Please forgive me, but I just have to send this.....
I started ham radio at age thirteen, the time when young people are seeking
simultaneously two opposing goalsadult independence versus group belonging
and bonding. Ironically for a medium devoted to communication, ham radio
blends these two goals uniquely. Ham radio fulfills my need to belong while
definitely keeping my desired isolation: radios have an on and off knob
and, during contacts, the flavor is, at once, both intimate and distant,
friendly like a brotherhood and yet mostly transitory and ephemeral. It
perfectly fits my personality. Ham radio, for me, has outlived my parents,
my first marriage, my youth and my middle age. It is a constant in a
turbulent world.
And, yet, like me, it is nearing the end of its life. It appears that
there is just no way to pass on to todays teenagers the wonder of radio,
the adventure, the shared fraternity of instant friends, the code of honor,
or the simple delights of getting on the air. Everything changes and
acceptance of that lets one live happier, but I still want to record a
little part of this amazing phenomenon, ham radio, while it is still
vibrant.
The wonder and adventure part of ham radio is like that arising from looking
at maps that still had unknown territories marked on them. Now, GPS will
tell you to the square meter about any place on earth. But, turning on a
ham radio transports the operator back to that sense of unpredictable
adventure, blending wanting to know with anticipation and appreciation of
what may come by chance and skill. There are times, when I am deep into the
zone, totally concentrating on hearing and tuning, that the band
becomes, for me, an actual place that is alive, a location, a space
inhabited, from one turn of the knob to the next, by living signals from
somewhere beyond me. The not knowing what will happen next is so much a
part of the adventure of ham radio. Remember that time when the rare DX
actually called you?
The shared fraternity of friends likely had its origins with early radio
when the sparks shack kept ship passengers alive and when the operators were
sworn to secrecy. Do we remember the old dictate that ham radio operators
never divulge the content of messages heard? That code of honor to both
keep secrets and to be a very real lifeline bonded radio operators to each
other. That, and shared difficultieslearning the code and electronics,
making and keeping a station, helping each other. The bonding comes as the
older ham patiently taps out CW for your struggling brain. Brotherhood
comes, too, from holding the end of a rope that secures a yagi at
one-hundred feet, knowing that if you slip, your ham buddy above will
suffer. And, doing it all purely for the love of the activity; that is,
truly being an amateur in the fullest sense of the word.
Ham radio is leaving Florida and arriving half way around the world in the
airport in Nepal and having a smiling face there holding a placard with
K4VUD on it. Or, again in the Delhi airport with three hams to greet me,
drive me to a Pizza Hut, and then to my hotel. Or, there and in Thailand,
have local hams deliver the impossible-to-get operator license for me, and
in three days!
Ham radio is, at a Field Day, worrying as the operator spills an 807 down
onto a 6146 in a Johnson Rangerand delighting that I know what all that
means! And then there is the joy of knowing you can actually help people.
Ham radio is, as a teen, being saluted by a uniformed soldier because
youyoung youjust gave him a ham radio message noting his buddy was ok
coming out of flood waters. Or the mother who, because of you and your
radio, now knows her son survived the tornado. Or the world knows
conditions following a massive tsunami.
And, then, there are the rag chews. The simple joy of indulging in
ordinaryor is it extraordinary?talk. The surprise when the other guy also
shares your exact health symptomsgives helpful coping hints. Or, the
detailed description of an operators sheep ranch in New Zealand when you
yourself have just ventured to the next State. Or the man who recounts his
having actually talked with both Barry Goldwater and the King of Jordan. Or
the operator proclaiming himself in radio free Lithuania following the
fall of the Soviet Union and then telling all about his feelings. The
combined intimacy and isolation imparts the phenomena of a stranger on a
train which brings out the delightful personality and memorable stories
from the ham in all of us. And at those times when we open up and talk, we
know our little confidences will be kept even while the whole world could be
listening. And what about ham radios instant friends? That phrase seems
improbable but, remember the eye ballsI finally meet the guy I have talked
to for years I have never heard of you before, but sit down and let me
get you a coffee and tell you about the Texas shack that has twelve towers.
You need a new 3-500Z? One is in the mail to you!
Ham radio is all of this and, as we on the inside know, it is much, much
more. What a fine ride it has beenand, defiantly, still is!
Charles Harpole, HS0ZCW
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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