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HAM RADIO

Ham Radio started with Marconi. All the present day wireless systems like radio, television, cell phones and other wireless communication methods are possible only because of his amateur experiment. Ham radio operator is a radio enthusiast who by virtue of his fascination towards wireless communication technology enables himself to establish his own two way radio station and communicate around the world for sheer joy, thrill and excitement involved in successfully establishing radio contacts around the world. Amateur Radio is a scientific hobby. Amateur Radio is popularly known as Ham Radio. You can establish your own radio station and talk to friends all over the world. Amateur Radio service means a service of self training communication and technical investigations carried on by amateurs, that is, persons duly authorised under these rules interested in radio techniques solely with a personal aim and without pecuniary interest. (According to the Indian Wireless Telegraph Rules 1978). The hobby can be as simple as talking on local-area repeaters with those in the same town, to building a satellite or experimenting with new forms of telecommunications. Ham Radio operators can talk to those on the other side of the earth with nothing more than a simple short wave transceiver ( transmitter + receiver) and a simple dipole antenna. Rules for the operation of an amateur radio station.

There are a few things that hams are not allowed to do: 1) Hams are not allowed to do anything with their radios that makes them money in way. Bummer. Ham radio is a hobby, but that doesn't mean it's completely frivoulous. (Read on!) 2) Ham radio operator cannot `broadcast' to the public. This means that ham radio transmissions are meant to be received by other ham radio operatators. While a short-wave radios or scanners will allow you to listen to the ham radio bands, what you will hear is hams talking to other hams and not music or other radio programs of `general' interest. Within these (and other) guidelines, however, hams are empowered to do just about everything that goverment and private radio stations are allowed to do. Things you can to do with amateur radio " Talk around the world - With HF radios hams can talk to other hams in literally any part of the globe. " Talk around town - With small portable VHF and UHF transceivers hams enjoy extremely reliable communications within their local community. " QRP - Communicating with "very low power" is a challange that many hams enjoy. QRP is usually practiced on the HF bands. " Packet radio - The internet over ham radio? Not really ... but ham radio operators enjoy a digital network of their own, all without wires! " Internation morse code - Forget it ... You can get a license without knowing one beep or boop of morse code. If you want to, though, it's still allowed. " Amateur television - It's just like real television because it is real television. " Slow Scan TV - Send pictures around the world for little or no cost. " Contests - You can put your radio operating skills up against other hams and teams of hams. " Order pizzas - It used to be a long standing joke around ham radio operators about what you can not do over ham radio ... Now it's perfectly legal! You can call you favorite pizzaria on your ham radio and order take-out dinner on the way home from work. Hopefully you'll use your radio less for calling your doctor, the police, emergeny road-side assistance, 911 and other telephone-linked services. " Emergency and other volunteer services - Floods, huricanes, mudslides, earthquakes, ice storms ... when ever `normal' communcations go out, hams are ready to use their radios to provide emergency communication services to their communites. " Satelite communications - Hams have their own satelites ... really! (Amateur's satelites are easy to use too. " Traffic handling - "Ham telegrams" are used to send messages to people around the world at no cost to the sender or the recipient; all done by ham radio operators volunteering their time and resorces.