Some reasons I enjoy ham radio

Radio still seems like magic to me. In my early teenage years, I listened to distant AM radio stations on a small radio. On some nights the stations came in clearly, and other nights not at all. Today, my antennas and radios are much larger and more sensitive, but I still feel the magic. I may listen to friends across town, or talk with someone perched on a small atoll in mid-Pacific Ocean, or talk with someone commuting the highways in a far-away city. Once I talked for nearly an hour from Vancouver with a ham on Lake Powell who described a lovely sunset from his part of the world.
Many hams earned their license to help communicate during times when their community needed help. During and after the windstorms along the Oregon coast in December 2007, ham radio operators dispatched police, fire, and other county personnel because the county radio system failed. Many of the hams who served along the coast were relatively new, and they used simple radio systems. After the Gulf hurricanes in 2005, hams helped rescue and support agencies with needed communications. Most communities lost their local public service communication facilities from wind and water damage, so ham radio filled the gap.
Ham radio operators often help with non-emergency events such as parades and large events like the Hood-to-Coast relay. The race course covers over 190 miles. Hams set up at most checkpoints which are 6-8 miles apart. They handle emergency and health-related communications along the route. Hams do this without pay as a community service.
The hams I’ve met all seem genuinely nice and helpful, and are usually willing to share what they know to help other hams. I’m sure some do not fit this pattern, but those folks apparently avoided meeting me. Most are willing to answer questions from a newbie, or help in the community when needed.
Ham radio includes many sub hobbies. Some became hams so they could communicate during search and rescue events. Others earned their license to help learn electronic principles and experiment (cell phones, and cable TV came from such experimentation). Still others joined so they could talk with people in distant places. My personal interests include using radios to support community and church events, participating in radio contests to improve my operating skill, and helping others earn their licenses. Sometimes I try my hand at building antennas with some modest success.
Ham radio provides a framework to learn many interesting things about our world. When I talk with someone in a distant place, I often look on a map to find where the other person lives. Radio waves obey physical laws, some of which we know little about. Some days I can talk easily with people in Denver, or Atlanta, and other days all I hear is static from the atmosphere energized by our sun. During a single day, I might hear east coast stations for several hours, and then as they fade away, stations from the Great Plains replace the east for a while before those stations, too, fade away into the noise. Is it magic? I still think so.

Four ham radio contacts, all different

A few days ago while I worked on my bills and sorted through some receipts to post, I turned on the radio nearby and dialed around on the 20-meter band (about 14.250 MHz). I listened for quite a while as a ham in Green River, WY talked with Cub and Boy Scouts in several California cities. He was a former professional scouter, served in the Army, and sounded like an interesting fellow.

When N7COA left the air I twiddled the dial some more and heard a station in NY who was participating in the NY QSO party (see Note 1 below). I called W2CCC, he answered, and the contact was over. I will likely send a QSL card to confirm the contact.

Then I dialed around some more and heard a special event station at a Wildlife Refuge in Homer, AK. I called K7P and we chatted for a bit. I definitely will send a QSL card (see Note 2) and possibly $2 for a nice certificate about the refuge.

Again, I spun the dial and heard a station with an unusual call sign: T32C. I looked up the call sign and discovered they were transmitting from Christmas Island in the Pacific near the equator. I just confirmed my call sign is in the log! This is a new ham country for me (see Note 3).

A couple days ago I talked with some local friends using the 2-meter band. Two-meter signals can travel long distances, but not half way round the world. Technicians have full use of all the ham bands above 30 MHz, plus small segments in the HF bands. General and higher licensees can use the HF bands to talk around the world when conditions are right.

I enjoyed my three casual contacts.

Note 1: A QSO is a contact between hams. A QSO Party encourages hams to contact other hams within the QSO Party boundaries (in this case New York). Hams within the boundary contact anyone. This is one way to increase the number of county contacts, and helps me learn some geography.

Note 2: QSL cards can be simple (call sign, names, date and time of contact, band or frequency, and usually mode (single sideband, CW, etc.). Some cards have beautiful photos that show the area where the ham lives. The cards confirm a contact between hams.
Note 3: Hams count countries differently than the UN or geographers. Portions of countries (such as AK and HI) separated from the rest of the country by some distance (I think 100 miles, but not sure) count as different countries. So a person who works all 50 states will have 3 DX countries in the bag.