Amateur radio
I’m slowly but steadily making progress on my amateur radio license project. From the ARRL FCC Rule Book:
Q. Can we sing “Happy Birthday” to our friend on the local 2-meter repeater?
A. No. Singing is music, and is prohibited, no matter how badly you sing.
The reason for this rule (and lots of others) is that the content of the amateur’s communication “must be such that no party would be compelled to use the public telecommunications system to communicate the same information” — in order to protect various revenue flows. Amateur bands aren’t supposed to replace the phone system or the broadcasting network. In the words of the ARRL, “[t]hese rules protect the amateur service from encroachment by commercial news media [and other media] that would use Amateur Radio as an inexpensive alternative to its more expensive systems.”
Hence - no music, and no business communications (or at least no daily business communications). There are certainly exceptions. You can communicate encoded music. “As long as no musical notes can be detected on the air, you’re okay.” You can mention prices for apparatus you want to sell — “but the ‘haggling’ should be handled on the telephone.”
In the early days of radio, there was essentially no limit to the content of amateur messages. That all changed in the 1930s, according to the ARRL, “at the insistence of European governments for whom the telecommunications monopoly was a source of considerable revenue.” It took a while for the FCC to start regulating the content of what amateurs were doing, but starting in 1972 the Commission began prohibiting business communications.
Amateurs are supposed to be dedicated to “advancing of communication and technical skills,” according to the ARRL. The tradeoff: As long as they’re not paid for it, amateurs have a great deal of flexibility in transmitting and receiving.
I found this inspiring: “Dr Hamadoun Toure, Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), received his Amateur Radio license October 8. Toure, who holds the call sign HB9EHT, is from Mali. He has a Master’s Degree in electrical engineering from the Technical Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications of Leningrad and a PhD from the University of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics of Moscow.”
(I can hear the Michigan marching band playing ‘Hail to the Victors‘ through my office window. I guess there’s always a need to rehearse. They just better not try doing that on the amateur bands.)
Transformative technology
Another technology was said to overcome key barriers between the voter and the candidate: the barriers of distance, of time, of inertia, and of crowd psychology. It brought to the physically remote voter a type of first-hand information he had never had before.
There was great excitement. Would this new technology prick into quicker, more coherent action our unwieldy democratic giant? Or with its shining novelty would its seeming power too be gone? What were the inherent political potentialities of this new technology? Aside from the immense publicity value which its newness gave it, what could it actually effect in a presidential election?
The new technology was remarkable. It had found a way to dispense with political middlemen. In a fashion it had restored the demos upon which republican government is founded. No candidate would be able to stand up to it who was unprepared to enlighten the electorate. It potentially gave to every member of the electorate the possibility of a direct reaction to the candidates themselvs. It reproduced to some degree, for the first time in the United States, the conditions of the Athenian democracy where every voter, for himself, could hear and judge the candidates.
The year was 1924: “…America finds herself this year in the act of virtually choosing her chief executive by an instrument that was up to a brief two years ago generally considered a freakish fad.”
“Politics,” the newspapers said, was “radio’s next big job.” “Is the radio, heavy with its destiny, leading us to a day when all men will join in to actively work for the righteous government of the land they live in?”
The days of the old-time campaign were numbered if not entirely gone. All the notables of the party whizzed their persuasive words via wireless.
And all the people would benefit: “Let a legislator now commit himself to some policy that is obviously senseless, and the editorial writers must first proclaim his imbecility to the community. But let the radiophone in the legislative halls of the future flash his absurdities into space and a whole state hears them at once.”
Thus informed, the citizenry would not be able to plead ignorance. “[R]adio can and should bring to practically every citizen full knowledge of the issues which affect the lives of the American people. Through its aid the candidates can speak directly to the people. No longer can any man or woman entitled to a vote conscientiously plead ignorance of the issues involved as an excuse for remaining home on election day.”
And the citizenry would march to the polls. “Broadcasting the proceedings of the great National Conventions has aroused such national interest that the greatest poll of votes ever cast at a Presidential election will result.” (Actually, the 1924 election had the lowest voter turnout of any election to that time — 48.9%.)
In 1924, we were absolutely confident that the voters were going to be in the driver’s seat.
“Because of the far-reaching radio these hundred-per cent. American institutions – fixed political methods, bosses and oratory – are going to have to be done over into a twentieth cenentury mold, to meet the exacting taste of Brooklyn newsboys, of college professors and of home-keeping females. Whether conditions will be improved orwrecked by the revolution is beside the point. The thing is going to happen. It is happening.”
A revolution was underway. “Here is the entirely new political public that the radio has tapped. It is not necessarily a more intelligent public. But at any rate it is a new one and it has never been broken to the seasoned old claptrap. It is a large public, usually in political prognostication assigned to the contingent of General Apathy. It can no longer be trusted to stay there. And that is one reason why the politicians are up against a revolution.”
The ham band
When I was in high school I remember going with a group to play a concert in an Elks lodge. The room was dusky and the building was a little broken down. There was a giant sign in the room where we played that read, “Keep America Strong. Ask A Young Man To Become An Elk.” The people there were boisterous and kindly.
Well, I think I’ve found the home of the telecommunications-Elks. It’s amateur radio. The ARRL Ham Radio License Manual is full of folksy, boisterous, exclamation-point-studded advice. You get the feeling that every ham is sincere and fun-loving:
Why don’t people just buy radios and transmit anyway [without a license]? . . . Because it’s quite apparent to hams who has and who hasn’t passed a license exam. You’ll find yourself attracting the attention of the Federal Communications Commission, but more importantly, you won’t fit in and you won’t have fun.
A long, friendly conversation is known in ham-dom as a “ragchew.” And this was my favorite part, about Morse code:
Many operators enjoy the rhythm and musicality of “the code,” as well. Aside from its utility as a communications protocol, it’s a skill like whistling or painting that you can enjoy for its own sake. Listening to a skilled Morse operator chatting away or relaying messages is quite a treat!
I have a very soft place in my heart for the Elks, and for the hams, and I very much enjoyed my day with the amateur radio manual. It all works out so smoothly - voltage, current, resistance, and power all relate, and you get to sit there imagining contacting other hams in state after state. “CQ CQ CQ, this is W1AW calling CQ!” the manual instructs, and I can’t wait until I get my own call sign.
A woman sitting a row behind me in the plane told me she was jealous of my studying the manual - she wants to get her amateur license too. She told me that she saw the latest Bruce Willis movie last night and that ham radio saved the day. “It was so exciting!” she said.
Keep America Strong. Ask A Young Person To Become A Ham.