Food & Drink5 mins ago
Do You Ever Listen To The Radio?
33 Answers
In the world of streaming services, many don't listen to the radio, including myself. I was wondering whether people are interested in radio anymore
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^^^ It seems to be having a resurgence, Dave, with many people who left the hobby years ago coming back to it. There are also quite a few younger people getting involved too. (One of my favourite contacts is Patrik, a 14-year-old Slovenia, who's an excellent operator).
There are lots of different types of amateur radio operators.
Some are mainly 'rag chewers', who use the medium like having pub conversations. (i.e. several people get together, with some being friends already and some being newcomers to the group, and all put the world to rights by discussing whatever takes their fancy).
Others are 'contesters', who love nothing more than to enter contests where points are scored for the maximum number of contacts across the maximum number of countries in a specified time period.
There are plenty of 'DX chasers' too. ('DX' is a radio term for 'long distance'). They like to see how many different countries and territories they can have contacts with, with some of the rarer countries (such as the smaller African nations) being particularly treasured.
Among the group of DX chasers you'll also find 'award hunters' (who work to collect points towards certain awards that are available to radio amateurs) and 'QSL card collectors' (who collect the printed verification cards that some amateurs send to each other).
Then there are 'experimenters', who like (for example) to build and try out lots of different types of antennas.
There are also more specialist interest groups, such as those who try to bounce signals off the Moon, and back to Earth again, to achieve contacts with each other and those who like to connect to other amateurs using the ham radio 'repeater' that's carried by the International Space Station.
Further, some operators use voice transmissions only, whereas some like to use Morse code (because it can cut through interference more readily than using a microphone can), whereas yet others use digital modes (such as 'FT8'), where radio waves are used to connect signals from computers at either end of the connection.
That's just a snapshot of what amateur radio can involve. There's actually far more to it really!
I'm a DX chaser, who likes collecting awards, e.g.
https:/
and
https:/
(I've deleted my personal info).
I also collect QSL cards. However I've been 'rag chewing' this morning within a group of half a dozen UK amateurs and I've also been experimenting with different antennas lately.
So there's quite a bit more to the hobby than simply calling someone up over the radio!
There are lots of different types of amateur radio operators.
Some are mainly 'rag chewers', who use the medium like having pub conversations. (i.e. several people get together, with some being friends already and some being newcomers to the group, and all put the world to rights by discussing whatever takes their fancy).
Others are 'contesters', who love nothing more than to enter contests where points are scored for the maximum number of contacts across the maximum number of countries in a specified time period.
There are plenty of 'DX chasers' too. ('DX' is a radio term for 'long distance'). They like to see how many different countries and territories they can have contacts with, with some of the rarer countries (such as the smaller African nations) being particularly treasured.
Among the group of DX chasers you'll also find 'award hunters' (who work to collect points towards certain awards that are available to radio amateurs) and 'QSL card collectors' (who collect the printed verification cards that some amateurs send to each other).
Then there are 'experimenters', who like (for example) to build and try out lots of different types of antennas.
There are also more specialist interest groups, such as those who try to bounce signals off the Moon, and back to Earth again, to achieve contacts with each other and those who like to connect to other amateurs using the ham radio 'repeater' that's carried by the International Space Station.
Further, some operators use voice transmissions only, whereas some like to use Morse code (because it can cut through interference more readily than using a microphone can), whereas yet others use digital modes (such as 'FT8'), where radio waves are used to connect signals from computers at either end of the connection.
That's just a snapshot of what amateur radio can involve. There's actually far more to it really!
I'm a DX chaser, who likes collecting awards, e.g.
https:/
and
https:/
(I've deleted my personal info).
I also collect QSL cards. However I've been 'rag chewing' this morning within a group of half a dozen UK amateurs and I've also been experimenting with different antennas lately.
So there's quite a bit more to the hobby than simply calling someone up over the radio!
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