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Amateur Radio Trust, "KING WOOD", 11-8A, |
What is amateur radio?
Amateur Radio (sometimes called Ham Radio) is individuals using specified radio
frequencies for personal enjoyment, experimentation and the continuation of the
radio art. Amateur radio operators must be licensed by their
Government. In
For HAM Radio Demo 
[Listen our voice]
What is "HAM" ?
(From Florida Skip Magazine - 1959 )
Have you ever wondered why radio amateurs are called "HAMS"?
Well, it goes like this:
The word "HAM" as applied to 1908 was the station CALL of the first
amateur wireless station operated by some amateurs of the Harvard Radio Club.
They were ALBERT S. HYMAN, BOB ALMY and POOGIE MURRAY. At first they called
their station "HYMAN- ALMY-MURRAY". Tapping out such a long name in
code soon became tiresome and called for a revision. They changed it to
"HY-AL-MY", using the first two letters of each of their names. Early
in 1901 some
confusion resulted between signal from amateur wireless station
"HY-ALMU" and a Mexican ship named "HYALMO". They then
decided to use only the first letter of each name and the station CALL became
"HAM". In the early pioneer days of unregulated radio amateur
operators picked
their own frequency and call letters. Then as now, some amateurs had better
signals than commercial stations. The resulting interference came to the
attention of congressional committees in
activity. In 1911, ALBERT HYMAN chose the controversial WIRELESS REGULATION BILL
as the topic for the Thesis at Harvard. His instructor insisted that a copy be
sent to Senator DAVID L. WALSH, a member of one of the committees hearing the
Bill. The Senator was so impressed with the Thesis that he asked HYMAN to
appear before the committee. ALBERT HYMAN took the stand and described how the
little station was built and almost cried when he told the crowded committee
room that if the BILL went through they would have to close down the station
because they could not afford the license fee and all the other requirements
which the BILL imposed on amateur stations. Congressional debate began on the
WIRELESS REGULATION BILL and little
station "HAM" became the symbol for all the little amateur stations
in the country crying to be saved from the menace and greed of the big
commercial stations who didn't want them around. The BILL finally got to the
floor of Congress and every speaker talked about the "....poor little
station HAM."
That's how it all started. You can find the whole story in the Congressional
Record. Nation-wide publicity associated station "HAM"
with amateur radio operators. From that day to this, and probably
until the end of time in radio; and amateur is a "HAM."
Frequencies allocated for Amateur
services in
1820 - 1860 KHz.
3500 - 3900 KHz.
7000 - 7100 KHz.
14000 - 14350 KHz.
18068 - 18168 KHz.
21000 - 21450 KHz.
24890 - 24990 KHz.
28000 - 29700 KHz.
144 - 146 MHz.
434 - 438 MHz.
1260 - 1300 MHz.
3300 - 3400 MHz.
5725 - 5480 MHz.
