
Ham Radio – CQ: Personal Mastery Through Hobbies - solidist
https://medium.com/@solidi/cq-personal-mastery-through-hobbies-f25aab2e49ad
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rmason
The article stopped and made me reflect on what I gained through ham radio:

1\. Piercing the mystery - Taking a handful of parts and building a working
device. It gave me self confidence and totally changed how I look at
electronics.

2\. Mastery of a niche - I joined a club and found that in certain areas that
I gained instant respect as a teenager from guys in their seventies. Where
else could a teenager do that? Likewise these elders taught me lots of stuff.

3\. Leading a team - When I went off to college and put together a team to
compete in a multi-operator multi-transmitter weekend contest. It was my first
time assembling a team and doing something complex. Lots of obstacles to
overcome. It is also where I learned to just do something and ask permission
later! That rather bad habit both helped and hurt my future career;<).

4\. Being part of a fraternity with it's own language of terms. I would soon
find that every profession would have its own rituals and language - including
startups.

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psim1
I have found the best part of taking up amateur radio as a hobby to be the
book learning aspect. The world of electromagnetism is fascinating.

When I started communicating locally, my thrill was squashed by uninterested
complaining old men who thought my equipment was not expensive enough.

But radio theory and engineering, that's great stuff worth learning.

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jimnotgym
I'm on the path to getting my first license. I have done the studying, but now
I need to find a club willing to administer the tests...if the hobby is to
survive clubs really need to jump on 'new blood'. It's amazing to me that many
of the regional clubs have domains pointing to dead websites, that are still
registered as the correct contact by the governing body!

The old man image is going to be hard for the hobby to shake off whilst this
remains true.

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extrapickles
[https://www.laurelvec.com/](https://www.laurelvec.com/) Is a list of places
that do free exams.

If you are in Seattle, it happens every month (I know it still goes on as I’m
occasionally one of the examiners).

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jimnotgym
Thanks for that. I should have said I am in the UK. Everything else in this
thread rings true!

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madengr
Makes is seem more than it is. The existential pleasures of Ham Radio.

Ever been to a Hamfest? Made the mistake of taking my wife once. How about
being crushed between a table and scooter by someone who smells like they
haven’t bathed in weeks.

I do RF/Microwave design for a living. Ham radio has mostly lost its luster.

KD4HSO

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8bitsrule
Huh, sounds like you wouldn't like Field Day. Too amateur. Guess you need to
find one set up in _Chez Rene 's_ that only allows _real_ engineers. Or on a
yacht in the Caribbean.

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diego
For those who don't know, CQ means "who's there?" in HAM code. It's an
invitation.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CQ_(call)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CQ_\(call\))

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7402
CQ does not mean "Who's there?" It means "Calling any station." The
abbreviation for "Who is calling me?" is QRZ?

And it's "Ham," not "HAM."

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shawndumas
Super timely as I just passed my tech and am studying for my general. It’s
been a very long time since I undertook a learning endeavor that was not
related to my profession. Really enjoying the process.

I’d encourage anyone interested to take a practice exam for a technician
license. I was shocked at how much I picked up over the years via osmosis and
got pretty close to passing the first practice test I took.

[https://hamexam.org/exam/12-Technician](https://hamexam.org/exam/12-Technician)

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Jorge1o1
I like his perspective and agree with many of his points, but his writing
style needs some work.

It’s a blog post about ham radio, not a cringy thesis paper.

Short snippet: >Next, as we seek those truths, let’s examine what an axiom is.
An axiom is short hand for a kernel of truth. A poster sign. It is a spoken
reduction of events and their goals that are self evident. Personal mastery
and their axioms feed on one another. And the axioms contain vocabularies
which allow us to understand skill and culture.

It’s far too academic and elevated for the medium (buh-boosh), and frankly it
even borders on pretentious

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xxpor
It struck me as a poor ripoff of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainance

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trm42
Funny, I was thinking the same. Although at the same the article put into
words what I've been thinking about my photography hobby that has gotten too
serious.

