The Hamateurs
The 10-year-old boy in me loves the airwaves. Three years ago I studied hard and passed the federal exam to get a license to play radio. It was a youthful, walkie-talkie dream realized. As I began attending swap meets, field days and club meetings around my area, I got to know more than a few curious, colorful amateur radio operators, or "hams"—I call them Hamateurs.
They're your dad, your older brother, or a crazy uncle. They're the old man down the block, and the army dude you run into at the laundromat washing out his camo. Some are women, and too few. They build enormous antennae, and live under them—in basements and attics, amid the crackle and hiss. There's probably one on your block.
The Hamateurs Project is about these hobbyists; the unheralded tinkerers and eccentrics, makers and researchers who continue to expand radio, this “ancient” technology, to new purpose—along with the equally primal need to simply talk to someone.
