NØNB's Ham Radio Page

Why I consider Amateur Radio an asset in my life


Welcome to my humble corner of the Web. My name is Nate Bargmann and my Amateur Radio call-sign is NØNB (just like the top of the screen ~:-} ), changed from KAØRNY some years ago. I have been licensed since November 1983 and have been an active ham (no one is quite sure where that term came from...) since January of 1985 when I passed the Technician exam. I upgraded to Advanced in October of 1985 and then waited until July of 1992 to pass my Amateur Extra exam.

Amateur radio has been and continues to be a valuable asset in my life. It spurred an interest in electronics and gave me the confidence to pursue schooling and a career in the telecommunications field. I can say that without the experience gained by just a little tinkering in ham radio the road into my current career would have been much tougher.

Not only the technical experience amateur radio has allowed me to achieve, but all the friends I have made along the way who lent their support in times of need have made amateur radio more than just a hobby to me. People are people the world over and most would give the shirt off their backs to help a person out. Hams are no different. In fact I think amateur radio has a higher percentage of these people than any other group I'm aware of.

Many hams will sacrifice a few precious hours of leisure on a Saturday morning to provide communications services for walk-a-thons, marathons, bike races, parades, and a number of other public service events. The presence of hams at these events means that event coordinators have people located at strategic points along an event's route that are used to observing and looking for things and then being able to accurately describe what they see. This frees the police to perform their duties and the event organizers can concentrate on the event itself. Many of these same hams assist local government and the weather service in reporting severe weather. Hams have proven their capabilities and commitment over the years to the point that the National Weather Service often does not require their reports to be double checked by local law enforcement. Also many hams participate in "traffic nets" or on-the-air meetings where messages on behalf of some third party (often not a ham) are relayed from the point of origin to its destination. These "radio-grams," as they are called, are formatted much like the classic telegram and are also quite brief. Often twenty five words or less. In this way hams can hone their listening, copying, and accuracy skills to reliably pass along important information to served agencies or to a message writer's loved ones when other means of communication have failed.

I have touched on only three aspects of amateur radio, friendship, technical investigation, and public service. If you find this subject interesting then jump over to WM7D's page. Mark's page has links of all kinds relating to ham radio. If you have any questions at all, please drop me a line and I'll do my best to answer it or refer you to someone who can.

73 (best regards)

de Nate >>


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This page last modified
February 13, 2005
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