Now that I have been posting on a more regular basis again for a few days, I am going to do something that I have never done on this site before. What you are about to read is the first guest post ever on this site.

This is a guest post by Damien Riley of Postcards from the Funny Farm

Ham radio image. Source linked.

I’m pleased today to say a few words here on romandock dot com. I appreciate one of the categories here because my great grandpa was a ham radio operator. He had a radio shack to the side of his home where he and I and the other grandkids spent countless hours calling and receiving on radio transits. Thanks to Nick for letting me guest blog and show some props to ham radio.

While I do have many memories of ham radio, I am not a hobbyist or professional myself. I mostly am in awe of what ham operators do. In preparing to write this guest blog, I went on a webquest to find out some details about this very cool movement that’s been around for many years. It is both a hobby and a service.

As I was reading, I got to thinking about how hams and bloggers share some attributes.

1. Both ham operators and bloggers enjoy disseminating information: I remember Great Grandpa Clevenger finding out about a tropical storm in some far off place like Australia and then dialing in a nearby “friend” to tell him the details. It seemed to give him so much joy, and yet, it wasn’t his primary job.

2. Both ham operators and bloggers have a “favorites list” as the blogroll or as my grandpa had, a set of index cards with frequencies written down.

-and-

3. Both ham operators and bloggers are constantly learning new technology to improve their ability to “broadcast.” Bloggers have to watch Google all the time for changes about what gets out there through the search engines. Ham radio operators are also watching technology as antennas have changed and continue to change along with so many other relevant technologies.

The most important comparison is that both sets love what they do and although some on both sides make money at it, it’s likely a good percentage would do it for nothing.

If you know ham radio (not that many bloggers do so I need your help), can you think of some other ways the two are related? Or, pehaps you disagree, that’s allowed too.