Hello, my name is Doug Netherton, and one of my hobbies is amateur radio. I've had the call sign, VE3MCF since 1980. These web pages reflect this interest.
First, a few links. I belong to the following ham organizations:
There are many different aspects to the Amateur Radio hobby. When most people think of "Ham Radio" (as its usually called), they think of Morse Code first. Then they might think of hams talking on their radios to other hams during disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, or floods, providing emergency communications when normal methods have broken down.
A mainstay of the hobby is making contacts with other hams. The traditional way of acknowledging that contact was mailing a QSL card to the other ham. When a ham had collected enough of these QSL cards, he/she could claim awards from various sponsors. ARRL gives awards for working all states (WAS), working all continents (WAC) with IARU, and working 100 other contries (DXCC). There are hundreds of awards from many ham organizations. With the computer age and the internet, there are now electronic QSL cards in use.
Morse Code was used by telegraph systems in the U.S. but was not used by amateurs. Instead International Code was used. Currently, in order to get a license in most countries, the requirement for learning code has either been dropped or speed reduced. In Canada for instance, five words per minute is required for access to the HF bands. For more information on the use of CW or Continuous Wave in amateur radio, go here.
Early hams had to make their own equipment since commercial radio didn't even exist. In that spirit, current hams still make some of their own radios, mostly in the very low power catagory (known as QRP). Larger clubs put kits together to make it easier to get parts. One of the largest is the American QRP Club. Two hams from California even put a company together to appeal to this aspect of the hobby, dedicated to producing amateur radio kits. They called it ELECRAFT.