Welcome to the amateur radio pages for Hendry and Glades county, Florida. Many people around the world find amateur radio a fascinating hobby. The largest number of amateur radio enthusiasts are in Japan while the U.S. is second in number of licensed ham radio operators. Ham radio operators are licensed by the FCC and enjoy operating their own radio station either as a mobile or a fixed radio station in their home or office. Hams can talk to, and meet people all over the world by "wireless" radio, as well as talk with local friends in their own area with handheld radio tranceivers similar to cell phones. Ham radio operating is similar to cell phone conversations except that hams can talk to many people at the same time simultaneously, and talk worldwide to any other ham enthusiast without any charges per minute like cell phones. And the FCC radio license is free as well. Most states also allow you to obtain a special auto license plate with your FCC call sign as well. You need to pass an FCC amateur radio exam and you are all set to go!
If you have sound card and multimedia speakers and using Internet Explorer or Netscape you heard a morse code signal when you opened this page. You can hear it again by refreshing the page. Morse code is the traditional transmitting method which all hams learn in order to be government licensed to transmit on short wave frequencies worldwide. The code is saying "CQ" which is which is an attention signal send by a ham to call for others to listen or respond. (If you are not hearing sound you can download Quicktime Plug-in for your browser to play music and sounds in the background of web pages.)
It is fairly easy to obtain the FCC amateur radio license to operate your own radio station by studying a text of basic radio and operating rules and taking a test usually given once a month by local volunteers in just about every area of the country. To find out easy it is to get your F.C.C. Amateur Radio License go to any local bookstore and look for a book about amateur radio or Ham radio examination questions or email me with any questions. Ask me.
There are many organizations of ham radio operators including The Knights of the Kilocycle, which is the oldest radio net in the world. A "net" is a group of hams that regularly meets and talks in a group on a shortwave frequency. The "Knights" have regularly met on the air each Sunday all the way back to the year 1929. If you have a shortwave rado receiver, you can hear the members talk to one another at 7:30 AM Eastern time Sundays on the frequency of 3.919 Mhz. Take a look at some past newsletters about them at the links below.
Here's some more places to explore about Ham Radio: