On Jul 15, 8:16 pm, Dick Grady AC7EL wrote:
On Tue, 15 Jul 2008 08:32:00 EDT, wrote:
one of the things I think we hams could do
to help the process is to never refer to amateur radio as "a hobby" or
even worse, "just a hobby". While most hams do radio simply as an
avocation, IMHO the word "hobby" carries with it a sort of meaning
that it's not a serious thing worthy of protection.

You'll never hear folks who do sports or art nonprofessionally refer
to those activities as "just a hobby". Nor will the term be used by
volunteers who donate their time and efforts to a variety of causes.

IOW, "hobbies" don't get the kind of respect we want amateur radio to
have. If we hams describe amateur radio as "just a hobby", the folks
who want to restrict us may think "well, if they say it's just a
hobby, what's the problem with a few restrictions?" and "there are all
sorts of hobbies that these homes don't accomodate, like raising
horses, target shooting, or pleasure boating with a boat that won't
fit in the garage. What's different about your radio hobby?"

Then what do we call it? Avocation? Pasttime? no, none of these ter
ms seem
appropriate, either.

We don't need to call it anything other than "Amateur Radio". The
person who
gardens/landscapes doesn't use the word "hobby", s/he says "I'm a
gardener"
and that's it.

The amateur artist who paints, sculpts, does pottery, photography,
woodwork or any
of a range of other activities does not use the word "hobby" either.

I know! It's emergency preparation and training. Now that's sounds
impressive..

We don't need to sound impressive. All we need to do is not sound
apologetic.
"Just a hobby" sounds self-denigrating to me.

Part 97 does not use the word "hobby". Neither should we.

Consider the following conversations:

Conversation 1

"What's that wire up there?"

"It's my ham radio antenna"

"What's ham radio?"

"It's just a hobby where I talk to other ham radio operators."

"Why would you want to do that? Don't you have a telephone and
the internet?"

Conversation 2

"What's that wire up there?"

"It's the antenna for my Amateur Radio station"

"What's Amateur Radio?"

"It's a form of noncommercial radio by which licensed
radio operators all over the world communicate with each other
using a wide variety of methods and technologies."

Which do you think sounds better to a non-ham?

73 de Jim, N2EY