Foundations of Amateur Radio

The activities that our community places under the banner of amateur radio are many and varied. I've referred to this as a thousand hobbies in one. If you look at the surface, you'll find all manner of activities that readily attach to our hobby.

Activations for example are invented at any opportunity, from parks to peaks, light houses, bridges, trains, boats, lakes, roads, locators and countries. We pursue contesting, making contacts using different modes, different power levels, we pick the frequencies on which we operate.

If you dig a little deeper you might consider investigating propagation, or antenna builds, electronics, physics and more.

It occurs to me that there is an underlying activity, one that any amateur can participate in and most do at what ever level they choose.

It's the act of being curious.

You can choose to turn your radio on and be curious to what's going on around you on the bands, or you can be curious as to what the underlying principles are of the mode you're using to make a contact. You can be curious as to the electrical principles and you can be curious as to the maths behind that.

Superficially you might think that being curious isn't really something that is remarkable. I'm here to disagree with that.

If you drive a car, you can choose to be curious, but many just put fuel in the right hole and keep air in the tyres. Most will wash their car from time to time. Some will dig into the innards of their car, but the vast majority lacking even a superficial understanding will have their car serviced by an expert. The same is true for computers. You might not wash your computer, but doing maintenance is often a case of waiting for it to die and calling your local IT expert.

There is absolutely opportunity for curiosity in relation to cars and computers and there are plenty of stories from those who follow that path.

In our community I think that this balance is completely different. In amateur radio there are a few people who use their radio like the majority of the general public uses their car, but in the whole, I think that the bulk of radio amateurs travel down a rabbit hole on a regular basis, armed with multi-meters, screw drivers and soldering irons. I see their reports, I hear their questions, I read their emails and respond to their requests.

You might say that I'm biased, since those are the amateurs I come across, but I think that's underselling quite how special this hobby of ours really is.

I love that you can be curious about an antenna and keep digging and become curious about the underlying laws, right down to the fundamental principles behind the phenomenon we experience as radio.

I've said many times that getting your license is like receiving the keys to the hobby. You have the ability to open the door and come inside to see and explore for yourself.

What have you been curious about lately and what did you do about it?

I'm Onno VK6FLAB