Alex Discovers Amateur Radio

4 Today amateurs share the radio spectrum with many commercial and service users. But it is only Radio Amateurs who are allowed to experiment and build and design their own equipment. Amateur Radio is all about the skill and fascination of communicating using radio. It was Radio Amateurs who advanced radio theory and helped make shortwave, FM, and DAB radio the popular industries that they now are. So the radio in my room would not be there if it weren’t for Radio Hams? Possibly. RAYNET is a UK Radio Amateur organisation that helps out in emergencies. Amateur Radio has other uses too, Alex … a big use worldwide is for emergency communications . In a major disaster it is sometimes the only way at first that people can communicate and organise help. As well as providing emergency communications in areas where natural disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes are common Radio Amateurs in the UK provide communications during times when the emergency services’ communications fail, or are over stretched. Also as a public service, and to keep in practice, RAYNET Groups often provide mobile communications during sponsored walks, marathons, and other large events. No mobilephone Other activities I saw them last year but didn’t know what it was. Radio Amateurs set up stations for JOTA to use. Each year about half-a-million Scouts and Guides all over the world "get together" over the airwaves in the third full weekend of October for the annual Jamboree-on-the-Air (JOTA).