AMATEUR RADIO - WHAT IS IT?
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Computer Science
Amateur Radio
What is it?
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What's an amateur radio operator?
Random, on-the-street interviews with average Germans yielded the following answers:
(70%) "I've got no idea."
(20%) "... those are the guys with mobile phones."
(7%) "Yes, my neighbor is one and his radio bothers my TV reception."
(3%) "... those are crazy guys who sit in front of weird boxes all day long."
Apparently, nobody knows the real meaning of amateur radio.
Explaining Amateur radio is relatively simple:
Amateur radio is a hobby which allows you to contact stations all over the
world by radio (without any commercial interests). So there are nearly infinite
possibilities of how to achieve this. One of these options is simply to speak
into a microphone. A more interesting way of communicating, however, is to use
Morse code (which works perfectly even under very bad radio propagation
conditions). If you prefer a more comfortable way to transmit information world
wide, use your computer to transmit it in binary code by radio.
As you can see, Amateur radio covers the whole spectrum of communications.
What do you need to get "radio-active"?
The most important thing you will need is an "Amateur Radio License" which you can obtain by passing an examination at the "Regulierungsbehoerde fuer Telekommunikation und Post" (Germany) or the FCC (USA). Of course, you also need some devices (that may be homemade, by the way).
This is my portable station capable of short wave frequency (HF) and very high
frequency (VHF):
A YAESU FT-840 (100 watts HF) and a YAESU FT-290RII (25 watts VHF). I have
built both radios into one aluminum box together with a car battery and some
antenna tuning devices.
This is yet another radio (ICOM IC-706MKIIG). It allows operation on all bands from short wave frequency (HF) up to ultra high frequency (UHF). The device on the top of the radio is an antenna tuner for HF.
And last but not least, here you can see my handheld transceiver:
A YAESU VX-7R (145MHz/430MHz/50MHz)
To successfully establish communications between two radio stations, the
antenna plays a very important role. Even with a cheap radio you can bridge
long distances, if the antenna is good enough.
Since I'm living in a small apartment, I don't have fixed antennas. For
portable and mobile operation, I'm using either my mobile vertical antenna (see
pictures below) or just a long wire.
Contacts between amateur radio stations are confirmed with so-called QSL cards. Every station I contact for the first time will receive such a card, and most stations will send one in return. Check out my QSL Gallery to view cards I have received from different countries. Here is the front side of my current card:
It shows the Meersburg old castle, the "Unterstadt", and Lake Constance in the background.
"THINK GLOBAL" and join the amateur radio community!
For futher information, check out the webpages of
DARC (Germany) or ARRL (USA).