I am now officially a 'ham'. Having spend the weekend on a course with the Mid-Sussex Amateur Radio Society I can now apply to Ofcom for my callsign - once the papers are processed.
The course made be realise that alot of the concepts behind social networking are not new at all. Ham radio enthusiasts have been doing it for decades.
The beauty of amateur radio is that the participants create the network themselves. It is 'unassisted'. Whereas if you network on the internet you are probably at the mercy of a telecoms provider and/or an internet service provider, with amateur radio all you need is your 'rig' and a power supply (and the latter can simply be a battery or generator). And even a relatively low-power radio can reach all over the world.
And for those who say it is a bit retro - well, I guess the basic concept (two-way radio) is a bit retro, but there is a hell of a lot of hi-tech and cleverness going on around it. Moon-bouncing anyone?
As a ham enthusiast and social network butterfly you have opened my eyes.
We really have been networking since the begining. Just different technologies but the same principles.
We started with tubes and transistiors and the intenet with external modems and a 28.8k speed.
Thanks for your post.
Posted by: Jim Webster | February 01, 2009 at 03:12
When worlds collide ;-) 40years a Radio Ham and 40 minutes of social networking experience and BANG here I am. Congratulations on your licence Daryl. Wish I could trade some of my ham experience for some social media PR knowledge - but then I guess I'm doing that now :-) 73 de G8BCG (as we say) http://www.g8bcg.org.uk or the day jobs:
http://www.food4myholiday.com http://www.www.cornish-food-hamper.co.uk and
http://www.wellcottagecornwall.co.uk
Posted by: Peter Taylor | February 06, 2009 at 21:01
Congratulations on your License and joining the original Web 0.01 !
Posted by: G6VFI | February 16, 2009 at 10:19