The hobby started as a bastion of experimenters and builders of radio equipment and antennas. As a teen in the 1960’s, I was fascinated by a neighbor who could talk to other hams in faraway places.
Early ham operators built a lot of their own equipment from scratch.
I built my first 5 watt transmitter from a simple schematic, using spare parts given by me by my neighbor. It worked for sending Morse Code. I learned to send and receive the Code. It is fun to use Morse Code and many hams still do.
You would be amazed at how fast some hams can send and receive Morse Code and there are still Code speed contests held at some “hamfests.”
I passed the written and Code tests for Novice and, later, General Class. I graduated to Advanced Class, now grandfathered, which license I still hold. There were 5 classes of license back then: Novice, Technician, General, Advanced and Extra.
Most people do not realize how important the design and construction of the antenna is to communicate by ham radio. There is great and complex science in antennas and some amazing accomplishments in communication by very low power transmitters combined with superior antenna designs.
Ham radio operators are of great help in natural disasters, helping with emergency communications when other normal communication options are not working.
It is fun to communicate with foreign operators in other countries. I have talked to operators in Europe, Japan and Antarctica and islands in the Pacific Ocean. Sometimes conditions are just right and a 10,000-mile conversation sounds as good as talking to your next-door neighbor on the telephone.
My brother left me an ICOM VHF/FM transceiver when he died. Model IC-V8000, brand new, in box. Looks like a mobile unit. Nobody on CL wants it.