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No Ham License? Listen Anyway In Your Browser
(hackaday.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
So, is Ham Radio like the spiritual ancestor of something like Discord Voice Chat? I'm trying to understand why people do it, besides the technical/tinkering aspects.
Ham radio can be used as voice chat with friends, but that would be a pretty limited view of it. Here's some things that a Discord Voice Chat cannot do that radio can:
And there's even more. The way to view ham radio is the government grants you a license to operate on many pieces of radio spectrum so long as you can show your technical ability to not cause harm (interference, safety, and things that will prevent you from blowing up your radio as well as find success in using it). What you do with that spectrum is up to you!
GREAT answer. It's funny how I got into ham radio because I thought it seemed a cool way to talk to people... and now I almost never use voice and mostly do what you listed above.