Posted on 07/06/2008 9:19:40 AM PDT by mylife
Posted on Sun, Jun. 01, 2008 A boy's passport to the world
Six-year-old Cameron Hasson's world just got a little larger.
The amateur radio license he recently earned puts him in touch with folks from all over.
He's a bona fide “ham” – probably the youngest in North Carolina and maybe the U.S., according to his instructor, Joe Hullender with the Gastonia Area Amateur Radio Club.
All that talk going on out in radio land – endless conversations about the weather and gas prices and whatever – Cameron takes it all in.
The world has opened up. He feels more connected. And he also feels closer to his parents: Eric, a computer consultant, and Beverly, a physical therapist at Gaston Memorial Hospital. Studying in the same class, they all earned their amateur radio licenses together.
Ham radio, like fishing, is something I've always admired, but never had much luck with.
Eric Hasson, 46, got the radio bug as a kid in St. Louis. It came from his dad, Jack, who was into citizens band radio during the CB craze of the 1970s – the “Smokey and the Bandit” days.
Eric decided to study for his ham license, but the FCC's requirement of testing for proficiency in Morse code was a brick wall for him.
His interest in electronics and computers grew as visions of being an amateur radio operator faded.
Until the brick wall collapsed. In late 2006, the FCC did away with the Morse code requirement and Hasson started thinking about ham radio again.
The idea kicked around in his mind for a while. Then, in March, he enrolled in a six-week class sponsored by the Gastonia Area Amateur Radio Club. On the first day, Hasson asked Hullender if a 6-year-old could learn the material. The answer was yes. Hasson asked Cameron if he'd like to try for a license. Cameron was game.
Two-way radio had already captured his imagination. He had a CB, a General Mobile Service and Dick Tracy-style Family Radio Service, complete with a Tracy wrist radio.
These radio services, which didn't require a license, gave his son a little more freedom, Eric Hasson said. His parents could check on him when he was out of sight and feel a greater sense of security.
When her husband and son signed up for the class, Beverly Hasson decided she'd join them.
The radio class was held at the Gaston County Police Community Room. Ages ranged from 6 to 76.
The final exam had 35 multiple choice questions; to pass, you had to get 26 right.
Cameron wanted a technician class license – the beginner's level. Hullender remembers his youngest student as “kind of quiet and serious.”
A kid, maybe, but one who was really into the subject.
Every night at home, Cameron was tutored by his dad. They did research together on the computer. They waded through technical material.
“It was hard,” Cameron recalled.
Test day rolled around. Eric Hasson wasn't sure his son would pass.
But he did.
Cameron wants to go up another notch and get a general radio license. He's a smart kid and will probably make it. But even if he doesn't, he's learned about focus and hard work and family togetherness. At 6, he's way ahead of the game.
That was one of the items I was trying too remember that had PCB’s.......seems that was something I heard , read or observed at some point .......unless of course I am mistaken !...........:o)
SWAG on my part when ya mentioned it !!
Older ones may have had PCBs.
/johnny
Shows ya what I know about it !..........:o)
Thanks girl. Ham radio ping for Mr G
/johnny
LOL !!
/johnny
/johnny
LOL.......I know !
I am off too bed !
You Stay safe !
My youngest got his when he was 10. He forgot to do the whole last page of the test but he still passed. He did practice tests online until he could pass them every time. The day he wanted to take the test, the local people weren’t giving it so we had to drive for ages to get to the place. He had a ball with it on 2m, but he got into a lot of things and hasn’t kept up. But he did just renew, so maybe he’ll get back in. His older brother bot his a few weeks ahead.
Good for JR!
I let it lapse, took a new test on a whim with the volunteers, when my ex wanted to take it.
I passed the 5wpm with NO advance training (after 17 odd years), and the electronics is always the same.
I got serious about it about when my hearing started failing. I passed the 13 WPM by one question.
And then, I let it lapse again. It's current, and accurate, these days.
Passing is passing.
It's all good. I can live with Advanced Class.
/johnny
Me too. I got to hear a lot of interesting things. It helped to teach me to be curious about the world.
One of my biggest thrills was having a letter I had sent to Radio Nederland read on the air. And of course the excitement of receiving QSL cards in the mail. Although, looking back, I’m sure I was on some CIA list for sending reception reports to Radio Moscow and Radio Havana. ;)
Some days, you can't lose for winning....
/johnny
That must have been a surprise to hear your own letter read on the air. Listening to the crude propaganda broadcasts from the East Block countries was one of my ideas of entertainment. I used to also listen to a lot of English broadcasts from Radio Nederland. One program I miss was this American Big-Band music program that the Deutsche Welle used to have. One of the more unusal things I listened to was news reports on Radio Australia about the de-orbit of Skylab (This was in 1979 and big parts of Skylab crashed in Australia). Just two years ago I listened to Kol Israel announce rocket attacks. I do not understand Hebrew but periodically programming would be interrupted by this beep-beep-beep alarm sound and the announcer would mention the name of a city that was in danger. A lot of broadcasters are cutting back on shortwave and you can listen on the Internet, but it is not the same thing.
Training up and humping may require some time and understanding...
PICK 'EM UP!
/johnny
I actually did hear the live Radio Beijing broadcast on June 4, 1989, when the crackdown began, and the announcer was condemning the government. However, by the next hour, Radio Beijing went back to announcing the Party Line.
I wonder whatever became of that brave announcer.
I dropped out of the packet scene in early 2000, saw it going nowhere, the most the average joe could do was 9600 bps with store bought appliances - the talent out there developing higher speed data for Ham use was sparse, being too expensive and time intensive for the hobbyist.
Jump forward a couple years and we have plug & play wireless devices that run circles around what we were doing "back then", and they are super reliable and cost almost nothing.
It's kind of sad that Ham radio doesn't influence high tech development the way it used to, but times change I guess.
I did some ham stuff in high school but never got a ticket. Mostly we just learned about all the stuff. One of the guys had a great idea. Open up a freq range to anyone but make it illegal to sell a transmitter for it. If you want on the freq, you have to build a set to access it. You avoid the CB aspect and give people incentive to build. Once they start, they will either dive in or quit.
Like most kids, I didn’t want to learn Morse Code. It was still fun to hang out at the W4GG hut near the airport in Greensboro NC.
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