What is Amateur Radio?
Here is an extract from >The ARRL Handbook 2000< (1999 ARRL; ISBN 0-87259-183-2):
People who pursue the hobby of using a personal radio station to communicate, purely for non-commercial purposes, with other radio hobbyists call it ham radio or Amateur Radio. They call themselves Amateur Radio operators, ham radio operators or just plain „hams“.
You already know a little about the hobby – hams communicate with other hams, around the block, on a distant continent – or from an orbiting space station! Some talk via computers, others prefer to use regular voice communications and still others enjoy using one of the oldest forms of radio communication – Morse code. Some hams help save people’s lives by handling emergency communications following a natural disaster or other emergency. Some become close friends with the people they talk to on the other side of the globe – then make it a point to meet one or more of them in person. Some can take a bag full of electrical parts and turn it into a station accessory that improves their station’s reception of distant radio signals.
Are you interested now? So visit the website of the DARC, perhaps you’ll find there a link to your regional or national club.
I am licensed since March 22nd, 2000 and have the callsign DF6FR. My main interest is telegraphy (CW), also some high speed, homebrewing of accessories as well as operation with low power (QRP) and Contesting. I am member of DARC, AGCW-DL, as QRPer of DL-QRP-AG and also of the CTC (Croatian Telegraphy Club) and the RRDXA (Rhein-Ruhr DX Association).
