{"id":1749,"date":"2018-04-25T18:10:49","date_gmt":"2018-04-25T18:10:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/network-radios.com\/?p=1749"},"modified":"2018-04-26T12:00:59","modified_gmt":"2018-04-26T12:00:59","slug":"what-makes-a-radio-amateur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/network-radios.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/25\/what-makes-a-radio-amateur\/","title":{"rendered":"What makes a Radio Amateur?"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Chris G7DDN<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

I had a lively conversation with one of my best Ham friends the other day – and it got me thinking again\u2026 (always a dangerous thing!)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not Ham Radio!<\/b><\/p>\n

We were discussing one of the big talking points about Network Radios; the problem it seems to give some people that they do not generate RF on Amateur Bands on their own.<\/p>\n

My friend was arguing that using a Network Radio was not Amateur Radio, though when he talked about such devices accessing IRN and signals coming out on RF links via Echolink, he was happy to admit that it then could be Ham Radio, at least in part, because one\u2019s voice would be coming out on, for example, an amateur repeater somewhere.<\/p>\n

For him though, IRN to IRN or Zello to Zello was definitely \u201cnot<\/i><\/span> Ham Radio\u201d because no RF on an Amateur Band was generated.<\/p>\n

I totally get this argument – it is impossible to disagree that Network Radios do not directly generate \u201cHam RF\u201d or work directly on Ham bands.<\/p>\n

But I think that this is not the only issue here, as I will come to in a moment\u2026<\/p>\n

You\u2019re not an Amateur unless\u2026 what?<\/b><\/p>\n

He went further still however and argued you are not \u201cbeing a Ham\u201d unless you are actually transmitting<\/i><\/span> on Ham Bands.<\/p>\n

His reasoning was that if you use CB, you are a \u201cCB-er\u201d and if you use Zello, you are a \u201cZello-er\u201d and neither of these constitute any form whatsoever of Amateur Radio.<\/p>\n

Again I totally understand this, but again for me this doesn\u2019t completely hold up.<\/p>\n

Why not?<\/b><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s see why I think things have changed.<\/p>\n

For most of the history of Ham Radio, it was clear that Hams used only the allocated bands in the electromagnetic spectrum. This was in part because they were granted to us by governments for experimental purposes and, frankly, that is all there was!<\/p>\n

Interestingly, many hams through history have not necessarily been particularly interested in operating at all – their main interest may have been circuit design and\/or construction.<\/p>\n

They only ever came on the air when they were testing something that involved having<\/i><\/span> to transmit and the choice of band may well have meant little to them. They could have been anywhere on the Shortwave Spectrum in truth, but had to stick to allocated Ham Bands, for obvious reasons.<\/p>\n

Others may have been into antenna design – and again only came on to the Amateur bands to conduct relevant aerial tests.<\/p>\n

But I doubt whether any of these hobbyists saw themselves not as Hams until they actually transmitted<\/i><\/span> RF\u2026<\/p>\n

And what about callsigns?<\/b><\/p>\n

Our callsigns are very much part of our identity as Hams.<\/p>\n

Rather oddly, I see myself as G7DDN whether I am washing up, driving my car, or on holiday – it is almost \u201cpart of who I am\u201d. It is strange that a government allocated identifier can have this effect on us!<\/p>\n

To make matters worse, I am even called \u201cDDN\u201d by my ham friends and club members – I call other club members by their suffixes too! Even my debating friend above calls all of his friends (they are pretty much all Hams!) by their suffixes.<\/p>\n

Why? Because our very identity as people is, in part, wrapped up in our callsigns, even when we are not specifically \u201cgenerating Amateur RF\u201d.<\/p>\n

Into the 21st Century\u2026<\/b><\/p>\n

Now this gets interesting when the Internet arrives on the Ham scene in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

Suddenly we have a new form of propagation and a revival, after many years, of the very term \u201cwireless\u201d.\u00a0 <\/span>But this is not exclusive to Hams anymore.<\/p>\n

Anyone can use this short-range wireless radio – anyone can access the internet – anyone can have DX \u201cContacts\u201d of a sort – hence the crisis of confidence Ham Radio has been grappling with for some years\u2026<\/p>\n

Does that mean though that the likes of Zello and IRN are not \u201cvalid\u201d?<\/p>\n

Does that mean Hams should absolutely not<\/i><\/span> use these resources using their callsigns, because we are not transmitting on a specific Amateur Band, for example?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s about choice!<\/b><\/p>\n

I would have thought it is up to us<\/i><\/span> as individual hams to decide how we<\/i><\/span> want to use the new forms of Internet propagation.<\/p>\n

As I outlined in my recent article, \u201cTaking a Break<\/a>\u201d, in my local club, we have set up a Zello channel. It is private, password protected and moderated.\u00a0 <\/span>But it is used just like any Ham Radio channel with correct Amateur protocols etc.<\/p>\n

When used with Network Radios (handheld SDR computers with PTT buttons), it is not long before it \u201cfeels\u201d like Ham Radio in every way.<\/p>\n

Ask someone who\u2019s used one for any length of time\u2026 PTT buttons on handhelds take away the feeling of using an Android device; chunky units in one\u2019s palm are just like any other HT; PTT-style comms remove any vestige of \u201cphone-like\u201d feel, but we get the advantages of crystal-clear audio together with the benefits of modern social media, such as photo ID of members, (great for getting to know people!) ability to replay \u201covers\u201d, ability to moderate and self-police in appropriate ways.<\/p>\n

Is our Zello Group \u201cHam Radio\u201d? If you define it ONLY by generating RF on an Amateur Band, then no. But it certainly feels<\/i><\/span> like it\u2026<\/p>\n

Is there another definition?<\/b><\/p>\n

In the 21st Century, is generating \u201cAmateur RF\u201d the only<\/i><\/span> way to define Ham Radio? 50 years ago that may have been an easier question to answer – now, I\u2019m not so certain\u2026<\/p>\n

Natural forms of Propagation are only open to the traditional Ham Bands and radios – equally the new forms of Internet propagation are only open to computer-based \u201cradios\u201d. Is it not just a case of \u201chorses for courses\u201d? Use the right apparatus for what you trying to achieve?<\/p>\n

The fact that Hams are playing with crossing over between these devices and internet forms of propagation is even more fascinating!<\/p>\n

D-STAR and other modes have been part of this experimentation since the first digital commercial ham radios came out in the late 1990s.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s only a hobby!<\/b><\/p>\n

The word Amateur comes from the Latin \u201cAmare\u201d – to love.<\/p>\n

In other words, anything Amateur is done for the love of it. Amateur Radio is a hobby we are involved with (hopefully!) because we LOVE radio in all<\/i><\/span> its forms.<\/p>\n

But Zello (and IRN) is also a form of radio.<\/p>\n

Yes, it might use 5GHz or 900MHz, indeed we might not know exactly what frequencies we are using at any one time, but RF is<\/i><\/span> being generated. (I am assuming use of a wireless device of course!)<\/p>\n

Splitting Hairs?<\/b><\/p>\n

Put another way, if I have a 10 minute conversation with a fellow Ham on Zello, and then I repeat that conversation verbatim<\/i><\/span> for another set of 10 minutes on 2 metres, why should one be considered \u201cvalid\u201d and the other not?<\/p>\n

If the only thing that validates it is the fact that it is on 2 metres, I think we need to ask if we are not beginning to \u201csplit hairs\u201d.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s technology that has caused the problems – we never had to address questions like this in the past.<\/p>\n

CB and 446MHz were very much separate from Ham Radio, but the advent of new technology is what is causing new (almost philosophical) questions to be asked about our hobby and where technology is taking us.<\/p>\n

If you read my articles regularly, you will know I think this is not a bad thing.<\/p>\n

Keeping an open mind is surely a good thing? A closed mind maybe less so?<\/p>\n

But I love Ham Radio!<\/b><\/p>\n

I do! I love<\/i><\/span> Ham radio in all its forms – Zello\/IRN to me is another \u201cform\u201d of Ham Radio, maybe not on a specific government-allocated Ham band, but to all intents and purpose, it feels<\/i><\/span> like it.<\/p>\n

I am certainly not going to pooh-pooh it – just because it is sending a certain number of cycles per second into my local atmosphere.\u00a0 <\/span>I love learning how radio works and constructing things, but why should that stop me communicating with my Ham friends and using Ham protocols, via 2.4 GHz Wifi if necessary?<\/p>\n

When I use Zello and IRN, I am still being \u201cG7DDN\u201d and I use Ham protocols accordingly. I don\u2019t have<\/i><\/span> to maybe, but I do, especially as our club Zello group has our own home-grown rules to say we should do so.<\/p>\n

It was so much easier without the Internet! <\/b><\/p>\n

Ham bands were Ham bands, broadcast bands were broadcast bands, numbers stations were numbers stations and jammers were jammers.<\/p>\n

Now the internet has come and ruined everything by making the fullness of the radio experience available to everyone<\/i><\/span>, Broadcast radio, Spy radio, Business radio, Emergency services radio, Hobby 2-way radio and now it\u2019s even \u201cinfected\u201d Ham Radio. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t have to let new technologies be polarising though. We can still stand up for and use \u201ctrue\u201d Ham Radio and simultaneously embrace Network Radios.<\/p>\n

We can say, \u201cOK this is not direct Ham RF but is something we can work with and use for our own ends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the strangest quirk is that, if the Internet had been around when Amateur Radio first began, I wonder whether my best Ham friend and I might not even be having such a discussion today!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a thought\u2026<\/p>\n

\u00a9 April 2018<\/span><\/p>\n

Chris Rolinson G7DDN<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Chris G7DDN I had a lively conversation with one of my best Ham friends the other day – and it got me thinking again\u2026 (always a dangerous thing!) It\u2019s not Ham Radio! We were discussing one of the big talking points about Network Radios; the problem it seems to give some people that they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amateur-radio","category-zello-operation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/network-radios.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/network-radios.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/network-radios.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/network-radios.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/network-radios.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1749"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/network-radios.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1755,"href":"https:\/\/network-radios.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1749\/revisions\/1755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/network-radios.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/network-radios.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/network-radios.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/network-radios.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}