Things you don't know

With the sudden increase in mail, I'd like to get a few things laid out here and clear up misconceptions among people reading this blog.

The target audience for this blog is not hams. Therefore, I keep the use of the "lingo" down, or explain it. This doesn't mean that I'm unfamiliar with these terms. Instead, it means that everyone outside of the 0.22% of Americans with a licence is unfamiliar with those terms. The difference, apparently, is that I realise that, and many of my readers don't. Hams, of course, are welcome. It would just be nice if they checked their arrogant condescension at the virtual door. 

Although I am newly-licenced, I am not new to radio. I have had my GMRS licence since '96, which is before GMRS blister-pack radios were marketed, and before FRS. There was actually a repeater in town, and you were assigned frequencies. I really like UHF. I also have spent way too much time listening to short-wave (including hams) and scanners. I messed around with CB in its final days. I have formal training as a electronic technician, and I learned the code. I'm not not the idiot newbie some of you think that I am.

In the real world, pretty much nobody knows what ham radio or, amateur radio is. When I got my licence, I told everyone that I know: friends, family-co-workers, etc. About a hundred people, in fact. Six of them 'knew' what amateur radio was. None of these six knew about anything FM-related; only HF phone and CW. The majority of people thought that I got a licence to run a commercial station, and asked what music I was going to play. Of the six that 'knew' what amateur radio was, their first question was, "Why?". Once people knew what it was, not a single person expressed any interest in it beyond trying to figure out why someone would want get into something like that.

While not everyone on the air is surly, boring, or uptight, the strong majority are. Let's use an analogy. Suppose that I go to 16 baseball games in a season, and in one game I catch a foul ball. Would it be misleading for me to portray baseball games as a great opportunity to get a free baseball? Sure, I did get one. But that's not what people go to games for. Likewise, there are some reasonable, interesting, personable, and helpful people out there. You can find them if you are willing to put up with enough of the unpleasant people, but it's not what someone would get into the hobby for. It's more like an unexpected surprise. It's my impression that people are supposed to get into the hobby as a chance to suck up to the experienced hams, and maybe get a pat on the head from them. Yeah, keep working that angle.