Full disclosure: ham radio isn’t for everyone, and there are many different facets to it. What appeals to one person might bore another to death. One area of ham radio that has changed a lot …
No, only the British are dumb enough to require a license for a receiver.
You can go buy whatever radio you want and listen to hams tell each other where they’re from and lie about how well they’re hearing each other. Which is most of what they do on shortwave. 1. Ham radio is a game to most of them, the game is “exchange callsigns with people from as many places as you can.” 2. There is a law (CFR 97.113(5)) that prohibits “Communications, on a regular basis, which could reasonably be furnished alternatively through other radio services.” I read that as it’s illegal to have a weekly Wednesday at 5 PM EDT chat with your buddy in Tuscon on 20 meters because the cell phone network can also accomplish that. So are scheduled ragchew nets legal?
If you’re going to play around with an HF receiver, ignore the hams and listen out for numbers stations, they’re way fucking cooler than us licensed radio dorks.
Don’t transmit without a license. If we can hear you, we can find you. Radio isn’t like the internet, radio travels in straight (ish) lines. You’re literally shining a light into the sky, we can tell where it’s coming from. Hams won’t do anything to you. No, that’s what the FCC is for.
No, only the British are dumb enough to require a license for a receiver.
You can go buy whatever radio you want and listen to hams tell each other where they’re from and lie about how well they’re hearing each other. Which is most of what they do on shortwave. 1. Ham radio is a game to most of them, the game is “exchange callsigns with people from as many places as you can.” 2. There is a law (CFR 97.113(5)) that prohibits “Communications, on a regular basis, which could reasonably be furnished alternatively through other radio services.” I read that as it’s illegal to have a weekly Wednesday at 5 PM EDT chat with your buddy in Tuscon on 20 meters because the cell phone network can also accomplish that. So are scheduled ragchew nets legal?
If you’re going to play around with an HF receiver, ignore the hams and listen out for numbers stations, they’re way fucking cooler than us licensed radio dorks.
Don’t transmit without a license. If we can hear you, we can find you. Radio isn’t like the internet, radio travels in straight (ish) lines. You’re literally shining a light into the sky, we can tell where it’s coming from. Hams won’t do anything to you. No, that’s what the FCC is for.