If you come to visit me, you probably won't hear the sound of my electronic keyer or the courtesy tone of a repeater after someone finishes transmitting. You won't hear my computer transmitting APRS information or decoding an inaudible PSK31 data signal into perfectly legible text.

Yet, if you believed what I said in the first paragraph, you'd probably wonder how I could devote a page of writing to ham radio if I have no experiences to speak of, or equipment I never turn on. But there's an art to it. A painter has a nearly endless choice of paint, medium, subject, and location. These variables are usually fixed and the technically minded know very well what paint will work on canvas, for example. But no matter how well a painter knows his materials, it will not make him a good painter and he will not communicate very well with his audience. The same is true with amateur radio.

The stereotypical radio amateur in many minds is a person who is somewhat to very electrically minded and would rather do nothing but sit in a dimly lit room on a snowing Christmas Eve sending Morse Code into a large metal box, tubes glowing, and eagerly awaiting a faint reply from another person just like himself many miles away. For the people that knew an amateur many years ago and had seen a station in operation, it's easy for them to envision amateur radio this way. For those people who are more or less ignorant to the subject, the easiest analogy to imagine is that of a CB operator, when in reality this image is in disillusionment.

Amateur radio is an art. Prove it to yourself: look at all the different modes of operation that fit into amateur radio. Some people choose to operate voice and nothing else, and they do so in a part of the radio spectrum between aviation and police. Others choose to send pictures to each other at a place on the radio dial, while clear now, will soon be cluttered with people from all over the world calling CQ. The list goes on and on. There's no set formula for success and there are no right or wrong answers. This is the spirit of the people who make amateur radio what it is.

Amateur radio is also very flexible. No other form of communication is more so. One would be hard-presed to find a place in the world where amateur signals cannot be heard. Although a bit challenging at times, this global capability makes amateur radio a reliable means of portable communications. That it is completely autonomous makes it the preferred means of communication in emergencies.

If you've endured me thus far, you're doing well, honest. Amateur radio is, to me, a hobby. It's been much less than that for me at times, and it's been much more than that for me at other times. I've used amateur radio to make friends, widen the scope of peoples' lives, to run a parade, and also for emergency communications. I have yet to find a limitation with ham radio as a public service. Many events around the country are carried out by teams of amateurs.

I was part of a team of nearly 50 hams responsible for carrying out the City of Stone Mountain's 4th of July parade. Well over fifty changes were made to the parade lineup and relayed to the three announcer stands without a single mistake. Amateur radio also serves equally well in times of emergency too.

Amateur radio is an art. It's also a science. It's very serious, but it's also fun. What is it to you?

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