Leave judgement outside the shack ...

Foundations of Amateur Radio

Today I'm here to tell you that I'm in the process of writing a book, actually seven of them, and to be precise, there's more of editing than writing, since I'm putting together all of my podcast efforts over the past seven years. Nice how that works out, seven years, seven books.

Most of the effort is in proof-reading my work. Do I spell radio amateur with capital letters, or not, do I use my word-processor to replace all occurrences of radio amateur without capital letters and what happens when I refer to them as radio amateurs instead? You get the drift, lots of minutia, consistency and every now and then a little edit to make a sentence make sense to a reader. As an aside, if I don't get distracted by life I'm planning to publish in the next week.

The unexpected joy I'm getting from this experience is to read about my adventures and to remember some of the adventures that you have told me about, things I've been working on, events that you and I attended, contests, victories and frustration.

One thing I've noticed, something that you're likely to observe once in a while by accident, is the immense variety of activities that encompass this wonderful hobby.

There are build projects, activations, social outings, research activities, laughter, joy, disgruntlement, dissatisfaction and triumphs. I've said many times that this hobby of ours is 1000 hobbies in one and reading back, I suspect that 1000 is underselling the experience.

Going back also shows that learning Morse code has been on the books for a long time and clearly I'm stumbling on some roadblocks there. My DXCC adventures continue to grow one contact at a time, my mobile setup is working well compared to other methods of activating my station and new adventures appear just around the corner waiting to be discovered.

I'm in the middle of my next adventure. Adding crystal filters to my radio, installing a temperature compensated crystal oscillator, finding out about the drift and frequency accuracy, all these are part of a much larger project. The next step is finding a suitable antenna. I'm still on the fence between building and buying. It's a joint decision with a fellow F-call, and we're working through this adventure together to see where it might lead.

Our skill-set is completely different, with different perspectives on the same thing, different tools we bring to bear on the challenge we've set ourselves and that in and of itself is a fun experience to have. We've spent some time together talking about the landscape we're stepping into and I think it's safe to say that we can both learn a lifetime of knowledge from the other person, if our life outside amateur radio doesn't intrude - hi hi.

The point of this observation is that I've noticed over the years that there are amateurs who leave the hobby, never to return. Some would say: "Good riddance!", but I think that given the infinite breadth of this hobby and community, each of those people leaving makes for a poorer experience for them, and also for us.

I'll be the first to admit that I have disagreements with fellow amateurs, sometimes very strong disagreements. I know that this is true among other amateurs as well. This is not particularly unusual in a technical pursuit like our hobby, I see it in my professional life in computing as well.

The thing that should set us up for a better experience is that we're all about communication in this hobby, but there are times when I wonder if we just pay lip-service to that notion, rather than attempt to be tolerant, inclusive and welcoming. Perhaps it would be wise to add another thing that should be left out of the ham shack, together with talk about religion and politics, perhaps we should leave judgement at the door as well.

I think it would be a good idea to learn how to do that, perhaps bite our tongues a little more, take a breath, ask the other what they're thinking, rather than rant back and forth between two individuals who can't stand the sound of the other person's voice.

I note that I took a little detour there, but I think it's important to note that this hobby isn't all cookies and cream, that there is discussion, argument and dissent. I think that we are in a unique position to do something about it.

As for my adventures, they always seem to just be beginning. There's always something new to discover, something new to build, to do, to experience. I've said it before and I'll say it again: "Amateur radio, what a hobby. Tell your friends."

I'm Onno VK6FLAB