A Look at Ham Radio and How it Can Benefit You

Ham radio is quickly replacing the use of the CB radios that truck drivers use. Ham radios offer more than CB radios and are not much more expensive in the long run than CB radios. Ham radios are a benefit to everyone, not just truck drivers.

With Ham radios you can talk to people from further distances than with CB radios. Also you can communicate on a higher frequency than is allowed by law for CB radios. Federal regulations limit the output on CB radios to 4 watt output. Also the frequency that is allowed for CB radios is limited to line of sight communications. This usually gives someone a five mile radius in which they can communicate. Ham radio users can legally operate transmitters with 1,000 watts of power and are able to use a wide range of frequencies for local and worldwide communications.

Until this year it was hard for a person to get licensed to operate at high frequency. Previously you would have to take an exam that would consist of Federal Communications Commission rules and regulations, basic electronic theory along with proficiency in International Morse Code. These tough tests are now a thing of the past for Ham radio users. You still must complete an exam on rules and theory though.

With the internet becoming popular and cell phones becoming something that almost everyone has, people thought that Ham radio would just fade away. How wrong these critics were. Cell phones and internet fees can rack up. With Ham radio you don't have all of these high fees. For example my husband is a truck driver and before I acquired my cell phone so that we could talk mobile to mobile at no charge, we were seeing some really high cell phone bills. This made it where we were not able to talk as much as we had wanted to. Now if we had both had the equipment and were licensed Ham users, we could have tuned to a long distance frequency and talked all we wanted at no charge.

Anyone who has ever listened to truck drivers talk on the CB radio has heard the very vulgar language that some truck drivers just seem to have to use. I for one don't care how vulgar their language gets. I do care however if my children hear that kind of language. Ham radio makes staying in touch via radio easy minus all that vulgar talk. It is against Federal regulations to use that kind of language on Ham radio.

Ham radio also proved to be useful to everyone during natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina. During Hurricane Katrina the winds, rain and flooding took out communications towers making impossible for people to communicate. Cell phones, land lines, internet all of this was gone. What was left was Ham radio. During this the amateur radio operators (Hams) stepped up to the plate and provide emergency communications for local and national communications for emergency crews and even individuals.

Imagine having no land line, no cell phone signal and your CB radio if you have one does not reach out far enough. Now imagine being stuck in the middle of an emergency of any kind with no way to get help. If you had a Ham radio, you could get help no matter what the emergency and no matter where you were located.

Just think about the fact that you can communicate from long distance without the high costs of long distance on your land line or the high reoccurring costs of a cell phone. Provided that you can only communicate with other Ham users though. So unless you are just wanted to meet new people from around the world, you need to talk your loved ones into getting licensed so that you can keep in touch with out the reoccurring bill.

The cost of the equipment can vary greatly depending on what you are wanting. Equipment ranges from anywhere around $150 to $10,000 new. Equipment can be purchased used for a fraction of this cost though. How much you spend is really up to what kind of equipment you want and whether you are wanting new or if you can get by with purchasing the equipment used. The basics to get you started are just a license, shoebox size radio, battery connection and an 8 foot antenna. With just these basics you can talk almost anywhere in the world.

There are many useful websites on the internet that can help you with information on licensing, purchasing equipment and more in-depth understanding of Ham radios.

Reviews and comments on new and used equipment:

Federal Communications Commission:

http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/index.htm?job=service_home&id=amateur

American Radio Relay League:

http://www.arrl.comhttp://www.eham.net