Quote:
Originally Posted by sclitheroe
HAM radio operators, I think, are largely in it for two reasons - one, they are the biggest gear hounds you have ever met, always building and tweaking their radios and antenna's. They are also skilled in setting up and operating radio networks, both voice and packet data, and are quite useful in times of natural or man made disaster. So they fill a civic duty role sort of like reserves - they would be called upon in an emergency to assist with radio broadcast for civilians and for emergency personnel. Then there's the social aspect, although I personally don't see the appeal, I imagine a lot of friendships are maintained over the airwaves much like IM for the net generation.
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What he said. A lot of existing HAM radio folk do it because it's a hobby... to reach further and further, while using your own equipment. Not very many people have their basement full of equipment however. It's really hard to explain why people do it regarding the social aspect of things. The same can be said about calgarypuck and other messageboards though. Why do people communicate with others on the net? HAM radio and others like SW allow people to have that same communication, but with voice.
Also, I think some people are in it because they have to. For some it's part of another hobby (say Falconry to be able to use the locater transmitters) or even remote tv/audio signals. For others though, they may feel a duty to help the public through disasters or other things. HAM is useful in quite a few places that cell phones are not, so they are great to have say if backcountry hiking or atv'ing. I'm looking at getting mine soon as it would allow me to immediately send storm reports to people who matter, so warnings could be sent sooner. I figured if I'm already chasing the storm and a HAM license is free, why not? I just have to buy a radio for about $300 and if that maybe saves someone life, then it'll pay for itself immediately.
In the end, there is a lot of uses for HAM radio that most are unaware of.