Amateur radio

Past, present, and future

Despite all these exciting specialties, many hams enjoy the informal contacts, long discussions or "Rag Chewing", or round table "nets", whether by voice, Morse code, or computer keyboard.

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Even with the advent of the Internet, interest in amateur radio has not diminished in countries with an advanced communications infrastructure. This may be because hams enjoy communicating using the simplest hardware possible, as well as finding the most technically advanced way, advancing the art of radio communication at both ends, frequently beyond what professionals are willing to try to risk.

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Nonetheless, Voice over IP (VoIP) is also finding its way into amateur radio. Programs like Echolink and the Internet Radio Linking Project use VoIP to tie hams with computers into radio repeaters across the globe. This nascent use is finding applications in emergency services as well, as an alternative to expensive (and sometime fallible) public safety trunking systems.

Related Topics:
VoIP - Echolink - Internet Radio Linking Project

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Some critics point out that in traditional strongholds such as Japan, the United States and Western Europe, amateur populations are aging. Supporters counter that this merely reflects demographic reality in these aging countries, and in any case is an ethnocentric position. In China and Eastern Europe, young amateur populations are growing rapidly despite equally unfavourable demographics, and young people are also flocking to the hobby in rapidly developing regions such as India, Thailand, Malaysia and the Arabian Peninsula.

Related Topics:
Western Europe - Demographic - Ethnocentric - Eastern Europe - Malaysia - Arabian Peninsula

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