On Sat, 20 May 2017, Vassilis Spiliopoulos wrote:

Ham law is an absolute joke.Law banning people from using the airwaves
legally like if using a transceiver is using a rifle.It is also creating a
form of elitism over who uses the radiowaves because most hams in my country
are a bunch of snobby oldies who think that they own the amateur bands and
essentially jam and prohibit anyone else from using it.Their clique is a
retarded form of elitism and exclusionism against people who are also
genuinely interested in the hobby yet are unable to get a licence for various
reasons(mostly the exam date being a completely unsuitable day for people

I think you flunked history when they were talking about the history of
radio.

They knew about radio for some time, but it was a laboratory curiosity.
Nobody had any plans for it, and it wasn't useful as they knew it.

But then Marconi, who didn't invent radio but helped to make it practical,
started playing with it, he had no background in technical matters. And
he spanned the Atlantic in December of 1901, proving that radio could be
used for distant communication.

That caused some interest in radio, including hobbyists. It was up for
grabs, so people played with the technology, not that it was complicated
back then. I gather that even newspapers would show how to build those
primitive radios. And there was no regulation.

Maybe the first set of rules related to ships needing to carry radio,
though now I can't remember. But the Titanic did carry a radio, and the
aftermath of that sinking was that in the US all radio stations be
licensed. I imagine other countries implemented similar rules soon after.

But initially it was just a license. I dont' think there was a technical
requirement, but that did arrive at some point. Radio was contained in a
very small slice of spectrum, below the current AM broadcast band, since
that was seen as the prime frequencies. So everyone overlapped, and there
were problems, causing more regulations about operation.

I'm not sure without looking when an actual exam for ham radio came into
effect. WWI caused most radio activity, what there was, to be shut down,
so things were well along at that point, though of course the military
made use of the still primitive radio.

After WWI, there was reluctance to let loose the spectrum again, but
people campaigned for it, so it didn't remain the domain of the military.
And amateur radio got spectrum, though they were banished to "useless"
frequencies, above the current AM broadcast band.

And then further evolution. People saw that there were more people who
could listen than transmit, so broadcasting started up. In December of
1921, there was a test to span the Atlantic again, just like Marconi 20
years before, except with the "useless" higher frequencies, and it worked,
so suddenly there was more spectrum available, and hams were given slices
of it, rather than having it all.

The rules were slowly but constantly evolving, to reflect changes in radio
use, and changes in the technology of radio.

At some point, a technical exam, as well as a morse code exam, became an
entry requirement for ham radio. Note this wasn't hams wanting to lock
out others, it was implemented by governments. The morse code requirement
was an international regulation.

Amateur radio exists today because it existed at the dawn of radio. They
were a founding component of radio. Unlike all the other radio services,
it is a place to play with the technology of radio, so if you want to
build a radio controlled airplane, you can (licenses specifically for
radio control came much later). But since you can build your own
transmitters, some level of competence was needed. The whole regulation
thing was to ensure that radio use wasn't random, that the frequency for
emergency ship to shore communication wasn't interfered with by some fool
who thought he "had the right" to use the radio spectrum. So different
services get different frequencies, and since amateur radio is so open,
there is a test to limit the damage you might do.

Hams aren't an elite group, but the tradeoff of having access to the radio
spectrum has meant some skill is required.

If you don't want to take the test, I would point out that now everyone
has access to radio, they are called cellphones. No previous time in
history has the public had such access to radio, though they think it's a
phone and pay dearly for the needed infrascructure. They don't need a
license because the corporation takes care of it, and don't need to know
how it works because the corporations take care of it.

The test is in part about making sure you understand this. Of course any
fool bootlegger can buy a transmitter and blast away, and cause
interference, but at least the people who want to do it legally realize
the rules are for the public good. If anyone could do anything, the radio
spectrum would not be useful for anything.

It's like a national park. Kept for the public good, there are rules in
order to make sure it doesn't all fall apart.

Michael