I agree with Solarwind that amateur radio is still interesting. I have
done experiments in several realms of radio and have enjoyed all of
them.

It is great to communicate across the room at a high data rate, but it
is also awesome to communicate across the world by bouncing waves off
the ionosphere!

I have kept up my amateur radio license, but I mainly use it for
experimentation (perfectly legal!) and rarely use it now to chat with
other amateurs. That can be a bit boring unless it is in pursuit of
some goal (a contest or trying to communicate with very low power,
etc.).

Amateur radio began among experimenters and in many ways I think that
is its most valuable aspect, even though it is rare these days.

Sean


On Fri, Apr 2, 2010 at 8:26 PM, Xiaofan Chen <xiaofanc@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Apr 3, 2010 at 12:18 AM, solarwind <x.solarwind.x@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Ok, you guys sold me. I'm going to get a radio amateur's license.
>>
>
> It might be fun but rather old-school. ;-) But modern geeks seem to be
> more interested in lower power wireless stuff like WiFi, Zigbee, Bluetooth
> or things like that. ;-) Microchip now offers good wireless stuff even
> though TI (Chipcon) seems to be more popular.
>
> Disclaim: I never really touched Wireless/RF other than working one
> month tuning a receiver board for long distance cordless phone
> (I believe the device violates the regulations as it will disturb the
> TV receiving). It was long long time ago. In the school days, there
> were groups making AM radios with discrete transistors. But
> I was more interested in Maths at that time.
>
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> Xiaofan http://mcuee.blogspot.com
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