I’m happy. I’ve been a licensed radio amateur (commonly referred to as ‘ham radio’) since 1975. I held an advanced class license since 1982. I let my license lapse in 2002 and last fall decided to get back into the game. I walked into an examination session last fall and walked out with a general class license. That was good enough to get me back on the air with operating privileges on all the various bands.
Today I sat for the ‘extra’ class exam and passed it quite handily with 92%. That’s as high as it gets with the Feds.
Tickles me.
Of course, when I got started in this game, Morse code was still a requirement. I had to do five words per minute to get my technician license and 13 WPM for the advanced class, along with the written tests. Getting the extra class back then required 20 WPM. I could do twenty, but also back then you had to go to an FCC office to take the test. Our nearest one was in Houston, Texas.
Now, various amateur radio clubs can administer the exams under the ‘Volunteer Examiner’ program and code is no longer a requirement, although it still lives on the amateur radio bands. Nothing gets a weak signal through with minimal technology like Morse code. I can still do it, but not like I used to do.
Modern technology has taken over a lot of amateur radio. The same technology advances that can turn your iPhone into EVERYTHING can also take a magic box tied to a computer and turn it into a communications device with capabilities that weren’t even dreams when I got started in this stuff. Suffice to say, I have a computer connected to my radio and it lets me do fun things with digital communications modes.
And there’s still a microphone. My hundred watts will talk around the world if conditions are right.
And there’s still a Morse Code key. Mine is from a factory in China that made them for the Chinese Army.
Cool, huh? I lost one almost identical to it when my house burned down after Hurricane Rita. That one was made in USA for the Army. They don’t make ’em here any more, not like that, anyway.
So anyway… Just rambling.