Our world is full of amateurs – enthusiastic people who devote their leisure time to something they love. There’s no one you can’t meet among them. Book lovers, collectors, tourists, fishermen, photographers, gardeners… Sometimes the energy and skill, persistence in pursuing their goals enthusiastic people make us treat these enthusiasts with deep respect: one glues together a model of a temple from matches, the other is ready to run around half the city in search of rare postage stamp or postcard. True enthusiasts devote all their leisure time to their favorite cause, sometimes carving out time at the expense of sleep.
There is, however, a hobby of a very special kind. It allows you to combine the excitement of the hunter and the passion of the collector, makes you engage in design, requires the ability to speak foreign languages, prompts to get acquainted with the geography and radio engineering. You’ve guessed, of course, that we’re talking about shortwave amateur radio.
Amateur radio is a communication service used for purposes of self-improvement, mutual communication and technical research by radio amateurs, i.e. persons who are duly authorized to do so and who are engaged in radio technology solely for personal interest and without material gain.
According to the latest figures, the total number of shortwave amateurs in the world will soon reach several million. The youngest members of this army are less than ten years old and the oldest are over seventy. Shortwave radio enthusiasts include people of technology and art, servicemen and housewives, schoolchildren and students, teachers and politicians, workers and entrepreneurs. At various times, King Hussein of Jordan, the King of Spain and the president of Argentina, and people of lesser status, such as Joe Walsh – member of the band “EAGLES”, the co-author of the famous hit “Hotel California” were into radio amateurism.
But don’t think that shortwave is only for men. Every year, shortwave radio is finding more and more not only fans, but female fans as well. Approximately every 50th call sign belongs to a woman – an amateur radio operator, and this ratio is gradually leveling off.
What is it about amateur radio that attracts people from so many different professions and occupations?
First, the unpredictability of our hobby, including the radio station, I sometimes do not suspect who my next correspondent will be: my neighbor in the city or the expedition members to Easter Island. Of course, modern means of communication, including the Internet, have greatly simplified the task of communicating with a distant station, but the process of its implementation has not become less interesting.
Secondly, our hobby is very versatile. You can work with distant or rare stations, participate in competitions, fulfill the conditions of various diplomas, engage in the design of amateur equipment, use digital forms of radio communication, or just every evening to turn on the radio station in order to meet with old friends, even from the neighboring city or to make new friends.