ARLA/CLUSTER: Radioamadorismo; Ou como socializar via ondas de rádio

[João Costa > CT1FBF]

Ham Radio: Socialising via airwaves

Hailed as the first true social networking medium, ham radio continues
to thrive even in this age of Twitter, Skype, Facebook and smartphones

The Hindustan Times newspaper says:

Pradeep Kumar VU2EXX is part of Delhi’s small community of amateur
radio buffs or ‘hams’, who continue to thrive even in this age of the
Internet. While Bangalore is known as India’s capital of ham radio ---
hailed as the first true social networking --- Delhi too has hams, who
have set up amateur radio stations or ‘shacks’, as they call them, at
their homes.

They love DXing , homebrewing their equipment and exchanging QSL
cards. And what gives these radio hobbyists, aged 20 to 85, the thrill
is the ability to communicate without a service provider, through
voice and Morse Code, the language of telegraphy.

The unique jargon of hamdom, which believes in the philosophy of ‘One
World One Language’, has its own special words, phrases, Q-Codes and
numbers. DXing means making a two-way radio contact with distant ham
radio stations and QSL cards are like postcards the operators send
each other, confirming a two-way contact. It’s a place where 73 means
‘best wishes’, and 88 means ‘love and kisses’.

“It is a world of incidental human interactions. Meeting an unknown
person sitting thousands of kilometres away over the radio waves is
such a magical and mystifying experience. Unlike Facebook, there are
no fake accounts here,” says Kumar, 54, sitting at his radio shack at
his house in Vikaspuri, which has several old and new transmitters,
receivers, and transceivers.”

Kumar, a ham for the past 41 years, is also a secretary of DARTS
(Delhi Amateur Radio Technical Society), the capital’s most active
amateur radio club. It has 40 members from different walks of life,
including businessmen, government employees, engineers, students,
teachers, advertising professionals.

Read the full story at
https://www.hindustantimes.com/delhi-news/ham-session-socialising-via-airwaves/story-nJePpZiWXSw5Jg5GqYnc8J.html

Delhi Amateur Radio Technical Society
https://darts.org.in/