Foundations Of Amateur Radio

Foundations of Amateur Radio There are things that surprise me about this amazing hobby of Amateur Radio every day. One thing that is not a surprise is that some part of the general public thinks that I'm crazy, a lunatic, or worse, someone or something to be feared. Picture this. My car is parked in a car-park, next to some bush-land. Behind the car is a 12m fibre-glass squid-pole with a delta-loop hanging off it. The car-doors are open, it's a warm day, and I'm sitting in the driver's seat with a good friend coaching from the passenger side. I'm calling CQ and trying to figure out if this antenna works. Cue, Isobelle, she's the local ranger for the park we're in. She pulls up in her truck and comes out with "So, what's going on here then?" We explain that we're radio amateurs and that we're testing an antenna. She tells us that someone has seen us, phoned it into the ranger and she's been tasked to come out and check. We'd been set-up for all of 15 minutes. Two days later, I'm in my local park, 2 m