Amateur Radio? Have you heard of it?
Every minute of every hour of every day, 365 days a year, amateur radio enthusiasts around the world communicate with each other. It’s a way to make new friends while experimenting with different and interesting new ways to develop the art of your hobby. Amateur Radio can improve international relations like no other hobby.
Amateur Radio is an international hobby used by millions of people to communicate with each other around the world. How else can you talk to an engineer in the space program, a businessman in Tokyo, a farmer in Argentina, a student in Lebanon, a tourist in a German forest, or a sailor on a ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? And all without leaving your home, the Internet, or a mobile phone.
Among the most famous radio amateurs were King Hussein of Jordan and his queen, King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand, King Carlos of Spain, Senator Barry Goldwater, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and his wife Sonia, actor Marlon Brando, astronauts Yuri Gagarin, Cliff Richard, Cardinal Roger Mahoney, Elvis Presley’s daughter and many other famous people.
LAST MAN STANDING – “The Fight” – (c) ABC Television Network
In addition, astronauts on international space stations belong to the community of radio amateurs and regularly maintain radio contact with amateur radio stations on Earth.
Radio communication is independent of government systems, religion, and culture.
The first shortwave continental transmissions were made by radio amateurs. Nowadays, some governments, technicians and scientists reject the use of shortwave for communication around the world, but radio amateurs disagree and continue to use it.
Radio amateurs have the knowledge to build their own equipment and antenna systems. All this knowledge must be tested in official examinations to obtain a license.
Amateur radio is used to communicate in various situations, including during natural disasters.
Amateur radio operators keep in touch around the world when others can’t. Especially in the event of a natural disaster, when most forms of electronic communication fail, one can still count on radio to be used to send messages to the right institutions to help those in need.