A Brief History of Ham Radio From 1900 to 1912 Americans experimened with wireless radio without any regulation by the government. In 1912 the Wireless Regulation known as the Radio Act was passed, and it limited amateurs to the 200 meter band, only. Since this band is just about unusable, interest dropped in wireless radio. Because the 200 meter band was limited to only about 35 miles this prompted Hiram Percy Maxim (W1AW) in 1914 to organize the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) in order to help relay messages from coast to coast. In 1924 Amateurs were assigned new Ham bands 80, 40, 20, and 5 meters. In 1927 Congress passed the first laws regulating radio transmissions system by creating the Federal Radio Commission, the precursor agency to the FCC and Amateur is used for the first time as a Federal Statute. In 1928 the first official ARRL HQ station went on the air from Hartford as W1MK. Then in 1936 Hiram Maxim passed away, and in the same time period the Hartford station was distroyed by flood. Construction of a new Headquarters building was begun in Newington and completed in 1938. At that time the FCC assigned Maxim's famous call sign, W1AW, to the ARRL station as the first-ever memoriam call sign. Formal dedication took place in September 1938 on Maxim's birthday. In 1934 The Communications Act created the Federal Communications Commission. Amateur Licenses were Class A, Class B, and Class C. In 1951 the FCC reorganizes the amateur licensing system. The Class A, B, and C Licenses were replaced by the Advanced, General, and Conditional. Also new license classes were created, Amateur Extra, Novice and Technician. Beginning in the year 2000.... The FCC issues six license classes, each authorizing varying levels of privileges. The class for which each licensee is qualified is determined by the degree of skill and knowledge in operating a station that the licensee demonstrates during an examination to Volunteer Examiners (VE) in his or her community. Operator class license classes are: Technician, General, Amateur Extra Grandfathered Operator Classes: Novice, Technician Plus, Advanced What is Ham Radio ?? Title 47--Telecommunication CHAPTER I--FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION PART 97--AMATEUR RADIO SERVICE Section 47 C.F.R. § 97 Subpart A-General Provisions § 97.1 Basis and purpose. The rules and regulations in this part are designed to provide an amateur radio service having a fundamental purpose as expressed in the following principles: (a) Recognition and enhancement of the value of the amateur service to the public as a voluntary noncommercial communication service, particularly with respect to providing emergency communications. (b) Continuation and extension of the amateur's proven ability to contribute to the advancement of the radio art. (c) Encouragement and improvement of the amateur service through rules which provide for advancing skills in both the communication and technical phases of the art. (d) Expansion of the existing reservoir within the amateur radio service of trained operators, technicians, and electronics experts. (e) Continuation and extension of the amateur's unique ability to enhance international goodwill. § 97.3 Definitions. (a) The definitions of terms used in part 97 are: (1) Amateur operator. A person holding a written authorization to be the control operator of an amateur station. (2) Amateur radio services. The amateur service, the amateur-satellite service and the radio amateur civil emergency service. (3) Amateur-satellite service. A radiocommunication service using stations on Earth satellites for the same purpose as those of the amateur service. (4) Amateur service. A radiocommunication service for the purpose of self-training, intercommunication and technical investigations carried out by amateurs, that is, duly authorized persons interested in radio technique solely with a personal aim and without pecuniary interest. For more rules and regulation   Go Here FCC site map for the Amateur Radio Service   Go Here Operator Class of License   Go Here For more ARRL information about Amateur Radio Ham Radio Go Here Amateur Radio Service Federal Communications Commission 445 12th Street SW Washington, DC 20554 Licensing Support and Forms Call (888) 225-5322 -option 2 E-mail ulshelp@fcc.gov Technical Support Issues Call (202) 414-1250 E-mail ulscomm@fcc.gov Inquiries Related to Amateur Contact William Cross at (202) 418-0680 E-Mail: bcross@fcc.gov FCC Website for Amateurs: For more information Go Here The American Radio Relay League GO HERE      Look up a Ham Call Sign Type a callsign: AMATEUR RADIO LAND (Ham Radio Land) 0-land, 1-land, 2-land, 3-land, 4-land, 5-land, 6-land, 7-land, 8-land, 9-land. "Amateur Radio Operators in 1-land USA are in the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont "First, the FCC does not limit the Vanity call sign choice numeral (0-9). For example, you can be a W1-land addressee, and have a W6 (California) type call if you so desire" For more info about Radio Land see ARRL at: http://www.arrl.org/awards/was/ http://www.arrl.org/arrlvec/vanity.html http://www.arrl.org/awards/dxcc/rules.html Field Day VVARA Club members operate in less than optimal conditions on Field Day. A premium is placed on developing skills to meet the challenges of emergency preparedness as well as to acquaint the general public with the capabilities of Amateur Radio. For more infomation on VVARA Field Day Go Here

EchoLink It is software which allows Amateur Radio stations to communicate with one another over the Internet, using voice-over-IP (VoIP) technology. The program allows worldwide connections to be made between stations, from computer to repeater and link stations, or from computer to computer. There are more than 38,000 registered users worldwide! For more information Internet Radio Linking Project The IRLP uses Voice-Over-IP (VoIP) custom software and hardware. Coupled with the power of the Internet, IRLP will link your radio site to the world. IRLP operates a network of dedicated servers and nodes offering very stable worldwide voice communications. A note from Joe Ruby - KC7GHT Hi, I really enjoyed browsing your VVARA web site www.vvara.org It contains a lot of very useful information. I wanted to correct an error that I found. I believe your web page link to my IRLP web site is incorrect. As it should be: http://sky.prohosting.com/wb7crk/sarc/irlp.shtml Also my node number is 3820, instead of 382. We went to 4 digit node numbers about a year ago. There are now over 1252 IRLP nodes world wide. Each one of these nodes is a amateur radio station. I hope to see you at your meeting this Fall. I always enjoy visiting with you guys. Joe Ruby - KC7GHT (Kilo Charlie 7 Going High Tech) IRLP Node 3820, Phoenix, Arizona, USA Uplink DTMF 3820, Downlink DTMF 73 http://sky.prohosting.com/wb7crk/sarc/irlp.shtml http://www.irlp.net http://www.ecso.com/jima/kc7ght.htm http://www.qrz.com and search for KC7GHT We can hit the IRLP node on Mt. Eldon from here easily. It is a Northlink machine, on 448.875. 73 .... Mike K7NRA For more information about IRLP Internet Mode Go To: www.irlp.net Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) You may communicate with the crew using voice, packet (computer) radio or television. It all depends on what equipment the crew has in space. Frequencies used for ARISS Call Sign is NA1SS Voice Downlink: 145.80 (Worldwide) Voice Uplink: 144.49 (Regions 2 & 3) 145.20 (Region 1) Packet Uplink: 145.99 (Worldwide) A typical ARISS ground station includes a 2-meter FM transceiver and 25-100 watts of output power. A circularly polarized crossed-Yagi antenna capable of being pointed in both azimuth (N-S-E-W) and elevation (degrees above the horizon) is desirable. But successful contacts have even been made with verticals and ground plane antennas. Commercial and public domain software is available to help track when a shuttle or the ISS will be in range of your station, and where to point your antenna. For more details on assembling your station, you can buy a Satellite Handbook from ARRL. ARISS Home Page For more information and Frequently Ask Questions Go Here Science @ NASA Spacecraft - Shuttle, Space Station, Hubble, Chandra, Weather Satellites, Amateur (HAM) Satellites, Search and Rescue Satellites and more Go Here OSCAR - Orbiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio. For years, Amateur Radio operators have been using satellites to communicate over long distances, satisfying not only their passion for communication but also their interest in technical experimentation. More than a dozen amateur satellites remain in orbit today. "The successful launch of OSCAR 40 denotes the start of a new era in Amateur Radio," says Robin Haighton, president of The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT). AMSAT is an international group of volunteer radio enthusiasts who share an interest in building, launching and communicating with each other via Amateur Radio satellites. "Once more, Amateur radio operators will be at the leading edge of experimentation in communications," says Haighton. The term "OSCAR" stands for Orbiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio. This satellite is the 40th in the OSCAR series, with began with the launch of the first U.S. amateur satellite in 1961. For more information on OSCAR Go Here Amateur TV Transmit and receive live action color AM TV in the 420-450 MHz Amateur band with the TC70-20S 20 Watt all in one box 70cm ATV Transceiver unit to other hams. Any FCC Licensed Technician Class or higher Amateur Radio operator can transmit and receive live action color video and sound to other hams that looks and sounds just like commercial broadcast TV with our time proven equipment. Hams should be seen as well as heard. Televise live or from tape your ham radio club meetings to those who could not make it in person. o Show critical locations to local emergency service groups or back to the EOC during ARES & RACES drills or actual disasters, parades or races, etc. o See Space Shuttle and ISS video and audio if some one is repeating it from their satellite TVRO. o See the edge of space from amateur balloons or rockets as high as 100,000 ft. o Getting a pilots view from a camera in a R/C model aircraft or real airplane, and much more. For more infomation on Ham TV Go Here The above info is from Tom (W6ORG) & Mary Ann (WB6YSS) at P.C. Electronics Slow Scan Television (SSTV) One of the most fascinating yet often misunderstood and neglected facets of Amateur Radio. Most people think it is poor quality black & white images using equipment costing kilobucks. That was true but it isn't anymore. There are basically two methods used to send pictures over ham radio. Fast Scan TV is very similar to broadcast TV: full motion color images. This requires a few megahertz of bandwidth so it is used only on UHF. A single transmission is wider than the entire 2 meter ham band. The other method is Slow Scan TV: still images sent through voice transceivers over a period of a few seconds to a couple minutes. Early pictures were low resolution black and white. Now nearly all images are higher resolution color. For more infomation on SSTV for Ham Radio  Go Here! or  Go Here! Microphone History ¹ "Sir Charles Wheatstone in 1827 was the first person to use the term "microphone." The first microphone was a telephone transmitter invented by Emile Berliner for Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. With the invention of the radio, new broadcasting microphones were created. The carbon microphone was invented in 1878 by David Edward Hughes, and later developed in the 1920s. The ribbon microphone was invented in 1942, for radio broadcasting. During the 1970's, dynamic and condenser mics were developed, allowing for a lower level sensitivity and a clearer sound." Want to know more from ¹About.com ? Go Here Telegraphy History ² "Telegraphy (in greek: writing in distance) is, as we know, a communication system able to transmit signals which represent coded letters, numbers and signs of writing. Telegraphy has very ancient origins, and can be divided in acoustic, optical and electrical." Want to know more from ²Alpcom.com.it ? Go Here