I got my license because I'm an offshore sailor. It is useful as safety and communication equipment (radio nets to keep track of other boats, their weather and fishing conditions :), and let your would-be-rescuers know your position and status), but also for sending and receiving data. It is my primary interface for weather info at sea using traditional weatherfax, but also more modern GRIB extraction. I can even update my blog using my SSB on HAM frequencies at sea. It's fun. Never had a shoreside station though.
In the US it's a public database, and you don't get to opt out of providing your name and a mailing address (mailing, needs to be valid but doesn't need to be your home address, PO Boxes work).
I know American data protection law is pretty poor, but that really is shocking; such data should not be made public without the users explicit opt-in consent.
A lot of information is out there for a lot of people in the US. Here you can find salary information for GA state employees by name: https://open.ga.gov/openga/salaryTravel/index. If you don't know their name, you can search by organization and get a big list of people and how much they make each year.
I hold an Extra Class license... the old 20 wpm kind. The cool thing is, I got my extra back when I was 19 years old and it set me up for a great tech career since I understood RF.
Not going to dox myself here putting my callsign in a post.
I find the technical side of the hobby very interesting but the thought that it requires having a conversation with strangers and that too synchronously, is a personal deterrent.
I don't know if there are others like me.
EDIT: Glad to see that there are others around. Happy to meet you. Async acks are great. So is the joy of engaging with something intellectually challenging.
Humans can be so different, it's fascinating and awesome. I'm quite the opposite. Where I wanted to talk to people from around the world and have some interesting conversations about everything, the fact that they are mostly "Hello, I'm calling from x, using radio y, and your signal is z. 73" is a big let down for me. I somewhat like the technical sid of it, but just calling to say "Hello, x, y, z, bye." ends up feeling like a waste of time to me (in the sense that I could be using this time for other, more interesting things. I still find it somewhat interesting though). But, if you enjoy the technical aspect of it, then I think it's fine, you can focus more on cw, or the digital modes where the contacts are automated.
edit: I know there are ragchews all the time, but it's still mostly about equipment.
Oh I love meeting and knowing people from different parts of the world, have curiosity about their human stories, about how they think, what they find funny, their food, their music, their culture, their interests. Oh yes their food, music and humor.
That's one reason I love New York so much.
However my pace is much slower. I take my time.
On the technical side, the added attraction is to do some homebrewed amateur radio astronomy.
I've been licensed for a couple of years. All my QSOs are short and sweet, mostly activating and hunting POTA/SOTA contacts, where the activator prefers to have short QSOs in order to activate the park/summit. I have no interest in having a conversation with the other amateur, at most I would exchange what gear I'm using and what power I'm running. That is it.
I like building kits, QRP, CW, and building my own antennas. I only make contact with other people to be able to improve my skills and validate my gear.
My father has been licensed for nearly 50 years, he loves the technical side of the hobby, I've made more contacts over the last 2 years than he has in 15 years. There are others like you.
There are dozens of us, friend. I got my license for the challenge and learning that came with. Tuned in to signals near and far but never sent my own voice over the air.
Totally the same. I got my license 7 years ago just for fun. I challenge myself to have at least one QSO per year which always takes an hour of prepping myself mentally. But I love the technical side and am always happy to join practical meetups.
Not sharing my call on HN, but I got my tech back in 2010 with my college club (W2SZ), upgraded to general a year later, and only in 2024 did I upgrade to Extra. I can't have a station at home currently, so mostly work QRP.
AC3ME. Probably the most useless ham licensee ever. Wanted to be able to say hi on a local repeater for fun and testing a handheld I got, turns out it's not too hard to get US amateur extra when you already know most of the electronics theory and just need to memorize some rules and adapt to terminology, but I don't really use it very actively. But glad I have it - I have some beacon design projects in mind for the someday maybe pile, but basically everything I play with is in the ISM bands and I usually work a layer or three above physical.
I am in Australia and got a US General class license because for some time the Australian licensing was in total chaos while changing over to new arrangements.
I did it online thru the New York Radio Club (?).
I did Novice then General in about 30 minutes. I studied for maybe 6 hours immediately prior.
I grew up from age 5 in my Dads ham shack in NZ - every single thing he had made, transmitters, receivers, antennas, the feed wire, oscilloscope, signal gens, grid dip oscillator etc with many parts salvaged. In NZ in those days that is how most people did it, at least partially.
I also have an Electrical Engineering degree.
So sort of had a bit of background working knowledge, which meant I wasn't starting from scratch.
I don't have you in my log! Southeast US here. What aspects of ham radio are you into? Any HF nets you frequent? To be honest, life keeps me away from radio most of the time so there is nothing "regular" that I participate in outside the two Field Days, but if things ever slow down I will have the license and the equipment for it. I got in due to a general interest in technology but I like contesting, the occasional net, and someday I would like to practice CW (have "learned it" twice now but have been unable to dedicate the time to practice). I like digital modes and am not anti-FT8 but I wish there was more use of the "conversational" modes like RTTY or others in fldigi.
I do. But I haven't found a use of it, yet. I don't even have a ham radio. I guess I just impulsively got a license and that was it.
For people who don't use radio for communication (chat), what do you do? I guess it's useful as an emergency measure, but I could simply purchase an ordianry radio or use my car's, not a ham radio.
LB1LF here - much to my dismay, I currently have no antennas at home, but I take part in the IARU Region 1 Field Day every year - some friends and I, alumni from the Norwegian University of Technology and Science in Trondheim, Norway created a ham radio club - LA1AFP - for the express purpose of having an excuse to meet up annually and have a good time.
I have mostly worked HF phone, but in latter years I've (finally!) become reasonably proficient in CW, too.
I enjoy the technical aspects of the hobby, being a radio frequency engineer - but also enjoy chatting to others, particularly to improve my language skills - Portuguese and Brazilian hams are an absolute delight and quite patient as I try to make myself understood in Portuguese!
Oh, and chasing the occasional award - but I am not very good at sending in the paperwork, so I guess I had better do that soon and get some paperwork for my shack. I have a particular soft spot for the RSGB IOTA program, as I live on one - EU-079 - myself.
I hope to be QRV from home again before long, though - I live on a farm, have lots of room, and I have a small mast and an almost finished wire beam in the barn, so with any luck I'll be able to put it all together and have a working station again sometime this spring!
Experience of Canadian ham scene though is it's almost all just buying/selling equipment, to the point some channels were occupied by automated announcements of what people were buying and selling. APRS is fairly well used though, and by far the best way to find what is in the local area.
For better or worse the more dynamic and technically interesting stuff now seems to be with SDR and Meshtastic/Meshcore. Even the people with envy inspiring antenna arrays are mainly on the mesh stuff.
My father was pretty serious about this as a hobby - SP7DRV - had shortware CW and voice connections with pretty much all the coutries, remote islands (when there was an expeditions) and some countries that do not exist anymore so his tally was more countries than there are in the world.
Personally I prefer the convenience of fibre connection + TCP/IP but I get that in a time of hypothetical crisis or war this could prove useful.
War in Ukraine shows it's more Starlink + Internet rather than HAM radio but there's still a use case.
My father, W1HDX, similarly was so into HAM that it was a large part of my childhood, even though I never got my license. I very much remember his explorations of packet radio in the very late 1970s. And when he put up a couple of large dish antennas in the yard to start receiving weather satellite transmissions, the entirely ignorant neighbors complained that he was "irradiating the neighborhood" and the other local kids thought he was talking to space aliens. These days he's into mapping the radio emissions of H1 regions.
Yep, did a speed run of foundation, intermediate and full in the UK back in 2016 (within the year). Full means I can build radios up to 400W, which is nice. Not sure I actually could though now, without a LOT of revision. At least if "the collapse" comes in my lifetime I might know which components to gather.
Sold Yaesu portable unit at the height of COVID after some fun with it. Still mess with the HTs sometimes but looking for an opportunity (time wise) to get back into it.
I'm part of a code club at the local school, and would love to show them radio too, spark that curiosity and imagination. I think it'll be out of scope for this year though.
I spent a couple months memorizing the test questions/answers with Anki, without learning the theory, and passed the second level test (the one below Extra, I forget the name). I got a cheap Chinese (ABBREE brand I think) radio but never learned how to use it, and am a bit worried about accidentally transmitting if I poke around on it, even if it is probably legal for me to do so (assuming I announce my callsign periodically and such). I'd been meaning to learn things properly once the test was out of the way but I kinda lost interest, I guess. I'll still renew my license if it's about to expire anyway. Might as well. Callsign not shared because I tied it to my real address and haven't gotten a P.O. box (also as previously stated I am not actually active).
If you are interested, find and go to an amateur radio club meeting. The licensing test makes sure you know the regulations and some theory. It does not help introduce you to "ham culture" which is definitely a thing. I learned all the practical stuff from talking with local club members. They are usually overjoyed for new members; if not just go to the next club. Youtube and whatnot helps but it's better to be able to ask someone a stupid question, and believe me, if you want to be overwhelmed with information, ask a ham a question. In my experience there are some assholes but more genuinely kind people, mostly older folks who just want to connect with someone.
Foundation licensee here in the UK, working on my Intermediate (and hoping to pass that exam this year). I manage the radio system for the UK Discworld Convention (every other year, next instance August 2026), and I spend a chunk of time on the VHF repeater near me, in the Cambridge area (mostly listening).
I did a course on antennae and wave propagation as part of my university studies. The professor told us that with just a bit of extra studying we'd be able to qualify for the license, given that we already knew the engineering and physics side of things. I got the license, but never did anything with it.
I am extremely saddened that USA began requiring email for all callsign updates (circa 2022). This led to my vanity expiring, but I still carry it as my vehicle tag (state renews without checking active status).
I have a G6 uk licence that I took after being almost busted for CBs (in the old days) and all my radios have been packed up and in the garage for decades. Computers/BBS/Internet took over. I enjoyed the tech side of the hobby rather than the convo.
General class in USA, not currently active. More interested in tech/building than conversation/contesting although POTA and SOTA hold some interest, as does field day. Perhaps when I retire those might become a thing I do.
Anyone from India? I was looking to apply for one but the site to apply is down and there seems to be no alternative. Do I just cycle up to the monitoring station? It's like 10km away from me.
I hold both an amateur license and a conventional ‘itinerant’ LMR license good nationwide.
The LMR license is more useful to me than my amateur license - I can just hand my friends my pile of cache radios and get yapping at an event. As a plus, we can run encryption and other fun things on the LMR license (within the bounds of our emissions) like APCO P25 (Project25) data transmissions.
I got my license because I'm an offshore sailor. It is useful as safety and communication equipment (radio nets to keep track of other boats, their weather and fishing conditions :), and let your would-be-rescuers know your position and status), but also for sending and receiving data. It is my primary interface for weather info at sea using traditional weatherfax, but also more modern GRIB extraction. I can even update my blog using my SSB on HAM frequencies at sea. It's fun. Never had a shoreside station though.
I do, also full (CEPT equivalent) licence.
Poll would be better for that :p
I do. I'm not sure I like exposing my home address by providing my callsign with my HN account (something to think about for other posters).
That's why I use a PO Box — still not sharing callsign though =P
> I'm not sure I like exposing my home address by providing my callsign with my HN account
Please explain. Surely one simply opts out of having ones address published in your countries call book?
In the US it's a public database, and you don't get to opt out of providing your name and a mailing address (mailing, needs to be valid but doesn't need to be your home address, PO Boxes work).
https://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/searchLicense.jsp
Wow!
I know American data protection law is pretty poor, but that really is shocking; such data should not be made public without the users explicit opt-in consent.
A lot of information is out there for a lot of people in the US. Here you can find salary information for GA state employees by name: https://open.ga.gov/openga/salaryTravel/index. If you don't know their name, you can search by organization and get a big list of people and how much they make each year.
Ditto for me.
I hold an Extra Class license... the old 20 wpm kind. The cool thing is, I got my extra back when I was 19 years old and it set me up for a great tech career since I understood RF.
Not going to dox myself here putting my callsign in a post.
AD0NIS — that you?
Heh. I mean you are kinda close.
My callsign is a 2x1 call.
I find the technical side of the hobby very interesting but the thought that it requires having a conversation with strangers and that too synchronously, is a personal deterrent.
I don't know if there are others like me.
EDIT: Glad to see that there are others around. Happy to meet you. Async acks are great. So is the joy of engaging with something intellectually challenging.
Humans can be so different, it's fascinating and awesome. I'm quite the opposite. Where I wanted to talk to people from around the world and have some interesting conversations about everything, the fact that they are mostly "Hello, I'm calling from x, using radio y, and your signal is z. 73" is a big let down for me. I somewhat like the technical sid of it, but just calling to say "Hello, x, y, z, bye." ends up feeling like a waste of time to me (in the sense that I could be using this time for other, more interesting things. I still find it somewhat interesting though). But, if you enjoy the technical aspect of it, then I think it's fine, you can focus more on cw, or the digital modes where the contacts are automated.
edit: I know there are ragchews all the time, but it's still mostly about equipment.
Oh I love meeting and knowing people from different parts of the world, have curiosity about their human stories, about how they think, what they find funny, their food, their music, their culture, their interests. Oh yes their food, music and humor.
That's one reason I love New York so much.
However my pace is much slower. I take my time.
On the technical side, the added attraction is to do some homebrewed amateur radio astronomy.
I've been licensed for a couple of years. All my QSOs are short and sweet, mostly activating and hunting POTA/SOTA contacts, where the activator prefers to have short QSOs in order to activate the park/summit. I have no interest in having a conversation with the other amateur, at most I would exchange what gear I'm using and what power I'm running. That is it.
I like building kits, QRP, CW, and building my own antennas. I only make contact with other people to be able to improve my skills and validate my gear.
My father has been licensed for nearly 50 years, he loves the technical side of the hobby, I've made more contacts over the last 2 years than he has in 15 years. There are others like you.
Oliver, M7OCL
There are dozens of us, friend. I got my license for the challenge and learning that came with. Tuned in to signals near and far but never sent my own voice over the air.
Totally the same. I got my license 7 years ago just for fun. I challenge myself to have at least one QSO per year which always takes an hour of prepping myself mentally. But I love the technical side and am always happy to join practical meetups.
Not sharing my call on HN, but I got my tech back in 2010 with my college club (W2SZ), upgraded to general a year later, and only in 2024 did I upgrade to Extra. I can't have a station at home currently, so mostly work QRP.
AC3ME. Probably the most useless ham licensee ever. Wanted to be able to say hi on a local repeater for fun and testing a handheld I got, turns out it's not too hard to get US amateur extra when you already know most of the electronics theory and just need to memorize some rules and adapt to terminology, but I don't really use it very actively. But glad I have it - I have some beacon design projects in mind for the someday maybe pile, but basically everything I play with is in the ISM bands and I usually work a layer or three above physical.
I am in Australia and got a US General class license because for some time the Australian licensing was in total chaos while changing over to new arrangements.
I did it online thru the New York Radio Club (?).
I did Novice then General in about 30 minutes. I studied for maybe 6 hours immediately prior.
I grew up from age 5 in my Dads ham shack in NZ - every single thing he had made, transmitters, receivers, antennas, the feed wire, oscilloscope, signal gens, grid dip oscillator etc with many parts salvaged. In NZ in those days that is how most people did it, at least partially.
I also have an Electrical Engineering degree.
So sort of had a bit of background working knowledge, which meant I wasn't starting from scratch.
KK7RBX
I don't have you in my log! Southeast US here. What aspects of ham radio are you into? Any HF nets you frequent? To be honest, life keeps me away from radio most of the time so there is nothing "regular" that I participate in outside the two Field Days, but if things ever slow down I will have the license and the equipment for it. I got in due to a general interest in technology but I like contesting, the occasional net, and someday I would like to practice CW (have "learned it" twice now but have been unable to dedicate the time to practice). I like digital modes and am not anti-FT8 but I wish there was more use of the "conversational" modes like RTTY or others in fldigi.
FYI, HN has polls (since you asked "how many of you"): https://news.ycombinator.com/newpoll
I do. But I haven't found a use of it, yet. I don't even have a ham radio. I guess I just impulsively got a license and that was it.
For people who don't use radio for communication (chat), what do you do? I guess it's useful as an emergency measure, but I could simply purchase an ordianry radio or use my car's, not a ham radio.
LB1LF here - much to my dismay, I currently have no antennas at home, but I take part in the IARU Region 1 Field Day every year - some friends and I, alumni from the Norwegian University of Technology and Science in Trondheim, Norway created a ham radio club - LA1AFP - for the express purpose of having an excuse to meet up annually and have a good time.
I have mostly worked HF phone, but in latter years I've (finally!) become reasonably proficient in CW, too.
I enjoy the technical aspects of the hobby, being a radio frequency engineer - but also enjoy chatting to others, particularly to improve my language skills - Portuguese and Brazilian hams are an absolute delight and quite patient as I try to make myself understood in Portuguese!
Oh, and chasing the occasional award - but I am not very good at sending in the paperwork, so I guess I had better do that soon and get some paperwork for my shack. I have a particular soft spot for the RSGB IOTA program, as I live on one - EU-079 - myself.
I hope to be QRV from home again before long, though - I live on a farm, have lots of room, and I have a small mast and an almost finished wire beam in the barn, so with any luck I'll be able to put it all together and have a working station again sometime this spring!
Similar.
Experience of Canadian ham scene though is it's almost all just buying/selling equipment, to the point some channels were occupied by automated announcements of what people were buying and selling. APRS is fairly well used though, and by far the best way to find what is in the local area.
For better or worse the more dynamic and technically interesting stuff now seems to be with SDR and Meshtastic/Meshcore. Even the people with envy inspiring antenna arrays are mainly on the mesh stuff.
My father was pretty serious about this as a hobby - SP7DRV - had shortware CW and voice connections with pretty much all the coutries, remote islands (when there was an expeditions) and some countries that do not exist anymore so his tally was more countries than there are in the world. Personally I prefer the convenience of fibre connection + TCP/IP but I get that in a time of hypothetical crisis or war this could prove useful. War in Ukraine shows it's more Starlink + Internet rather than HAM radio but there's still a use case.
My father, W1HDX, similarly was so into HAM that it was a large part of my childhood, even though I never got my license. I very much remember his explorations of packet radio in the very late 1970s. And when he put up a couple of large dish antennas in the yard to start receiving weather satellite transmissions, the entirely ignorant neighbors complained that he was "irradiating the neighborhood" and the other local kids thought he was talking to space aliens. These days he's into mapping the radio emissions of H1 regions.
Did he (or anyone here) get to talk to King Hussein of Jordan?
https://www.dx-world.net/the-ham-radio-operation-that-made-h...
Yep, did a speed run of foundation, intermediate and full in the UK back in 2016 (within the year). Full means I can build radios up to 400W, which is nice. Not sure I actually could though now, without a LOT of revision. At least if "the collapse" comes in my lifetime I might know which components to gather.
Sold Yaesu portable unit at the height of COVID after some fun with it. Still mess with the HTs sometimes but looking for an opportunity (time wise) to get back into it.
I'm part of a code club at the local school, and would love to show them radio too, spark that curiosity and imagination. I think it'll be out of scope for this year though.
I spent a couple months memorizing the test questions/answers with Anki, without learning the theory, and passed the second level test (the one below Extra, I forget the name). I got a cheap Chinese (ABBREE brand I think) radio but never learned how to use it, and am a bit worried about accidentally transmitting if I poke around on it, even if it is probably legal for me to do so (assuming I announce my callsign periodically and such). I'd been meaning to learn things properly once the test was out of the way but I kinda lost interest, I guess. I'll still renew my license if it's about to expire anyway. Might as well. Callsign not shared because I tied it to my real address and haven't gotten a P.O. box (also as previously stated I am not actually active).
If you are interested, find and go to an amateur radio club meeting. The licensing test makes sure you know the regulations and some theory. It does not help introduce you to "ham culture" which is definitely a thing. I learned all the practical stuff from talking with local club members. They are usually overjoyed for new members; if not just go to the next club. Youtube and whatnot helps but it's better to be able to ask someone a stupid question, and believe me, if you want to be overwhelmed with information, ask a ham a question. In my experience there are some assholes but more genuinely kind people, mostly older folks who just want to connect with someone.
Foundation licensee here in the UK, working on my Intermediate (and hoping to pass that exam this year). I manage the radio system for the UK Discworld Convention (every other year, next instance August 2026), and I spend a chunk of time on the VHF repeater near me, in the Cambridge area (mostly listening).
5 and 5, 73.
I did a course on antennae and wave propagation as part of my university studies. The professor told us that with just a bit of extra studying we'd be able to qualify for the license, given that we already knew the engineering and physics side of things. I got the license, but never did anything with it.
I am extremely saddened that USA began requiring email for all callsign updates (circa 2022). This led to my vanity expiring, but I still carry it as my vehicle tag (state renews without checking active status).
—73
US General since... 2008? Don't really use it for anything these days though.
I have a G6 uk licence that I took after being almost busted for CBs (in the old days) and all my radios have been packed up and in the garage for decades. Computers/BBS/Internet took over. I enjoyed the tech side of the hobby rather than the convo.
FCC Amateur Technician class and Marine Operator checking in.
It's taken nearly 30 years, from buying the study guide in high school to finally sitting the test in my 40s. But glad I finally got it done.
General class in USA, not currently active. More interested in tech/building than conversation/contesting although POTA and SOTA hold some interest, as does field day. Perhaps when I retire those might become a thing I do.
Anyone from India? I was looking to apply for one but the site to apply is down and there seems to be no alternative. Do I just cycle up to the monitoring station? It's like 10km away from me.
We are all from India here sir
73 DE 9A5AFV. 1983-1985 as a youngster active mostly on 40m band CW from Radio Club Zagreb (est.1924) ex.YU2ADE - now 9A1ADE. FT-277 / windom antenna.
W8LVN. Licensed in 1961.
Was dropping the morse code requirement a mistake?
I have been licensed since the 90’s, but only rarely talk anymore. One day…
I intend to get one in Portugal!
73 from G8KIG. Licensed in 1974.
UK Foundation licence holder here, M7HUB
Just a OFCOM basic business radio license (UK)
I do in the UK, only foundation though
Hi! I'm UB3AGB since 2013
I hold both an amateur license and a conventional ‘itinerant’ LMR license good nationwide.
The LMR license is more useful to me than my amateur license - I can just hand my friends my pile of cache radios and get yapping at an event. As a plus, we can run encryption and other fun things on the LMR license (within the bounds of our emissions) like APCO P25 (Project25) data transmissions.
VU3BNZ restricted class license
KC2TCK since 2007.
KA9DGX since 1979
QSL! Boston, MA
Third generation Extra here!
I have an ROC-A
Since 1991.
Kc2zzq