• Welcome to Autism Forums, a friendly forum to discuss Aspergers Syndrome, Autism, High Functioning Autism and related conditions.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Private Member only forums for more serious discussions that you may wish to not have guests or search engines access to.
    • Your very own blog. Write about anything you like on your own individual blog.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon! Please also check us out @ https://www.twitter.com/aspiescentral

Amateur/Ham Radio

savi83

savi83

Well-Known Member
Hi everybody,

I have been thinking of getting into Amateur/Ham Radio for a while now. I'm not really into the social side of the hobby but have a great interest in the technical side. Once you get to certain level you are able to build circuits to transmit/receive voice/data.

Has anyone on this forum tried Amateur/Ham Radio? How did you find it? What are your thoughts?

Thank you
 
I have not tried to build a ham radio but I do like vintage shortwave receivers like you'd see in houses back in the '30s and '40s. Unfortunately the radio club where I'd gone to have one of my AM receivers looked at was a little weird, and not what I'd call welcoming. They were friendly, sure, but for the wrong reasons--I got told now is the time to buy real-estate because of the coming mass die-off of all those who'd got their coronavirus vaccines, and got invited to the "patriot" picnic/gathering outside of town. Oh well. (And it's been six months too, so I think I should have been dead by now according to crazy guy.)

As for radio itself: radio is magical. I've been able to hear stations around the world on my fairly primitive five-tube receivers, and can only imagine how much nicer it would be to send & receive data, images, video, and voice on the modern receivers. It's like a sort of homemade Internet if you go deep enough into the hobby. I think you'd probably get a kick out of it however you do it; have fun.
 
Iv considered getting my license for a while now but for the time being i just don't have the resources for a good HF transmitter. Now i know there are the VHF bands and all that, but i want shortwave dawg and thats going to set me back some coin, and space.

I have multple rx portable radios that i listen to along with a Airspy HF+ Discovery attached to a 150+ foot randomwire antenna. I can pick up all kinds of stuff with it. From the buzzer, to the Japanese slot machine and of course ham traffic and much more.
 
Gerontius said:
It's like a sort of homemade Internet if you go deep enough into the hobby.
Click to expand...

You can do TCP/IP over radio. From what i hear speeds are similar to a dial up modem. However, no encryption is allowed and each transmission must include your call sign.
 
Gerontius said:
I have not tried to build a ham radio but I do like vintage shortwave receivers like you'd see in houses back in the '30s and '40s. Unfortunately the radio club where I'd gone to have one of my AM receivers looked at was a little weird, and not what I'd call welcoming. They were friendly, sure, but for the wrong reasons--I got told now is the time to buy real-estate because of the coming mass die-off of all those who'd got their coronavirus vaccines, and got invited to the "patriot" picnic/gathering outside of town. Oh well. (And it's been six months too, so I think I should have been dead by now according to crazy guy.)

As for radio itself: radio is magical. I've been able to hear stations around the world on my fairly primitive five-tube receivers, and can only imagine how much nicer it would be to send & receive data, images, video, and voice on the modern receivers. It's like a sort of homemade Internet if you go deep enough into the hobby. I think you'd probably get a kick out of it however you do it; have fun.
Click to expand...


Thank you, this is what caught my interest. I prefer the original basic physical radio sets over the new software defined radio.
 
A friend of mine returned from Africa, and thought he'd stay in touch with people there by ham radio. Unfortunately, the only thing those with radios wanted to talk about was their radios.
Anyway, I was looking for a place to ask where to buy a really good AM/FM radio receiver for weak signals. Advice on antennas would also be welcome. Thanks.
 
I got my license at 17. I am now 65. Only found out I was an Aspie at 64. I have been continuously active in the hobby the whole time. I have built a number of transmitters and receivers and transceivers over the years. I really enjoy seeing how much I can do with how little complexity and/or power. So far, my record has been 300 mile contact on 1 microwatt with a one transistor transmitter. I have also done both text based and voice digital modes. I love setting up a minimalist station in the middle of nowhere.

I have equipment set up in my car, several handhelds, and a setup in my sailboat. Electronics, radio, and specifically Ham radio has been my first and longest special interest. I was given an old tube 1930's radio when I was six years old. I meticulously disassembled and reassembled it, and out of dumb luck restored it to operation. I was hooked from that point on.

From all the licensed hams I have talked to over the years, I am certain a substantial percentage of them are on the spectrum!
 
I'm not contributing much to this thread by saying so, but I also wanted to mention that radio has piqued my interest in recent years and, at least in my basic Youtube-level researching it seems like ASD is a common thread among people with deep interests like these (similar to people who deep dive on electronics, computers, etc).

I know absolutely nothing about radio myself but I'd love to stick around and hear what the pros have to say! This is a great thread idea, by the way!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New Threads

Top Bottom