[Constitution Day]

Ham radio is manly?

My impression of that hobby is that it attracts the kind of man that would go to a Star Trek convention. You know, a super-nerd.

[sig226]

But he’s a manly super-nerd. Besides, if the SHTF, amatuer radio is a widespread communication network that would survive most catastrophies or efforts to suppress it.

[DYngbld]

Ham radio is manly?

My impression of that hobby is that it attracts the kind of man that would go to a Star Trek convention. You know, a super-nerd

Nerdy yes, but I also enjoy most of the rest of the manly hobbies on that list, including knitting

My girls also participate in well over half of that list.

de KE4HTS

[GailA]

Many of the Hams work with the Boy Scouts, do field days where they camp out and make contact with other Hams all over the world, work parades, marathons, walks for different organizations like cancer, diabetes, etc. Many are involved in disaster assistance drills..because when the phone lines and cell towers go down then you have to have some other form of communication besides smoke signals.

The club hubby belongs to does all this and many build much of their own special items for their hobby. They come from all professions, wood workers, cabinet makers, automechnics, plumbers, police officers, retired Military, teachers, hubby's club even has an OB/GYN and a retired chef.

[RinaseaofDs]

Understanding antennae and propagation, S/N ratio, side bands . . . Very macho, not for sissies or for idiots.

Ham radio was the original way people in far flung locations stayed in touch with one another.

Today you can make a Ham call to Antarctica, for example, or Dead Horse, AK.

I was able to call home from the icebreaker because of a Ham setup that our MST1 had set up on the ship. He’d arrange landline hookups for enlisted to talk to their families before the stuff the USO has been able to provide lately existed.

[stickandrudder]

Would never go to a Star Trek convention.
But I just bought a new Yaesu VX-7R HAM radio. To go along with horseback riding, flying, aircraft mechanic, scuba diving, hunting, reloading, pistolcraft, archery, genealogy, raising cattle, used to camp alot... I got too many hobbies!

[dragnet2]

Ham radio is manly?

My impression of that hobby is that it attracts the kind of man that would go to a Star Trek convention. You know, a super-nerd.

I don't know, I think ham radio is very cool..

I talked to a guy not long ago, who was on a south pacific island, that lived on a boat with his dog, and sold fish to the island folks...He was a lone voice on a frequency, looking for contact...His radio signal was a little weak but readable...

It was interesting taking to him...He was eating breakfast, sun was coming up, and I was getting reading to go to sleep in my part of the world. He told me about his life in Australia and sailing the south pacific, and I told him how I designed my own omni directional vertical antenna systems, and the explained my power output was only about 100 watts...About that of a light bulb...

My other hobby?

I shoot the stars...

I built my own observatory and take digital images of deep space objects...

Here's my humble little observatory...It's designed so I can remotely control it from the house if desired.

And here is an image I shot of Orion last year, '09 of M42 Orion Nebula, which is actually a stellar nursery where over 700 stars at various stages are being formed within the central core of the nebula. Taken with a 10" catadioptric SCT at prime focus... This was a series of 35x110second, ISO-800 raw images, stacked, combined and calibrated in DSS.

[RFEngineer]

“Ham radio is manly?

My impression of that hobby is that it attracts the kind of man that would go to a Star Trek convention. You know, a super-nerd.”

So, are you so insecure about your own manhood that you would denigrate the inherent manliness of Ham Radio?

Maybe you’d prefer figure skating or interior decorating if you can’t find Ham Radio manly......

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