Well, today is the IARU's World Amateur Day and this day has somewhat special meaning for me. It was today, five years ago, that I was sitting in my office working on a frustrating wireless networking problem.
My problem was a wall. I was trying to get a robust enough wireless signal into the next room to support streaming video but it just wouldn't go through this particular wall and I wanted to know why and it was driving me crazy. So I took a break and started reading a popular IT website known as Slashdot. It had a story about World Amateur Day and amateur radio. It was then that my mind drifted to nearly twenty-five years in the past to my late grandfather who was a ham. I had always been curious about the stuff he did. While ham radio didn't click with me then -- I had been exposed to computers and modems and BBSes and that is what took with me -- it still planted a seed. Sitting in my office that day with my desk covered in wireless access points, I remember that my grandfather seemed to understand radios and antennas, which is exactly the knowledge I was needing. So I started Googling...discovered this thing called the ARRL and in two weeks had my Technician's license. It's been a wild ride ever since. For me, the fun of amateur radio is in manipulating the invisible. It is always a great thrill to tap some buttons, turn some dials, cause a TX light to illuminate, and effect change hundreds or thousands of miles away with energy that is barely there at all (and, have someone do the same in return to me!). I've learned so much over the past five years. I've learned to solder. I've built things (that actually work!). I get a lot of joy in understanding and trying to predict propagation (with which the solar aspects have nicely dovetailed with my other hobby, amateur astronomy). And I've met a plethora of generous people. I'm still trying to find my niche in ham radio, if such a thing is even possible. There is just so much to explore. As I get saturated with one thing, I move on to the next. It certainly is never boring. While numbers are not overly meaningful, I decided to look back at my log of recorded contacts on HF and six meters. There are 4,227 of them. 46% are RTTY, 36% are JT65/9, and only 18% are SSB. (And my last SSB contact was nearly two years ago; obviously I am not much of a talker!) But perhaps most importantly, I now know how to get RF to propagate effectively through uncooperative walls. :) 73, -- /*/-=[Michael / KT5MR]-=/*/
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