Ham Radio

Amateur radio, often called Ham radio, is a hobby and public service enjoyed by about 3 million people throughout the world. more...

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An amateur radio operator, also known as a ham or radio amateur, uses advanced radio equipment to communicate with other radio amateurs for public service, recreation and self-training.

History

Throughout its history, amateur radio enthusiasts have made significant contributions to science, engineering, industry, and social services. The economic and social benefit derived from research by amateur radio operators has founded new industries, built economies, empowered nations, and saved lives in times of emergency.

The birth of amateur radio and radio in general has mostly been historically associated with various experimenters. There are many contenders to being the inventor of radio, that honor has been disputed between not only the original experimenters, Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1888), Nikola Tesla, and Guglielmo Marconi, but also Amos Dolbear, Reginald Fessenden, James Clerk Maxwell, Sir Oliver Lodge, Mahlon Loomis, Nathan Stubblefield, and Alexander Popov. In the beginning of 1895, Tesla was able to detect signals from the transmissions of his New York lab at West Point (a distance of 50 miles). Marconi demonstrated the transmission and reception of Morse Code based radio signals over a distance of 2 or more kilometres (and up to 6 kilometres) on Salisbury Plain in England in 1896. Marconi, by 1899, sent wireless messages across the English Channel and, according to his reports, the first transatlantic transmission (1902) . In the period following Marconi's experiments (1900-1908) many people throughout the world began experimenting with radio. Communications were made in Morse Code by use of spark gap transmitters or high frequency alternators. These first amateur radio operators are the roots of the modern international phenomenon of amateur radio.

In 1912, the United States Congress passed the Radio Act of 1912 which restricted private stations to wavelengths of 200 meters or shorter (1500 kHz or higher). These "short wave" frequencies were generally considered useless at the time, and the number of radio hobbyists in the U.S. is estimated to have dropped by as much as 88%. By this time, the term "ham" for an amateur radio operator was well established, the origins of which are obscure.

Read more at Wikipedia.org