Ocala.com

Ocala.com

Article published Dec 30, 2005
BITS & PIECES
Go ahead. Ham it up on the radio

EMORY SCHLEY

If you're looking for something different in the New Year, not the same old humdrum rigmarole you find yourself in every January, then I've got something you might be interested in.

Why not a new hobby? Not only can you have a lot of fun, you can be of service to your fellow man at the same time!

Amateur radio can be an open doorway to adventure for you, opening up paths you never believed existed. Not only can you communicate with others all around the world, you can talk to astronauts during their leisure hours aboard the International Space Station. I've read that about 80 percent of all the astronauts (and cosmonauts) are licensed radio amateurs.

I've had a license for 25 years now and talked to hams in Antarctica, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Easter Island, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and to someone in all 50 States. An old ham who had lived in Tasmania for 50 years once regaled me about adventures he experienced in his adopted homeland. I once had a conversation with Tom Christian, a descendant of Fletcher Christian of 'Mutiny on the Bounty' fame. Many of the Christian clan still live on Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific and most of them are hams."



73 fer nw,
Bob AD5VJ

10X# 37210, FP#-1141, SMIRK#-5177
http://www.n5iet.com/
Code may be taking a back seat for now,
but the pioneering spirit that put the code
there in the first place is out front of it all.