Quote:
Originally Posted by DF96
I must confess that I don't understand the attraction of amateur radio for people who buy a box, buy an antenna, buy a ready-made cable to connect them then have extremely brief conversations around the world, telling lies about signal strength ("5 and 9 here, could you repeat your callsign?"). I suppose collecting prefixes can be a form of train-spotting, but that is for 'anoraks' not 'nerds'.
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That is only one aspect of the way conversations or contacts happen. Some people work that way. Among the reasons that you will hear these brief contacts is the practice of "contesting" and "rare DX". Both related.
In this situation the aim is to make the contact, or to make the greatest number of contacts (contests), move on, and not "hog" the DX station's frequency so that others can have a chance.
Also, back in the days of the "iron curtain" amateur radio ops from eastern Europe really could not say very much without being sent to a gulag, so those contacts were always very short. Same with any country under a dictator, anywhere in the world.
Now, as a rule *most* amateur radio conversations (QSOs) are *not* short, and may cover a wide range of topics and areas of interest, many unrelated to ham radio.
The attraction there, to what is called a "rag chew" is having a relaxed conversation with either a group of people that you actually know and talk to often, or with an individual or group that you do not know and may never have spoken to. It's the randomness of both topic and who is on the air that make it dynamic.
The other aspect that makes it nice is that usually people are not nasty, regardless of how they may act or behave elsewhere or at other times. Sort of like how this forum reads, albeit there are moderators here and none on ham radio. So you can have a pleasant and interesting interaction, or you might just listen in... most hams listen more than they talk.
The other aspect is the atmospherics. The higher frequency HF bands tend to favor longer distances. The lower frequency bands tend to favor closer in (0-300mi) contacts. Although this varies, as I heard VK7 on 75M from upstate NY a few days back at "greyline" (pre-sunrise)! And California the other night. Both somewhat unusual.
If you are interested in hearing what it is like, at least here on the east coast of the USA, especially with the AM crowd, one can listen online via a number of internet sites that have tunable receivers. Some require registration, and most do *not* have good antennas, unfortunately. But in the AM, between about 7:00AM and 10:00AM, and then later early evening, say between 5:00 and 10:00PM one will hear a lot of AM stations between the frequencies of 3.870mHz. and 3.890mHz. Lately favoring the lower end around 3.875. Have a listen!
Again, you have to keep in mind that *radio is magic*.
It's sort of like the audio hobby in many ways. Especially in terms of putting together a neat system... it's just that instead of having people over to listen and talk about the sound, you talk
to people with the gear...
The internet and the phone are simply not the same thing. No
magic!
_-_-bear
PS. Oh, people who do what you said, buy their gear only, are often derided by others as "appliance operators". Hams who are really into the hobby generally do a lot more hands on building, and some are designers/engineers on par with the best that we see here on DiyAudio. Just like there are leading edge designs here, there are leading edge designs, projects, group buys, etc., in ham radio.
] -- Btw, I don't actually know anything, FYI --
