To disambiguate the lack of understanding
of other contributors ...

Q. What is Ham Radio?

A. Ham Radio is a technical pursuit for those who
are interested in the science of radio wave
propagation and who are also interested in the
way that their radios function. It has a long-standing
tradition of providing a source of engineers who
are born naturals.

Ham Radio awakens in its aficionados a whole-life
fascination with all things technical and gives
an all-abiding curiosity to improve one's scientific
knowledge. It's a great swimming pool, please dive in!

This excitement causes a wish to share the experience
with ones fellow man, and shows itself in the
gentlemanly traditions of Ham Radio.

Radio Hams are in a unique privileged position in that
they can construct and operate their own equipment! No-one
else has this privilege. Users, such as broadcasters,
the po lice and armed farces, CBers and mobile phone
users have to purchase ready-made gear. Manufacturers
are not licensed to operate their gear. Radio Hams
are qualified to design, build and then
operate their own pieces of equipment. They do this
with gusto, and also repair and modify their own
equipment. This is a privilege well worth the effort
to gain, and one to be jealously guarded.

The excitement that drives a Radio Ham starts with
relatively simple technologies at first, perhaps making
his own Wimshurst machine and primary cells. Small pieces
of test equipment follow, possibly multimeters and signal
generators. Then comes receivers and transmitters. It is with
the latter that communication with like-minded technically
motivated people takes off. The scope for technical
development grows with the years and now encompasses DSP
and DDS. There is also a great deal
of excitement in the areas of computer programming to
be learnt and applied.

The technical excitement motivates Radio Hams to compete
with each other to determine who has designed and manufactured
the best-quality station. This competitiveness is found in DXing,
competitions and fox-hunts.

-----ooooo----

However, beware! A Ham Radio licence is such a
desirable thing to have that there are large
numbers of people who wish to be thought of
as Radio Hams when, in fact, they are nothing
of the kind! Usually such people are a
variation of the CB Radio hobbyist; they buy their
radios off the shelf and send them back to be
repaired; they are not interested in technical discussion
and sneer at those who are; they have no idea how
their radios work inside and have no wish to find out;
they are free with rather silly personal insults.


-----ooooo-----

One infallible way to disambiguate the CB Radio Hobbyist
from the _REAL_ Radio Ham is to solicit their view of the
difference between CB Radio and Ham Radio. A Radio Ham will
perceive Ham Radio to be a technical pursuit and will
perceive CB Radio to be a social communications facility
no different in essence to a land-line telephone or a
GSM mobile in the hands of a 6-year-old. Thus a Radio Ham
could also use a CB set safe in the knowledge that
such use says no more about him than having a land-line
telephone, whilst continuing to regard Ham Radio as a separate
technical pursuit.

A CB Radio hobbyist, on the other hand, sees no difference between
Ham Radio and CB Radio. To him, they are
sisters-under-the-skin. Wrongly, the CB Radio Hobbyist then
tries to classify himself as the equal of the Radio
Ham when, in fact, he is nothing of the kind.

Ham Radio is not CB Radio and has no common ground with it!
Ham Radio is _THE_ technical pursuit for gentlemen; CB Radio
is the name for the operating hobby for those who buy their
rigs and equipment off the shelf.

-----ooooo-----

If you are the sort of person who is motivated by
a technical interest in how things work; if you took apart
malfunctioning clocks, toasters and the like and put them
right despite never having seen them working, then
a Ham Radio licence is your traditional route! There has
never been a shortage of such people, and those who gravitate
towards such an interest have always been welcomed into
our shacks and their interests fostered. There is not today,
nor has there ever been, a need to go out and encourage
and press children, children who have never expressed an
interest in Ham Radio, to come into our shacks. Such an
activity should cause eyebrows to be raised - what
normal well-adjusted adults seek the social acquaintance
of children?!

-----ooooo-----

Please remember that this FAQ is a _POSITIVE EXHORTATION_
to you to exert yourselves to join our fraternity!

On Wed, 29 Jan 2020 10:41:51 +0000, Gareth Evans
wrote:

To disambiguate the lack of understanding
of other contributors ...

Q. What is Ham Radio?

A. Ham Radio is a technical pursuit for those who
are interested in the science of radio wave
propagation and who are also interested in the
way that their radios function.

snip

That may well have been the original case but as / when all the old
geezers die, the bands will be re-allocated to things that more people
will make use of and it (or most of it) will die along with them.

I took my G7 licence to be able to set up a 2m then 70cm packet radio
station / node (into GB7HSN) and did so as a form of (mostly free)
communication with my older RA (mostly G4) friends. As soon as I had
reasonably priced access to the Internet, I turned my packet station
off (Kantronics KPC3 TNC and a modded Icom IC-453 ex PMR rig).

About the only time I ever used voice was to talk to the Mrs (G7ICX)
on her FT23R when she was in hospital with our newborn child (easier
for her than getting to the payphone).

It was good in it's day ... like AM CB. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

On Wednesday, 29 January 2020 10:41:57 UTC, Gareth Evans wrote:
To disambiguate the lack of understanding
of other contributors ...

Q. What is Ham Radio?

can vegans use it ;-)

On 29/01/2020 13:31, whisky-dave wrote:
On Wednesday, 29 January 2020 10:41:57 UTC, Gareth Evans wrote:
To disambiguate the lack of understanding
of other contributors ...

Q. What is Ham Radio?

can vegans use it ;-)



There's no elitism, all are welcome to apply
themselves and become one of us by achieving
what is now a Full Licence.

(Oh! Just realised your humour!)

A very blinkered and single minded view and almost insulting to many people
I'd suggest.
Listen on any weekend and you find those with and without technical
knowledge 'rag chewing' and putting the world to rights and engaging in
banter. AS I said before when you suggested foundation licences were just
glorified cbers, the church is wide enough to encompass many. When I could
see, I did play with electronics, but have never really wanted to transmit,
but do enjoy seeing what is receivable here in my home.
This is why I'm so outspoken on the RF problems in wall warts, plug in
internet over the mains adaptors and other naff equipment like fast internet
over telephone wires and some TVs. I am not just interested in the ham
bands. I have a problem with career competition hams who are never heard
the rest of the time and who are gentlemanly as an alligator.
The RF spectrum could easily be kept relatively clean for use, but profit
cheapness and expediency has stopped this from happening.
So don't get on this holier than thou crap here. This is not a ham radio
group or a short wave listener group but a diy group and as such I do bang
on about things people buy and fit that cause reception issues to non
local services.
bah humbug
Brian

--
----- --
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"Gareth Evans" wrote in message
...
To disambiguate the lack of understanding
of other contributors ...

Q. What is Ham Radio?

A. Ham Radio is a technical pursuit for those who
are interested in the science of radio wave
propagation and who are also interested in the
way that their radios function. It has a long-standing
tradition of providing a source of engineers who
are born naturals.

Ham Radio awakens in its aficionados a whole-life
fascination with all things technical and gives
an all-abiding curiosity to improve one's scientific
knowledge. It's a great swimming pool, please dive in!

This excitement causes a wish to share the experience
with ones fellow man, and shows itself in the
gentlemanly traditions of Ham Radio.

Radio Hams are in a unique privileged position in that
they can construct and operate their own equipment! No-one
else has this privilege. Users, such as broadcasters,
the po lice and armed farces, CBers and mobile phone
users have to purchase ready-made gear. Manufacturers
are not licensed to operate their gear. Radio Hams
are qualified to design, build and then
operate their own pieces of equipment. They do this
with gusto, and also repair and modify their own
equipment. This is a privilege well worth the effort
to gain, and one to be jealously guarded.

The excitement that drives a Radio Ham starts with
relatively simple technologies at first, perhaps making
his own Wimshurst machine and primary cells. Small pieces
of test equipment follow, possibly multimeters and signal
generators. Then comes receivers and transmitters. It is with
the latter that communication with like-minded technically
motivated people takes off. The scope for technical
development grows with the years and now encompasses DSP
and DDS. There is also a great deal
of excitement in the areas of computer programming to
be learnt and applied.

The technical excitement motivates Radio Hams to compete
with each other to determine who has designed and manufactured
the best-quality station. This competitiveness is found in DXing,
competitions and fox-hunts.

-----ooooo----

However, beware! A Ham Radio licence is such a
desirable thing to have that there are large
numbers of people who wish to be thought of
as Radio Hams when, in fact, they are nothing
of the kind! Usually such people are a
variation of the CB Radio hobbyist; they buy their
radios off the shelf and send them back to be
repaired; they are not interested in technical discussion
and sneer at those who are; they have no idea how
their radios work inside and have no wish to find out;
they are free with rather silly personal insults.


-----ooooo-----

One infallible way to disambiguate the CB Radio Hobbyist
from the _REAL_ Radio Ham is to solicit their view of the
difference between CB Radio and Ham Radio. A Radio Ham will
perceive Ham Radio to be a technical pursuit and will
perceive CB Radio to be a social communications facility
no different in essence to a land-line telephone or a
GSM mobile in the hands of a 6-year-old. Thus a Radio Ham
could also use a CB set safe in the knowledge that
such use says no more about him than having a land-line
telephone, whilst continuing to regard Ham Radio as a separate
technical pursuit.

A CB Radio hobbyist, on the other hand, sees no difference between
Ham Radio and CB Radio. To him, they are
sisters-under-the-skin. Wrongly, the CB Radio Hobbyist then
tries to classify himself as the equal of the Radio
Ham when, in fact, he is nothing of the kind.

Ham Radio is not CB Radio and has no common ground with it!
Ham Radio is _THE_ technical pursuit for gentlemen; CB Radio
is the name for the operating hobby for those who buy their
rigs and equipment off the shelf.

-----ooooo-----

If you are the sort of person who is motivated by
a technical interest in how things work; if you took apart
malfunctioning clocks, toasters and the like and put them
right despite never having seen them working, then
a Ham Radio licence is your traditional route! There has
never been a shortage of such people, and those who gravitate
towards such an interest have always been welcomed into
our shacks and their interests fostered. There is not today,
nor has there ever been, a need to go out and encourage
and press children, children who have never expressed an
interest in Ham Radio, to come into our shacks. Such an
activity should cause eyebrows to be raised - what
normal well-adjusted adults seek the social acquaintance
of children?!

-----ooooo-----

Please remember that this FAQ is a _POSITIVE EXHORTATION_
to you to exert yourselves to join our fraternity!

On 30/01/2020 08:48, Brian Gaff (Sofa 2) wrote:
A very blinkered and single minded view and almost insulting to many people
I'd suggest.

There's nothing insulting to encourage others to study to achieve a
qualification. After all, the requisite level,
somewhere between an 'O' and an 'A' level is reached by
many children and I am sure that no grwon up sees himself
as lower than children.

Indeed, in the days of the former RAE, otherwise-unqualified
self-taught 14-year-olds passed both that examination and
the 12 WPM Morse test with ease.

On Thu, 30 Jan 2020 11:18:28 +0000, Gareth Evans
wrote:

On 30/01/2020 08:48, Brian Gaff (Sofa 2) wrote:
A very blinkered and single minded view and almost insulting to many people
I'd suggest.

There's nothing insulting to encourage others to study to achieve a
qualification.

It was the "M Fools' Licence scheme" you were insulting.

snip

Indeed, in the days of the former RAE, otherwise-unqualified
self-taught 14-year-olds passed both that examination and
the 12 WPM Morse test with ease.

And they also built go-carts, would actually cycle to places (rather
than round in circles) on a bike they rebuilt themselves and do lots
of practical / hands-on things that the 'kid's today' aren't
interested in or have the opportunity to become interested in [1][2].

Cheers, T i m

[1] Years ago, most houses had a shed, some had a reasonable selection
of tools in that shed and a Dad (typically) who would tinker / repair
stuff in the shed or garage (when the car wasn't in there) / workshop.

We had a fairly well equipped (wood, mainly) workshop so I was able to
explore hand tools and hence building / repairing things because I was
expected to assist my Dad doing things where he needed and extra pair
of hands (sitting on sheets of ply whilst he cut them with a panel saw
or getting into confined spaces to fiberglass stuff in a boat ...), I
was able to learn how such tools might be used, treated and maintained
and how to use them.

Renovating my own cycle (found in a ditch, handed to the Police,
collected 6 weeks later) led me onto vehicles and at 16 had my first
car, had stripped and rebuilt the (seized) engine and repaired /
rebuilt many mopeds, scooters and motorcycles (most of which became my
daily transport).

Few of my mates had such opportunities and so never gained the
practical skills I did.

eg. I was the only one of us to ask for an RC boat for Xmas (at 14)
and be given a plywood kit, an RC radio kit and be expected to get on
with it on my own? Probably what spurred me to built a 6' dinghy at
woodwork at school. ;-)

[2] No mentor.

On 29/01/2020 15:44, Gareth Evans wrote:
On 29/01/2020 13:31, whisky-dave wrote:
On Wednesday, 29 January 2020 10:41:57 UTC, Gareth EvansÂ* wrote:
To disambiguate the lack of understanding
of other contributors ...

Q. What is Ham Radio?

can vegans use it ;-)



There's no elitism, all are welcome to apply
themselves and become one of us by achieving
what is now a Full Licence.

(Oh!Â* Just realised your humour!)

Are you saying that you are not elitist, but one can only consider
yourself a ham if you have a full licence?

On Thursday, 30 January 2020 15:11:00 UTC, Grumps wrote:
On 29/01/2020 15:44, Gareth Evans wrote:
On 29/01/2020 13:31, whisky-dave wrote:
On Wednesday, 29 January 2020 10:41:57 UTC, Gareth EvansÂ* wrote:
To disambiguate the lack of understanding
of other contributors ...

Q. What is Ham Radio?

can vegans use it ;-)



There's no elitism, all are welcome to apply
themselves and become one of us by achieving
what is now a Full Licence.

(Oh!Â* Just realised your humour!)

Are you saying that you are not elitist, but one can only consider
yourself a ham if you have a full licence?

You can consider yourself to be anything you want, it's the way other see you that is important.

Some on here think I'm a lecturer, I've never claimed to be one ,I've had studetns here call me a dr. and a professor.

You might think you are an engineer but you aren't unless you have passed
the necessary course.

Brian Gaff (Sofa 2) was thinking very hard :
A very blinkered and single minded view and almost insulting to many people
I'd suggest.
Listen on any weekend and you find those with and without technical
knowledge 'rag chewing' and putting the world to rights and engaging in
banter. AS I said before when you suggested foundation licences were just
glorified cbers, the church is wide enough to encompass many. When I could
see, I did play with electronics, but have never really wanted to transmit,
but do enjoy seeing what is receivable here in my home.
This is why I'm so outspoken on the RF problems in wall warts, plug in
internet over the mains adaptors and other naff equipment like fast internet
over telephone wires and some TVs. I am not just interested in the ham bands.
I have a problem with career competition hams who are never heard the rest
of the time and who are gentlemanly as an alligator.
The RF spectrum could easily be kept relatively clean for use, but profit
cheapness and expediency has stopped this from happening.
So don't get on this holier than thou crap here. This is not a ham radio
group or a short wave listener group but a diy group and as such I do bang on
about things people buy and fit that cause reception issues to non local
services.
bah humbug

Well said Brian, I gave up arguing with him many years ago - he is
beyond all help..

On 30/01/2020 18:49, Harry Bloomfield wrote:

Well said Brian, I gave up arguing with him many years ago - he is
beyond all help..

Were you to grow up then you would know that disagreement is no
excuse for offensive personal remarks.

BTW, I do not need help to remain in the right.

On Thu, 30 Jan 2020 19:10:19 +0000
Gareth Evans wrote:

On 30/01/2020 18:49, Harry Bloomfield wrote:

Well said Brian, I gave up arguing with him many years ago - he is
beyond all help..

Were you to grow up then you would know that disagreement is no
excuse for offensive personal remarks.

BTW, I do not need help to remain in the ****.



Quite so, Gareth, quite so.