noise level, even bouncing their signals off the moon with simple equipment. You can download WSJT-X for free at physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT.
Chapter 3
Finding Other Hams: Your Support Group
IN THIS CHAPTER
One of the foundations of ham radio is helping newcomers. After all, a ham radio license is mostly a license to learn! Hams are great at providing a little guidance or assistance. You can make your start at ham radio operating much easier and more successful by taking advantage of those helping hands. This chapter shows you how to find them.
HAM RADIO — MEETING ONLINE
As this edition is being written, Covid-19 continues to require social distancing, so many face-to-face ham radio events have been canceled. For now, the hamfests, meetings, conventions, and conferences described in this chapter are still happening, but only online. Many hams are taking advantage of the situation to watch the many presentations and seminars now available to an online audience at little or no cost. The success of this format means you can expect to find many “virtual” events available in the future.
Finding and Being a Mentor
A mentor is very useful in helping you over the rough spots that every newcomer encounters. A good place to start your search for a mentor is to search for ham radio clubs in your area (refer to “Finding and choosing a club,” later in this chapter). You might start on the clubs page of the QRZ.com website (go directly to www.qrz.com/clubs or use the Database menu), for example.
As your interests widen, you’ll need additional help. Luckily, hundreds of potential mentors, known in ham radio as Elmers, are available around the world.
Entering ham radio elmer or ham radio mentor into a search engine turns up lots of resources. Some specialize in helping you study for the exam. Some are organized in a frequently asked questions (FAQ) format. And a few are online forums where you can ask a specific question. You may want to join one of the groups set up specifically to answer questions and offer help to new hams and those studying for the license exam.
Can you be a mentor? Although you may not think you are ready to mentor someone, you might be the perfect person! Since you are learning about ham radio, you understand very well how other new hams might feel and what questions they might have. Don’t hesitate to take someone else along for the ham radio ride. If you are both studying for the license exam at the same time, you can even mentor each other! Studying together is a great way to learn.
After you succeed in getting your license (and you will!) you are in a great position to help someone else learn and understand the material. The things that were confusing to you might also be confusing to him or her, and you can relate how you figured things out. Advice given by another newcomer can feel less intimidating than from a seasoned “old timer.”
As you progress with ham radio, you’ll acquire some equipment, learn about using it, and have more than a few aha! moments. You might not think you can act as a teacher, but why not give it a try by answering someone’s question. Offer to help a new ham at an operating event or pair up when performing public service. As is often said (and demonstrated), the best way to learn something is to teach it! You were once brand new, too, so don’t hesitate to reach out.
Interacting in Online Communities
Just like every other human activity, ham radio has online communities in which members discuss the various aspects of the hobby, provide resources, and offer support 24 hours a day. Will these communities replace ham radio? Not likely; the magic of radio is too strong. By their presence, though, they make ham radio stronger by distributing information, cementing relationships, and adding structure.
The number and type of online ham radio resources is increasing every day. There are too many to list here, so your best strategy for finding them is to use a search engine. Of course, you have to know what to look for! The online list of forums and articles under the Community tab at www.eham.net cover a lot of topics.
Social media and blogs
Everything has a presence online, and ham radio is no different. Just search for ham radio on Facebook, for example, and you’ll find dozens of possibilities, ranging from general-interest clubs to emergency communications to license-exam practice to contesting — and more.
Here are some popular streams of information about amateur radio:
Twitter: twitter.com/amateurradio (@Amateurradio) or search for ham radio topics at twitter.com/search?q=ham+radio
Reddit: www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio