What Do You Want To AccomplisH?
"There's a lot of aspects to the hobby.
So, it really is a question of where your interest lies."
-- r/amateurradio,
by KC2SYK
- Talk to people (rag chewing;
could be local or long range)
- Work DX (long-distance contacts,
foreign countries)
- Exchange QSL cards with stations
you've contacted
- Make morse code contacts (CW)
- Make contacts via digital modes (RTTY, PSK31, etc.)
- Make contacts via VHF/UHF satellites
- (OSCAR - orbiting satellites carrying amateur radio)
- Talk to astronauts on the ISS
- Operate portable
- (carry a radio to some
interesting spot and set up;
- one group does mountain summits)
- Operate mobile (car, boat, plane)
- Operate with emergency power / off the grid
-
(solar, wind, generator, etc.)
- Make low-power contacts (QRP)
- Work towards some ham radio awards
- confirmed contacts in all 50 states,
- or 100 different countries, or other awards)
- Equip your computer with HamClock 2.0
- Participate in contests
- (see how many stations you can contact
- within a certain time period
- and certain rules for the contest)
- Run a repeater
- Operate a propagation beacon
- Build your own radios
(your own design or from kits)
- Design, build and test antennas
- Experiment with circuits
- Emergency preparedness, emergency communications
- (CERT, ARES, RACES)
- Public service (marathon coordination,maritime service net, etc.)
- Special event stations (commemorating an event in history, etc.)
- Providing email to ships at sea (pskmail, winlink)
- Track a high-altitude balloon (ARHAB)
- Remote control a plane with first person live video
- being transmitted from the plane (FPV)
- Study the ionosphere and produce ionograms
- Travel to faraway places and operate (DXpedition)
- Bounce signals off of the moon (EME - earth-moon-earth)
- Bounce signals off of meteor trails
- Bounce signals off of aurora (northern lights)
- Make contacts via microwave
- Make friends at a local club
- Run an APRS node, such as: position tracking, weather station, digipeater
- Assist the National Weather Service in weather observations (Skywarn)
- Find a hidden transmitter (Fox Hunting / Radio Direction Finding)
- Find the source of RFI - Radio Frequency Interference
- Explore digital signal processing and software defined radios (SDR) -- see /r/rtlsdr
- Create an 802.11 (WiFi) mesh node and explore wireless networking
- Interlink repeaters with IRLP, Echolink or Allstar VoIP links
- SSTV (Slow Scan Television), still images
- ATV (Amateur Fast Scan Television), live video feed
- Teach the next generation of hams, become an Elmer (mentor)
- Become a volunteer examiner (VE), testing hams for their licenses
- Can you add some to this list?
