What is Amateur Radio?

Amateur Radio is a hobby which 6 million people take part in. Enthusiasts can communicate with people worldwide using a wide range of different techniques, frequencies, power limits etc. Amateur radio knows no boundaries, you could be talking to someone just like yourself or a leader of a country (the King of Jordan was a keen radio amateur holding the callsign of JY1). There are many famous people who hold amateur radio licences including; Who Wants To Be A Millionaire host Chris Tarrant, TV weatherman Jim Bacon and professional football player Sergei Rebrov!

Radio amateurs are at the forefront of technology as well as using the old tried and tested methods as well. When people think of amateur (or "ham") radio they think of someone with a morse key or a microphone in their hand, these are not the only methods of communication we use. The modern radio amateur uses many different ways to communicate. Many nowadays incorperate the home PC. Modes like PSK31, Packet, RTTY allow messages to be flashed across many hundreds or thousands of miles from an amateur's radio station to whoever is listening. Slow Scan Television (sstv) can be used to send still pictures across the airwaves. The internet also plays a part in the hobby. A lot of radio amateurs have linked their computers to their radios so that people worldwide are able to log on to use them. For example, if you saw someone online in america, you could log onto their 'link' and transmit through their radio to whatever frequency it is set on. This is all made possible by programs like Echolink, Eqso and IRLP.