Following up on the HAM radio class

I was thinking of my weekend and what I did. At first it was all blank, and then I remembered that we went to a HAM radio class at 8am Saturday morning. Let me just review off the top of my head what I learned: ( go back to July postings for the first part of this)..

HAM Radio Class

The teacher was great. He was NORMAL, thorough but not too chatty, and went through things fast- he also brought candy and snacks. We arrived, found a seat and started looking through the 150 slides of the powerpoint presentation... Then I looked around...

I counted 40 people here. 6 of them were women, and I think 4 of them were actually there by themselves ( meaning they were not dragged there by their husbands). Then I started looked at who was so wrapped up in this class. I have theory, I really think HAM Radio technology was started years ago by a club of men/boys with Autism- specifically Aspbergers Syndrome- high functioning autism ( bascially what this means is that a person is SCARY SMART, but socially has some major issues)

I think this class may have attracted a very large contingent of these followers. Seriously- remember we live in Intel Land, this was a magnet for those engineers. Lots of fathers and sons ( I asked Ryan why he didn't bring Grant :-).

I leaned over to Ryan to remind him of a few things we WON'T be doing:
a. Installing GIGANTIC antennas on our cars or house
b. Changing our license plates to our "call signs"
c. Attending any group meetings

Here are the top 10 things I got from the class...

(1) I still don't know what the HAM acronymn stands for ...

(2) The HAM radio network is a really tight network- you've got to do it right or they will report you to the FCC, who may show up at your door..

(3) I can actually use my HAM radio to send a signal which will bounce off a repeater tower, and I can place a call to someone's cell phone. OK- that could seriously be useful here.- This will work when the cell service is out. Or, if I want to call someone in Asia... for free.

(4) I could actually register to get my own "VANITY" call sign- Sounds great, but it just has a combo of letter and one number, and I'm never good at figuring out something clever like that... wish I was- especially when it has to start with a "K".

(5) I may actually contemplate getting a HAM radio for my car... more on that after I think about that one. It could be my own version of AAA, especially when there is no cell service.

(6) I could make international friends- talking to people all over the world ( remember the film "Frequency"- I could be Dennis Quaid)

(7) I learned the complete list of the ITU Phonetic Alphabet- I thought it was just for the military, and didn't know it went past "Delta".

A= Alpha
B= Bravo
C= Charlie
D= Delta
E= Echo
F= Foxtrot
G= Golf
H= Hotel
I= India
J= Juliet
etc. if you're really into this visit the website for the International Telecommunications Union.


(8) I could easedrop on other people's conversations. OK, there is a part of this that is VERY Appealing to me! I can also listen to the police, fire and even the Costco parking attendant's radio conversations if I find their "frequency"

(9) I seriously see a huge benefit to having this certification?? and tools- ( meaning the Radio), but I'm not sure I'll be listing it on my resume or Facebook page anytime soon.

(10) I still have to pass the test, and surprise, there is a bunch of electronics on the test ( again, remember my theory is that it was probably developed by engineers with autism- so its somewhat technical) The next test is the first Saturday in Oct- wish us luck. If you want to join our club, I can pass along the powerpoint presentation... then we could talk... on our radios...