Came through the reading list this week… seems there must be a push again about something or someone really complaining that others are not “real hams” if they didn’t do something from the past. Guess we all get a little protective about things that we have done and figure others have not earned that same status by not doing that same thing.
In some cases I think it may apply if the function in question is still current or relevant, but in many (most) cases it is just a badge that we all think we have earned that puts us ahead of the others that have not. I have been a ham now for ….. uh… 34+ years. Takes awhile to figure all that up… maybe not as long as some but long enough that I had to go through a lot of those things that make one appreciate the hobby. I also have grown to understand that I have not done it all and maybe never will. Just do not like all the different facets of the hobby but that doesn’t deter me from doing the parts I like and conversing with fellas about the other parts as well. Give a read to see what is going on here.
Newsflash: Not Everyone Is Going to Be an Expert
10 March 2012 | by Bob KØNR | Share | | Leave a Comment (9)
You’ve probably run into this situation…some of the more experienced radio amateurs commenting about how so many of the newer hams are incompetent. “Yeah, they’ve dumbed down the FCC exam, so now anyone can get a license. Back when I got my license, I had to copy Morse Code in my head, design a triple-feedback-loop vacuum tube amplifier and recite the Gettysburg addressbackwards in front of an FCC examiner.”
A while back, I wrote about the time when a newbie…..
Are You a Real Ham?
11 March 2012 | by Ron AE5NO | Share | | Leave a Comment (0)
One night I am tuning around on 75 meters and I hear a piece of a ragchew QSO.
“Roger, Roger OM. I am a Real Ham too.” After a minute, I wondered, what other kinds of hams could there be? Unreal hams, imaginary hams, weird hams or phantom hams? I didn’t know.
Puzzled, I grabbed my FCC license and scrutinized it carefully. I was stunned. Right there in the middle of the license, under Special Conditions/Endorsements it says, “None”. Is that a mistake or a typo perhaps? Maybe I am a Non-Ham? I broke out into a cold sweat.
In a panic, I called my old buddy Ralph. Ralph knows everything about ham…