons, to people trying to collect QSO cards (confirmed 2-way contacts) like pokemon. VHF/UHF repeater networks are pretty common, with most amateur radio clubs operating one. These repeaters allow people with VHF/UHF radios to relay their signals off of radio towers / mountaintops and talk to people far beyond their line of sight. A handful of retired satellites have even been turned into UHF repeaters. Packet networks like APRS have pretty widespread coverage, and a handful of packet radio BBSes are still online. Weak signal HF communication has exploded in popularity over the years, while some opt for more esoteric challenges, like EME propagation.

On paper, frequency might seem like just a number, but the characteristics of radio propagation change drastically depending on the wavelength of the signal. For example, very high frequency (144 MHz / 2 meter) and above signals are typically only practical for line of sight communication, while high frequency (3.5 MHz / 80 meter through 28 MHz / 10 meter) signals are known to reflect off the ionosphere, reliably enabling intercontinental communication under the correct circumstances. This allows me to listen to Radio Havana Cuba from the NYC area on most nights.

There is a catch though. Transmitting powerful signals isn't as simple as turning a dial to an arbitrary frequency and clicking a microphone. The antenna system being used to produce the signal must resonate at that frequency. Whether the antenna is a whip, a dipole, a dish, or a yagi, it must be sized to a harmonic fraction of the wavelength being used. Otherwise, the antenna will reflect power back towards the transmitter instead of sending it out into the ether (this is bad). Once you understand this though, you can begin identifying the functional purpose of radio antennae just by looking at them. The length/diameter will tell you roughly what frequency it is designed to use, and the shape will indicate the shape of the radiation pattern. Likewise, radios themselves are specialized to operate within specific frequency ranges.

The demographics of the hobby generally lean towards boomers with disposable income, but not exclusively so. A $35 Baofeng is all it takes to start talking on local repeaters. None the less, the principles of radio communication are the bedrock foundation on which our modern technological society is built. Television and radio mass communication networks, cell phones and wireless internet, public service communication from air traffic to EMS to fire to pigs. Military operations, drones, signal intelligence, jamming. It all relies on radio, and it is a good idea for us to understand how these systems operate at a fundamental level. Amateur radio offers a pretty rich playground for us to investigate and experiment in this arena and develop skills in communication and intelligence gathering, which could potentially be applied towards pirate radio, mesh networking, and other not particularly legal forms of direct action.

Licensing exams are administered by volunteers, typically at a cost of $15, and the entire question pool is publicly available. It is possible to spend a couple days doing flashcards and take the test, then the license is good for 10 years with no other fees.

Finally, happy Cinco de Mayo. :meow-fiesta:


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    • crime [she/her, any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Great mega! I've been super curious about ham radio but never sat down to learn too much about it

      • PorkrollPosadist [he/him, they/them]
        hexagon
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        It's pretty neat. I don't transmit very much, but I have fun scanning the shortwave bands and seeing what the solar tides bring in. I also have my radio plugged into a software modem which allows me to do SSTV, FT8, and APRS (among other things). I strung up a 10 meter dipole in the attic running east to west. So it's basically blind east-west and picks up things from the north and south. On a good summer morning I can pick up chatter on the 20 meter band from Europe (over the north pole) and from Latin America. In the evenings, I can catch a lot of crank shortwave broadcast stations on the 49 meter band.

    • UlyssesT
      ·
      edit-2
      2 months ago

      deleted by creator

  • MF_BROOM [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    Earlier this week, I was walking around a local park and was stopped by a homeless man asking for help. As someone who grew up in a conservative family and whose parents always warned about the dangers of homeless people (and having that warning always reinforced on the news, i.e. you never hear about a "housed" man doing a crime but you always hear it in relation to a homeless person), my inclination even a few years ago probably would have been to shake my head no and be on my way, if not completely ignore him. But this time, because of how much my political views have shifted since the pandemic started, I stopped and asked him what was up, still a little unsure and uncomfortable at this point (I honestly get a little nervous whenever any stranger stops me lol).

    Turns out that yeah, this dude obviously needed some money (he said for busfare, but even if had been lying, I don't give a shit). So I gave him some cash and he was really grateful. He also couldn't stop talking and told me multiple tales from his lifetime, so I decided to keep being a good listener and interject every now and then, but letting him do most of the talking. At one point, he even started guessing my age, height, weight, and shoe size, which was really amusing (he nailed my height and weight too!). He even gave me a hug at one point and I reciprocated.

    By the end of the conversation, he reiterated he was really grateful for the cash but how he especially was appreciative of being willing to talk with him in the first place. He told me that he usually hangs around the park and I told him I would look for him next time. Anyways, the whole interaction filled me with warm, fuzzy feelings from knowing I was able to make someone's life a little better that day.

    In the future, I was just thinking of doing more of the same whenever I see, i.e. just keep giving him a few bucks here and there whenever I see him and stopping by to chitchat a little bit. Anyone have any advice, like if there might be a better way I can help him out?

  • CommieElon [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Everything in this country fucking sucks. From city design to American cars to zero social safety net to the individualistic culture. I hate it and it’s driving me mad watching it slowly erode away to something even worse.

    • Sinonatrix [comrade/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Sometimes I get so caught up with how much American is fucking awful that I forget it's getting worse all the time. Been thinking a lot lately how basically every facet of life is made vastly worse by car culture, and then abortion is about to be illegal again across half the country, cool

      • CommieElon [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Trying to think of the small union victories but even so union membership is still declining. We’re truly witnessing the slow death of an empire.

  • Kaputnik [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    The amount of times I've heard 12-14 year old students talk about crypto and NFTs is far too high. One of them told me they don't care about school cause they'll just buy an NFT and be rich :kermit-pain:

    • vertexarray [any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      in my day kids didn't care about school because of Halo, not because they'd been snookered by a cartoon ape that's also a speculative asset

      • PorkrollPosadist [he/him, they/them]
        hexagon
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        I almost didn't graduate because we had illicit Halo: CE and CS:S servers running on the high school network with 15-30 players at any given time. Turns out I needed an extra two credits in arts, so I spent an entire night composing mediocre jazz to make up the final exam project I blew off.

    • CTHlurker [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Make a montage video of different people on twitter talking about all their apes being gone. Like it really needs to be hammered home to younger people that Crypto and NFTs are just gambling where the other parties can cheat.

  • star_wraith [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    I was reminded tonight of how utterly frustrating it is to try and talk to most Americans about why the "gommunism killed 100 million people" thing is bullshit. They are just so convinced that communism obviously killed so many people. And that's why the US had to stop people from choosing it for themselves in places like Vietnam and Chile. And they will not be convinced otherwise despite never even reading one bit of history themselves about it. Same shit with everything in the Ukraine too.

    I swear to god, no people in human history have had a greater gap in "how much they actually know" and "how much they think they know" than US Americans. God damn this country.

  • viva_la_juche [they/them, any]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I wish from soft would put an easy mode in their next game if nothing else bc it would be extremely funny to see Gamers have a complete meltdown over it

  • GuyWTriangle [none/use name]
    ·
    3 years ago

    It's extremely funny Madison Cawthorn talked about DC orgies one (1) time and now every few days information about different reprehensible things he's done is "leaked" to the press

  • Sandinband
    ·
    3 years ago

    Job interview in 5 minutes, wish me luck!

  • OldMole [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I'm really bad with names, so sometimes when a youtuber does an ad for Raycon I think they are doing one for Raytheon and get a little angry. This has happened maybe 20 times.

  • DeathToBritain [she/her, they/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I swear to fucking god if you've not drank at least 3 litres of water by the end of the day, I'm gonna cyber bully you for your pathetic yellow piss

  • jabrd [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Everything’s so expensive and so shitty. Top dollar for things that come broken out of the box with Byzantine return requirements. This isn’t a real economy it’s a farce

  • OllieMendes [he/him,any]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I don't get invited to parties no more because I kept telling everyone, loudly, that Aggretsuko was pro-capitalist propaganda about a worker being told to accept their terrible pay and working conditions as some kind of act of nobility and to just give money to karaoke bars as a means of letting off their revolutionary potential energy. I wasn't even drinking or anything, I'm just really passionate about the politics of Sanrio characters.

    • 1van5 [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Evangelion rebuild vibes with office shinji