What is Ham Radio? Real hurricane damage. Imagine the ability to connect to a satellite in space and to be able to speak via satellite radio equipment to a newly made friend in Finland, or talking to a Japanese fisherman with a transmitter that transmits less power than the light bulb in your bathroom. Imagine assisting tornado stricken citizens in Oklahoma, or the excitement of successfully building an antenna for your first time which works and using it to send your signal halfway around the world. Or how about helping pass emergency call traffic to government aid agencies (fire, police, medical), and weather reports to the National Hurricane Center's ham station in Miami from the safety of your room during a powerful hurricane. This is the spirit of ham radio. But, in reality it is more. On September 11, 2001, many hams volunteered their time to pass traffic during the need in New York City, and Washington. During this and past events in our nations history, amateur radio operators have worked behind the scenes patching holes in our nations communications network with their expertise and rapid action without most people even realizing it. Amateur Radio, or more commonly called ham An ambitious ham operator's antenna system. radio, is so diverse and limitless in scope, that it may take a life-time to explore it in all its facets. By definition, Amateur Radio is a radio service, that is under the regulation of Federal Communications Commission, also known as the F.C.C. Ham Radio's purpose is to spread goodwill around the world through wireless communication, provide volunteer emergency communications in disasters, and maintain a pool of experienced and knowledgable radio operators and electronics enthusiasts. To illustrate ham radio's largest asset, imagine a CB or an old car radio dial, where you tune with a knob to change the channel (not a digital tuner). Now, to visualize ham radio, imagine extending this dial beyond it's current limits by thousands of kilohertz. This is an analogy that shows how much frequency spectrum ham radio operators have available at their disposal. Ham radio operators have this enormous amount of frequency spectrum dedicated specifically for their use in communications worldwide. This spectrum ranges from frequency segments near the AM broadcast band up into the microwave region. This vast amount of frequency spectrum allows hams to experiment, develop new technologies, launch communications satellites for use amateur use, exchange digital information, create wireless datalinks, exchange pictures and data, and best of all, communicate with their friends all across the face of the earth. Well, this is all great but how do I become a ham? Are you ready to learn? Are you ready to meet the challenge? Learn More... » How Do I Get My Ham License? Would you like to post this on your website? Reprint information, email at sam(at)hamquick.com "What is Ham Radio?" Copyright 2002. Samuel Szarka. www.hamquick.com