Ham has a bad rap with Jews, Muslims, Samual L Jackson, and professional radio operators. But as Reginald Fessenden must surely have said over a beer, licensed ham would be very tasty.
Fessenden was never a licensed ham but then in those days there were like almost no radio operators in the whole world. And that was mostly down to a shortage of radios.
After the radio shortage was solved, much like the camera shortage before, it led to loads of people wanting to do radio, and take photos of radios. Which led to loads of people describing cameras and radios whilst hamming.
Then radios were mass produced, and radio stations were invented. Here people could tune in and travel on radios to the horizon. Going beyond the horizon meant falling off the edge of the flat radio world.
But later people figured how to bounce radios using balloons, which are very bouncy. Nowadays we use satellites which are even bouncier and go higher than balloons, and which prove the radio world is not flat except on universal scales.
Radios are waves, a bit like Mexican waves in a football stadium. Speaking technically, if one person raises their arms it’s a little bit of a wave, if more people then the wave is bigger. But if as many people lower their arms then no wave at all. Some of this is down to Newton who also invented apples.
Radios have taken so many different forms that we barely recognise their role in modern society. From the beloved eponymous box to spaceships sent to Mercury, radios have helped make life liveable.
The end
The History of Ham
Moderator: embleton