When you discover a good thing it’s human nature to want to share it with others. Ham radio has been a lifelong hobby for me, one that has delighted and entertained me while providing hands on learning in the art and skill of wireless communication. The fraternity of the air is such that most of my friends are radio amateurs. So it seemed appropriate to assemble a collection of links explaining this hobby along with some details of how you too can become a radio amateur.

How to Become a Radio Amateur - ARRL book cover

Amateur: One who is attached to or cultivates a particular pursuit, study. or science, as music or painting, from taste, without pursuing it professionally.

Amateur radio is a global hobby, now in its Second Century, providing opportunity to transmit wireless signals. It is therefore an avocation regulated by government. A license is required and each government creates its own rules and regulations on obtaining that license and operating a transmitting station under coordinating international agreements. This brief treatise will focus only on requirements for radio amateurs in the United States.

Over the course of my half-century in the hobby I have churned up many words in an attempt to more perfectly describe what it is we do, or why those of us with a license enjoy it so much. It’s difficult to nail down. According to the official definition, amateur radio is “radio communication between amateur stations solely with a personal aim and without pecuniary interest.” A comparable definition might describe a diamond as a “carboniferous solid.” Yet, properly mounted, a diamond is a many-faceted gem of dazzling beauty. Amateur radio, too, has many facets.

What follows was written by Clinton B. DeSoto and published in 1936. Despite having been crafted in another era, it remains a solid description of the hobby and I’ve yet to find a better one as this story encapsulates the “why”. Though much has changed, the heart of the matter remains timeless.

Note: There are now nearly 3,000,000 amateurs world-wide…

THE STORY OF AMATEUR RADIO is the story of an adventurous band of free spirits, in present time more than 60,000 strong, scattered over the entire globe in every continent and every country, who hold communication far up in the empyrean spaces over roaring ocean and untracked land. It is the story of men and boys, eminent scientists and young lads in school - and women and girls as well-who at the touch of a key or soft word spoken into a microphone can leap around the world; who have wiped out for all time the age-old barriers of race and language and distance.

It is the story of a band of good fellows, happy, convivial, carefree, playing the game for the very love of it; but underneath all that carrying on with the deep earnestness of those who have successfully pierced the veil of the unknown and garnered the secrets of science. Hamfesting, they go, and rag-chewing; greeting each other and passing on around a corner in the Milky Way with the careless, cordial effrontery of “Old Man” and “73” and “CUL” … and then turning to the saving of a hundred lives in a fever-ravished Alaskan village or flashing the kindly words of the homeland press to a party of explorers at the bottom of the world.

There are amateurs in every field of endeavor. There are a thousand hobbies in which the spare time of humans is dissipated. One can find countless methods to avoid ennui, to satisfy intellect and ego, and even to do service to one’s fellow man. There are those who reach out in to space searching infinity with their telescopes. There are others who find less of interest in the gaudy colors of a bawdy night club than can be encountered within the barrel of a microscope. Stamp collectors do an annual mutual business totaling millions of dollars; they have created an industry for themselves alone. Every field of scientific and intellectual research owes a great debt to the amateurs it has attracted and from whose achievements it has benefited.

But to none other than the amateurs of radio is existence in the world dominion of the air vouchsafed by an international treaty to which nearly all the nations of earth are signatory; for none other than amateur radio have these governments written laws and formulated regulations and issued certificates of proficiency which make them the only class on earth capable of communicating beyond the range of their own senses without paying toll to some governmental agency or commercial corporation.

The Many Facets

Next year will be my 50th year in the hobby, and despite having taken a deep dive into all that’s available to me, I’ve only scratched the surface. There are the normal things that aren’t really normal at all. For instance, one can spend a lifetime attempting to contact as many faraway or rare stations as possible. And this can be done on specific bands of frequencies using various modes of communications. One DX certificate is issued for those confirming contact with at least 100 different countries (entities) on the 20 meter band using Morse code. Another certificate can be had for doing the same thing using voice. Or using any of the digital modes. Multiply that times every specific band of frequencies available and you can spend an entire lifetime just chasing DX!

And that is but one facet of the hobby. There are major and minor radio contests throughout each year, RadioSport with the goal of making the most contacts in limited windows of time for each. Then there are highly specialized pursuits such as space communication where we use our own fleet of satellites. Some hams even bounce signals off the ionized trails of falling meteorites. Others bounce radio signals off the Moon. The less explored world of microwaves is wide-open to all classes of radio amateurs and another lifetime could be spent exploring its oddities. The blending of the internet with amateur radio has yielded all manner of communication opportunities and hams have taken full advantage of these.

Some hams purchase manufactured gear while others feel that part of the hobby is building their own equipment by hand. Thanks to the wide array of frequencies and modes available to licensees, this home-brewed equipment can fall anywhere between simple to highly complex depending on the acumen of the builder. A great deal of pride and satisfaction can be had from working a faraway ham using radio equipment built with your own hands.

It’s not possible for me to list every single thing a radio amateur can do in the enjoyment of their hobby. Perhaps it’s most important to point out that shared interests, especially a highly specialized interest like two-way personal radio, brings together birds of a feather. Making new friends on the air, with endless opportunity to simply chat (rag-chewing) with other like-minded souls can be satisfying and soul-soothing. None of us can ever have too many friends!

Fraternalism … good fellowship … ingenuity … public service … the power to annihilate distance and bring oneself closer to mankind throughout the world … the ability to build and create and put the products of one’s hands to work to overcome the miles and hours … thrills and sport and adventure … that’s what amateur radio is like.

Amateur Radio Licensing in the US

As noted, a federal license is the open sesame to amateur radio. For good or for bad, the current system includes three classes of license, Technician, General, and Extra class. These come with varying degrees of difficulty and yield different operating privileges, with the Extra class conveying all amateur privileges.

Tests include some radio theory and a heavy dose of rules and regulation, but these are multi-choice tests that don’t require 100% to be passed. All of the exam questions are published ahead of time though it would be much more difficult to memorize all of them than it is to simply learn the concepts. The question pools include hundreds and hundreds of possible questions while the exam only asks 35 questions (50 for the Extra license).

Many are surprised to discover that Morse code testing is no longer a necessary requirement.

License testing is handled by Volunteer Examiners located in almost every nook and cranny of these United States. Local radio clubs dedicate one or more days a month to the task and it won’t be difficult to find a testing site nearby.

Online testing is available on a somewhat limited basis.

ARRL - the National Association for Amateur Radio

The American Radio Relay League was formed in 1914 and has been a stalwart promoter and untiring defender of amateur radio in the United States for more than a hundred years. ARRL publishes books, manuals, and various periodicals of high value for hams of all ages and license classes.

Being a hobby that’s federally regulated, it’s vital we have a legal voice in Washington, and ARRL provides that. As a Life Member and Diamond Club supporter, of course I urge every licensed radio amateur to become a member.

Related Links

Good Luck!

I hope you find something useful in this information and on your quest to join the ranks of more than 750,000 US amateur radio enthusiasts and I look forward to one day working you on the air!