Ham On A Bike

Amateur Radio - From The Back Rooms to the Open Air W3HCW 1957 Photo: Courtesy https://www.twocommunications.com/ For most of my early years of my Amateur Radio existence, operators' stations locations were known for their simple, modest and sometimes enormous antenna towers. This was and is basically a good indication that a "Ham Radio" operator resides somewhere near those structures.  And if you had the opportunity to visit the radio rooms (Ham Shack) of those operators, some of them may have been in a corner of a room, in a closet, a spandrel, a garage, a shed or look similar to the photo above In today's world, that is far from the case.  Due to HOAs (Home Owner's Associations) and other covenant restrictions, ham operators in their infinite ingenuity, come up of many types of inconspicuous means of assembling antennas to enjoy their hobby. The minimization of electronics have given Ham Radio operators the ability to communicate "To infinity and Beyond...

"You have to grow with the times or the times will outgrow you."  That is how my Music Director would sign off from his afternoon radio show back in the early 70's when I was Program Director at an AM radio station. I never would have imagined in 1956 when I was introduced to Amateur Radio that one day as I left a doctor's appointment in 2024, I could carry a Ham Radio station in a small backpack and ride my bicycle less than a mile to a Parks on the Air site and communicate to other operators around the world. The only way I would have believed that back in 1956; is if I were sitting with Marty McFly in a Delorean and a plutonium-powered nuclear fission reactor with a Flex Capacitor traveling ay 88 MPH and set the date for March 14, 2024.  March 14, 2024 You might wonder as why I mentioned my introduction to Ham Radio in 1956 and FT8 today. Well, in the early 1950's I remember Ice Boxes, not refrigerators. Ice Boxes. Several times a week The Ice Man riding in his...