My Amateur Radio Story & My Advice for New Hams

Just a little weekend drive, reflecting on how I got started in ham radio and what my advice is for you as a beginner if you're just starting out.

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► Ham Mail: Hayden Honeywood - P.O Box 5071, Sandy Bay Tasmania 7005 Australia

#HamRadio #AmateurRadio #VK7HH

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[dalebarnes]

Hi Hayden, I got interested when I lived in Devonport with my Dad, it was crystal sets in those days at an age of 11. I go more and more interested in radio and discovered there was a ham near my old high school and plucked up the courage one day to ask to have a look at his station and wow it was interesting with home built transmitter and Hallicrafters receiver. It was all CW and AM in those days (1964) the antenna was a open wire fed dipole fed with a home brew antenna tuner. I wasn't able to get my call for a few years until 1977 and then it was a novice call VK7NDN with 10 watts. Studied for my advanced call and got that in 1978 VK7DG and had it ever since .

[craigvkpaw]

Was a CBer in my 20s, a friend who was a full call told me about the foundation licence so I got my F call in 2010 in my 40s

[albertii]

Hayden... Been a ham for close on 30 years, was interested since I was child and found those strange "glass bottles" in my much older brothers cupboard. No idea what they were... nice names though... RCA and Sylvania it said on the boxes.
Fast forward. big I think putting it simply: We are blessed to have what is and can be soooo much more than just a hobby. The beauty is that there are countless ways in which you can enjoy this "hobby". Ragchewing ?, CW... Digital... hitting the moon, hitting meteor showers.... only doing FT 8 ? Just LOVE cw ? only wanna run Whisper ? Designing the next most fantastic antenna ? Being an SSB fanatic??? ...The list goes on and on and on.
Heh... if you haven't "hammed"? You haven't lived . <Smile>
Thanks for the video. Just bought my SECOND AUSTRALIAN DESIGNED AND MADE Monitor Systems PWR/SWR sensor... Never seen such a wonderful product !
Hayden... KEEP 'EM COMING, your effort in producing and giving us these videos is >>>> APPRECIATED !!!<<<<
Albert
EI7II.

[koobkong]

I first found out about it in Scout's in the 80's and now I'm in my 40's I'm going to go for my licence. All these videos are helpful 👍

[JReed]

I got my first ticket in 1996 when I was 18, my senior year of High School. One of the teachers started a club and noticed my CB antenna on my truck in the student parking lot. Let it laps in 2003, I worked on radios on active duty so was getting my fix there. Got my ticket back in 2019 and got my General a year later.

[VKHG]

Always had a love for cb as boy. First licenced at 40 when they dropped Morse. As passionate as ever about ham radio. Great vid Hayden.

[CanuckHam]

We are roughly the same age. It's awesome to see another young"ish" ham out there. I have been following your videos for a bit now, and it's very cool stuff. I especially like your VHF-Microwave videos. Happy New Year!

[matknight]

1979 when i first became interested in Radio, A friends mum and dad were Radio Amateurs and it just blew me away. their shack was like the tower at Heathrow. Played around with 11mtrs for years but always wanted to go Licenced. Took me too long to take the plunge but here we are.

[mattghoward]

1983 - was always into electronics but work required me to do an electronics trades course and then a radio post trades course and got me a broadcast operators certificate of proficiency (to run tv stations and radio stations etc) - and since then have been poor with lots of radios :-) - My father was licenced in 1950 and held his licence for 60+ years - he also had a commercial operators class 1 & 2 licence and a BOCP

[ksj]

KS9J: Got my novice license (KA9DSM) in 1977 when I was 14 yo. My father was a ham since 1950 (W9NTK) after being a radio operator in the China-Burma-India theater in WWII.

[kootv]

When I was 41 about a year ago. All because of the Nashville bombing. I lost all communications and all I had was a little Baofeng and that was how I was able to know when AT&T would back up.
Now I'm a General and have spent lots of money and spent many hours enjoying the hobby putting up dipoles up in 100ft trees in the back yard and making contacts all over the world. Great hobby. 73

[johnathanasiou]

Dick Smith (definitely!), electronics mags (EA, ETI, Talking Electronics, Silicon Chip) but mainly got introduced to ham radio talking on an Yaesu rig by an "elmer" at 9yo (went to school with the ham radio ops kids, which is how we all met).
This was during the cold war years & one time we spoke to a Russian ham with a young family & homebrew gear.
It wasn't just the technological marvel which blew my mind, but saw the deeper impact how ham radio could cross political, social & other normal societal boundaries.
Due to family illness, upheavals in my life & commitments & although I was an avid SWL (ERA/ERT 5 from Athens, Greece def my fave!) & CBer i plucked up the courage & finally hit the books (thank you Dick Smith, Fred Swainston, ARRL handbook & other ARRL books & coupled with college electronics education level I finally got my AOLCP ticket (full theory, full reg, nil code) at 27yo

[KIASK]

Got licensed in 2002, so I was 34. Always fascinated by shortwave radio. Got inspired after the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks

[ronwolenski-nwcr]

Hey Hayden, haven't heard from you in a while, hope everything is well. I was 15 in high school, back in 1971. My brother is a ham, so I was interested in radios, but he is 10 years older than me so he was already married by then. However, in high school I found out they had a radio club from a older friend . Got my Novice license from after school classes. Back then the Novice license was good for only two years, you had to upgrade or lose your license. General the code speed was 13 wpm, but with school and all I never got my code speed up past the 5 wpm for the novice, so I went for my Technician license, which was the same written test as General but the code was 5 wpm so I didn't have to take a code test. Years later with family and everything I let my license expire, so I took the NoCode Tech when it came out. While going to a General class the instructor mentioned that a new rule if you EVER had a older Technician license that was the General written test you were grandfathered into the general. After finding an old Callbook that had my old license listed, took that to the VE exam and they looked it over and granted my General.

[jashoon]

I was first licensed in 2000 when I was about 25yrs old, had been interested in radio most of my life since the age of about 6. Did a lot of shortwave listening in the 80's (1983-1989) then got into cb radio in 1988 when I was about 14yrs old. Still listening around on the shortwave and HF bands and starting to monitor VHF on aircraft and marine and amateur bands. Looked at the license back in the late 80's about 1988 but found it too difficult so did not try again till around 2000 and passed the limited license first then did the 5 wpm for the upgrade to the full license in 2001 and have not looked back. 73 from Jason ZL2FT.

[oldfartonabmx]

Started with 27.145Meg toy walkie-talkies as a kid. Trying to talk to friends down street and across town. (I wonder what output power they had ) Also a bit of shortwave listening. Mum n dad had a record player with shortwave radio that I’d hook a wire up to. In mid / late teens got interested in cb and amateur, used to buy cb action and amateur radio action magazines. Fast forward 30 years and I’ve passed my foundation and waiting on the acma to do their part…. (3 weeks waiting so far..)

[VKKU]

Got my license in 2004 and upgraded to advanced in 2006 (back in DL).

Was one of the best choices / decisions in my life (apart from moving permanently to Australia and having a family). Opened in terms of work so many doors.
And even at Uni. Got offered to join a cubesat student group and I ended up working on the satellite which got launched in 2007. That nano-satellite was COMPASS-ONE.

Amateur / Ham radio is for me more than a hobby. It has been a game changer.

73
Kevin, VK4KK

[MRMY]

CB and 11m for years starting in 1981. Did 11m alone until a long gap from it and then back to radio and ham in 2013, getting all 3 UK licences here in a few months. Advanced licence finally in 2013.

[pale_]

I got started in HAM Radio in November of 2019 at 33yrs old. It all started when the FCC was going to ban the Baofeng radios. Thought to myself, if the government wants to ban it, then it might be something I need.

I ordered a UV-5R and started scanning once I learned what it was used for. While doing some research, I learned that one needed to have a license to legally operate the radio. Not too long after that, I got a Technician study guide and downloaded a study guide app on my phone. Once I got consistent with passing the exam questions, I found a testing site and took my exam for Technician. I passed it, just missed 4 questions out of the 35.

A few months after I got my Technician, I bought a General license study guide. Studied off and on again. One day, a friend of mine told me he was hosting an online testing session with the Alaska VEC in a couple weeks. I studied hard for a couple weeks, hitting the study guide and practice exams. Got consistent with passing before the test date.

When the test date came around in September of 2020, I was a bit nervous about doing it online. During the briefing, we were told that if we looked off screen, the test would be terminated. When the test started, I just took my time and read the questions and answered to the best of my knowledge. About 25 to 30 minutes later after finishing the exam, the results came back a minute later from the VEC, I passed my General license. I tried for Extra, but failed that. Just need to study a bit more for the Extra upgrade.

73, W4ISB
Mike in Tennessee.

[terrybell]

I started as a swl when I was 5 . Got into cb in the early 70 s, got my licence when I was 16 44 years ago