Amateur (ham) radio saved my life. Every year, hams over the world work, in fact save many, often hundreds of lives through their emergency response systems. When the cell towers go out and the phone lines are out, the world still turns to licensed radio amateurs to keep impacted or isolated areas in touch with needed services.
But my “salvation” wasn’t being rescued from the San Fernando earthquake or the occasional flooding we had in the SFV during the ’60s. Rather, it was this compelling and challenging hobby that kept me doing uplifting, productive things while much of my neighborhood got caught up in the crazy stuff going on in our freewheeling teenage years of the ’60s and ’70s.
When I as a young 12 years of age in 1968, computers weren’t yet “a thing” for everyday people. Businesses back then didn’t even have fax machines! Most folks used rotary phones … “Princess phones” with tone buttons had only arrived, famously hacked by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, making worldwide long-distance calls for “free” as they found loopholes in the new tone-based phone system. Back then, long-distance calls across the world cost dollars per minute – dear money at the time. So, sending messages back and forth long distances was often facilitated by amateur radio operators saving folks bankrolls to stay in touch with loved ones around the globe.
Many people interested in electronics got their start in amateur radio. Radio and broadcast TV were how people got their news and entertainment, so amateur radio training often set one up for a bright career in the field of electronic design and communication systems. Indeed, the co-creater of Apple, Steve Wozniak, was and remains a ham radio operator!
I got started with my elementary school buddy, Neil Higashida, also a budding geek. One day at Radio Shack we found a small book about amateur radio hidden amidst the resisters and transistor parts. A quick read and we were hooked!
We’d have to learn and be tested in Morse code and basic electronic circuit design. This necessitated night classes and testing at the Lockheed Amateur Radio Club in Burbank. This effort was for the “novice” grade license, the entry license for many into amateur radio.
Later, at age 15, Neil and I studied our brains out for the far more detailed “general” license. Neil’s parent drove us to the FCC building in Los Angeles, and with trepidation, we entered a room full of adults, many with white shirts with pocket protectors stuffed with pens and slide rules. NASA looking guys. Side by side with these serious looking adults, Neil and I tested out on Morse code at 13 words per minute and took a supervised and challenging electronics and radio design test. This was a big lift for 15-year-olds, but we passed and my new license, WA6JDC, arrived in the mail about a month later.
Through this time, drugs began to infiltrate our neighborhood like a destructive whirlwind. Where all the kids on our block had played and enjoyed very active childhoods together – now some of our buddies turned into druggies, a couple eventually died from drugs, some moved to better areas, and a minority of us kept our heads down, hit the books, or got into hobbies that kept our minds and hands busy and out of trouble. Oh, trouble I experienced, but amateur radio kept me buried deep enough behind soldering irons and radio building that the worst of carnage passed by my door.
Roll the tape forward 10 years and in my early mid-20s, marriage and kids came, followed and the need to get through college, build a career, and raise that family. My Morse code key went temporarily silent, and my FCC license lapsed. No time for immersive hobbies with three young kids and career demands pressing.
Decades followed and getting re-licensed and back into ham radio became a bucket list. Two years ago, I re-tested and later upgraded and today I’m back on the air as AK6HU, chatting and keying it up with fellow hams from down the street, and to Australia, Uruguay, the Galápagos Islands, Ireland, and all points in between. I talk with Japanese hams who envy us for Shohei Ohtani on the Dodgers. Last night I conversed with an 89-year-old Hawaiian amateur who shared with me all his secrets of longevity. We fall into unexpected and compelling conversations with complete strangers from around the globe.
Today, there’s about 900,000 hams in the USA. Some join to gain access to simple to use handheld radios, beneficial for communicating with local friends and in emergencies. Testing is fairly easy, and the capability of radios in the initial license brings statewide and even worldwide communication to your hands and vehicle and home. For those wanting the fun of regular international communication, further licensing is achievable by nearly everyone.
We have a number of resources in the Santa Clarita Valley to get started. W6JW.org is a group of local SCV hams that welcomes newcomers into the hobby with instruction, testing, and even a “repeater” system that empowers your small handheld radio to talk all over the Southland. Papasys.com is another great resource for potential hams starting out all over the Southland.
Why ham radio and why, regardless of your age or gender? Few hobbies connect us to other human beings like ham radio. Few hobbies promote international understanding like radio. And few challenge our minds with optional Morse code and all the myriad radio station and antenna designs. Ham radio makes you young and connected, not older and isolated.
And, when the power goes out and your phone goes down, you, along with your local hams, will still get the word out for our SCV neighbors. Indeed, the FCC promotes ham radio as first-line community protection for civil defense and emergency response.
Looking for a great hobby? Start with the websites listed above. Chances are, you’ll get hooked on ham radio, for good.
Gary Horton’s “Full Speed to Port!” has appeared in The Signal since 2006. The opinions expressed in his column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Signal or its editorial board.
