Removing The Cloud Of Mystery Surrounding A Great Hobby

What is Amateur Radio?

To radio amateurs, amateur radio is the electronic magic carpet wich expands their horizons to include the entire word-a word in wich they have a million friends. When radioamateurs(commonly known as " hams") are on the air, their daily cares drop away. Hams share common interests with the King of Bhutan, a U.S. presidential candidate, a missionary in a remote African jungle, and with many others like themselves located anywhere on this globe. On the other hand, amateur radiois officially a "service" with the fundamental aims of improving the communicatios art, promoting world peace and understanding , providing emergency communications.Every radioamateur takes it as a matter of personal pride that he has earned the right to be on the air by passing an official national government examination. This is the only path to becoming an amateur; there are no shortcuts. But is not difficult to earn a ham radio license. Amateur radio stations are to be found in homes, automobiles, boats, airplanes, lighthouses and in a building under the snow at the South Pole. For many years, amateurs and their equipment have been part of virtually every scientific expedition to unexplored parts of Africa, Asia, South America and the frozen Arctic and Antarctic regions. Obviously, there is more to amateur radio then just talking to other amateurs. It is one of the most direct and  personal means of communications between citizens of different countries, races, culture and believings. And when we speak of the romance of amateur radio, we sometimes mean that literally. A growing proportion of radioamateurs are women, and it is fairly common for unattached OM's (male amateurs) and YL's (young lady operators) to meet first over the air, then in person, get married and start raising their own future radio amateurs. Of course, practically all amateurs like to work DX, as is proved by what happens on any ham band when DX breaks through. Everyone on the band loses his "cool", and joins the pack that takes off after the DX like a bevy of screaming teen-agers. those hams are not really DX men, however. When conditions return to normal and the DX signals fade out, those hams return to their rag-chewing, message-handling, etc. but not the 10 % whose NORMAL activity is DX chasing. Of course, not even the most avid DX man can spend all his time combing the bands looking for DX ; yet the big DX man always seem to be on the spot when something new shows up. Believe me;  this is no accident. DX men alert eachother to the appearance of a rare DX station by various means. What Good Is Chasing DX ? Sooner or later, someone is almost sure to say ,"I suppose that chasing DX is exciting, but does it really serve any useful purpose?" without a doubt ! Dx men have the most efficient antenna systems, transmitters and receivers-they have to in order to keep up with the competition. And, DX men are also some of the very best operators on CW in the  world. In addition DX men do more, promote international friendship, solidarity and peace.