Foundations of Amateur Radio

Today I started doing some research on Baluns. It was prompted by a message from a fellow amateur who asked about how they work and what they do and what the difference was between a 1:1, a 1:4 and a 1:9 balun.

While doing that, I thought I'd look up what the definition was of a balun. It says right here on Google - so it must be true - that it's a type of electrical transformer used to connect an unbalanced circuit to a balanced one. I clicked on the link that said "Translations, word origin and more definitions", which showed me a history of the use of the word balun and I was hooked. The explanation of a balun will have to wait for another day.

I started looking at the use of the word going back to the 1800's, based on Google's Ngram Viewer. Looks like it was used a bit between 1800 and 1910, but steadily declining in use, until it started picking up in popularity around 1930. Today the word balun is more popular than the phrase "radio amateur", but less popular than either "amateur radio" or "ham radio".

Radio Amateur hit its peak in 1950 and Amateur Radio in 1990, when electronics also hit its peak. Ham radio hit its peak around 2000.

All of these terms pale into insignificance when compared with either the word Software or Hardware. Hardware being about 200 times more popular than any of the radio terms, but software being 700 times more popular.

So, what does this have to do with us, more specifically, what does this mean for you?

Well, if you want this amazing hobby to relate to the people around you, there might be a benefit to use language that is increasing in popularity, while still related to us, it might pull us along with the tide.

So, "Software Defined Radio" is on the rise, SDR likely means something else in 1985 when it hits peak popularity, but use is increasing.

Interestingly, Icom makes more noise in literature than Yeasu, by about 9 times. The ARRL makes more noise than the RSGB and WIA put together and balanced is 8 times more popular than unbalanced, though I won't vouch for that relating only to amateur radio.

Transistors hit their peak in 1967, capacitors did so a decade earlier, resistors even earlier in 1952.

I think this means that we need to spend some time investigating the language we use to communicate about our hobby and use it wisely to increase awareness about the things we think are amazing.

GPS is a term on the rise, antenna is pretty stable since 1965, emergency response is on the increase, communication is at an all-time-high, steadily increasing from 1900 on-wards.

Radio is staying pretty stable, but hit its peak in 1950. Television is on the decline and the Internet is more popular than either.

So, pick some words, look at the Google Ngram Viewer [https://books.google.com/ngrams] and learn some things about the words you might use to communicate about this wonderful hobby.

Can you guess, what's more popular, a dipole, a vertical or a Yagi?

I'm Onno VK6FLAB