It is exciting because it is well beyond the few modes popular when i started in the 1970s such as SSB, FM, CW, and RTTY. Now our tent is HUGE that includes computers, digital modes, the Internet for sharing, and SDR rigs. It is an amazing time to be a ham.
It is a game changer because of the skills that we acquire being hams that are technical, competitive, social, research, project management, etc. I can go on and on. Very few hobbies offer so much.
The doors this hobby opens are through the networks of individuals that we connect to through the hobby. How many of my QSO Today guests found their life's work through their ham radio connections?
Janis Carson, AB2RA, is also a ham whose doors were opened by her attachment to our hobby that began 60 years ago. Her skills acquired more than compliment the amount of information and expertise that she shares on her website and in the pages of Electric Radio Magazine.
She has become an activist and advocate for amateur radio to the FCC (hence my subject line), where our hobby is constantly under threat by the large mobile carriers who would like to gobble up our microwave frequencies. Our low bands too are under threat as Janis explains in this QSO Today.
Thanks for listening.
73, Eric 4Z1UG