What is so cool in ham radio and why is it worth the efforts and the time?
People ask. They worry when they don’t understand. Are they missing out on something, or am I just crazy?… I have to explain. I don’t want to make people worry about themselves 🙂
There could be many notes on top of what is already written below. I may add some more later. They are very subjective. At the same time, I found many similarities to stories from other people’s (hams) lives, especially about when they caught the ham radio bug.
Is it hobby or what?
It is certainly not a business. I am trying to prevent my passions from conflicting with the time and resources.
Thus, to answer your question: if you spend money on it, ham radio is a hobby from this perspective.
But this activity is so penetrating in your life and so defining of what you do, when you do, and how you do, that it becomes a lifestyle rather than just a hobby, for example:
- Previously, I traveled to places with good diving or to countries I hadn’t visited before. Now I am checking whether the location is a DX country and whether I can bring my equipment there and get a local call sign to operate in the country
- I have never thought or even considered having a cottage. Now, I rented it right away to escape the radio noise of the city when operating the radio in the field became too cold and practically impossible
It is a multi-faced activity
I do enjoy the most
- Building antennas, towers, rotators, remote controls, antenna switches, power amplifiers, etc. and testing them in the air to see that they really work as hoped and planned
- Propagation – miracles of the Nature
- DXing – catching rare fish based on earlier efforts (antennas, towers, power amplifiers) and knowing what, where, and how to catch. And the luck 🙂
- DXpeditions – traveling and taking what is important only – heavy constrains of all sorts. It is similar to solo diving: you must have everything needed but not more than that or it will drag you
- EME – utmost ham skills
- Upper bands – propagation, nice antennas with reasonable efforts
- Meeting in reality similar-minded people thousands kilometers away with a completely different life path still sharing the same passion
I am rather cool about it
- Contests – I don’t have so much time
- Regular chatting about weather – sometimes, it is very nice and relaxing, but, typically, I am too busy with other things
- QSL cards collection – lovely. But I am move between countries and I would have too many of them
- Diplomas – I feel them a bit artificial …
- Lower bands – man-made noise and too few hams for DXing – digging too much dirt to find too few gold pieces. I like EME more as a the opposite for efforts vs. returns
It is very technical
You have to have pretty deep technical knowledge and skills, I would say, even scientific knowledge on some level, to enjoy the ham radio to the full extent. Well, there are many sub-activities, in fact. But I am referring to those that I enjoy the most: DXing, building and testing equipment and antennas, and solo DXxpeditions.
I am an engineer in my nature. It is always technical.
In my previous life, I have been building antennas, transceivers, and their elements: low-noise amplifiers, voltage-controlled oscillators with as low phase noise as possible, and mixers with as high an IP3 as possible to build as high-dynamic-range transceivers as possible. Built, tested in the air, and built again.
Everything that I am professionally stems from the radio. All my skills in electronics come from there. It is very fundamental to what I am.
It is very deep inside me
I was deep into radio far earlier than I met my wife or had kids. I met the majority of my friends and colleagues after I was enchanted by the radio.
And the radio is deep in me. It had been hiding for years because I had been moving between countries and living in the centers of capitals with limited practical possibilities for the radio and antennas. But it suddenly exploded inside me, showing that the passion never left me. It had been patiently waiting for its moment.
The moment suddenly came when we flooded our neighbors below in Almaty. No home insurance for the rented apartment, and no upper limit on financial exposure. Pretty bad, very uncertain situation that kept my mood low for months because of the lack of control.
I don’t know how things were linked in my head, but I thought that for the money I would waste on people unknown to me, I could have built a great radio station I had been self-deprived of for years. Why a radio station? – Why not dive in the Galapagos, which I haven’t visited yet? – I don’t know.
What the heck! As a result of the mental explosion, I got my Finnish license in a few weeks, and my new radio life started flourishing and blossoming,
It is very weird. But it is probably like coming out for gays. Right after coming out, you feel a relief and a pure joy because you don’t have to hide who you really are, and you can enjoy your nature.
The radio makes you closer to the fundamentals of the Nature more than you may realize
Even more, you may have the great propagation. You are a DX station, and you are called by dozens of stations simultaneously. And then the propagation is dying and everything is fading away.
It is really like dying. Just minutes ago everything was very bright and booming and now everything is faded away and becoming pale…
It is a very philosophical moment of transition from active life … to another life … or no life…
To say that I chose the “hobby” would be very wrong. Radio clearly chose me. Why radio, why me – it is hardly explainable. Just happened. If you play against it, you won’t be happy. If you cherish it, you truly enjoy who you are.
I love traveling and seeing new things. It is clearly a waste of money. But I started doing that many years ago and it is too late to stop enjoying it.
But when you travel, you need a point. A destination and a self-justified excuse to go there.
The point itself may not be as important. It must be appealing enough to start moving yourself towards the point. The point in traveling is traveling itself – the way, the route, the surprise, the discovery, the unknown.
Thus, traveling to the same place is a different form of traveling than traveling to new places: discovery vs. expected pleasure. Discovery is not necessary a pleasure in its common meaning. But if you survived the trip and can recover reasonably well, it is an achievement and joy in itself.
Using ham radio as a new point for traveling bring a whole new layer, a whole new angle.