What will I enjoy about amateur radio?

There are so many ways to take part in the hobby. Which aspects will you enjoy..?

Maybe you’ll like using your radio equipment to make local contacts, either at home or on holiday.

Or you might prefer to make worldwide contacts from the comfort of your home. Get to grips with the propagation of radio waves and your signal could be heard the other side of the world!

If you like getting out and about, why not take your portable radio equipment trekking in the hills (see Summits on the Air), to a national park (see Parks on the Air | POTA or off camping?

Do you spend time constructing or tinkering? You could learn to solder, build your own radio receiver or develop your programming skills.

If you’re a competitive person, why not take part in ‘hide and seek’ or amateur radio direction-finding activities, on the air contests or challenge yourself to gain an award?

You could set your sights on space! With amateur radio you can communicate via satellites, including the International Space Station. Learn how to bounce signals off the Moon or use meteor showers to propagate your radio signal.

Maybe you’ll try using data modes as an alternative to speaking on the air. You could also learn to communicate using Morse code.

You could use your skills support emergency communications efforts by joining RAYNET-UK.

At first, you may just prefer to listen to the amateur radio bands, rather than speaking. Short wave listening (SWL) is free, and you don’t need to be licensed (see http://hackgreensdr.org:8901/ and http://www.websdr.org/).