What is Amateur Radio?

by: Sean Howe KB9TZT

Amateur Radio or Ham Radio is a means of communications between licensed amateur radio operators Locally and Worldwide. Examples of local communication would be to talk to a friend across town using a handheld from you backyard and the local repeater. Keeping in touch with others in nearby towns from the mobile radio in your car. Examples of Worldwide are many, but one good way to describe this would be making a new friend in a country half way around the World. You can use amateur radio to communicate with other operators using a number of different modes of operation.

Some examples of this are:

Morse Code or CW, you may have heard an SOS (a call for help) sent in a movie it sounds like, dit dit dit dah dah dah dit dit dit

Voice, using LSB (Lower Side Band), USB (Upper Side Band), AM (Amplitude Modulation, like an AM broadcast radio station), FM (Frequency Modulation, like an FM Broadcast Station).

Digital Modes, PSK31 and relatively new digital format that allows you to communicate using your PC and keyboard, this is just one example of many under this category.

SSTV, (Slow Scan TV) send pictures to others via your radio and a PC.

Fast Scan TV or ATV, (Amateur TV) Send video over the airwaves.

Satellite Communications, bounce a signal off one of amateur radios many satellites to communicate with others.

These are just a few examples of what can be done with an Amateur Radio License. Amateur Radio also gets involved in many aspects of your community at a local level. Amateur Radio may provide emergency communication after a storm, these same operators may have helped alert your community of the storm. Amateur Radio may help find a lost child or provide communications backup for you local ESDA or Emergency Manager. Amateur Radio may help in a special event such as a bicycle or foot race. Amateur Radio Operators also do other things together, they may be active in the community as a club volunteering time to help others with non-communications needs. So as you can see in this short description there are many faces that can be worn as an amateur radio operator. There is something for everyone and almost every Amateur Radio Operator has his/her favorite operating mode.