The Amateur Amateur

antennas zap battery melted wire earphones cartoon

Every now and then someone wants to know a little bit more about me and how I started writing The Amateur Amateur. I presume you do, too, but if you don't, that's fine. I'll just read the counter at the bottom of the page and pretend that every hit represents an avid fan. I was trying to figure out what to put on this page, when it occurred to me that I'd already written a summary of my ham radio writing career for a talk I gave to the St. Charles Amateur Radio Club in the winter of 2002.
Click here for a slightly edited version of that talk.


Bonus Winter in Kaboogie Falls A completely off-the-wall bit of ham radio fiction


"The Amateur Amateur" columns on the A.R.R.L. Web site

For permission to reprint any of these columns please write to permission@arrl.org

June 2001: Storm Spotting -- the Hard Way
July 2001: The "Calm" After the Storm
August 2001: Going Mobile
September 2001: Choking on RF
October 2001: Mobile Flambee
November 2001: Frequency -- the Movie
December 2001: Too Sexy for My Shack

January 2002: Assaulting the Battery
February 2002: Assaulting the Battery II
March 2002: Upgrading Made Difficult
April 2002: Putting It All Together (A Kitbuilding Saga)
May 2002: Lessons in The Radio Facts of Life
June 2002: My First Step Toward HF -- High on the RooF
July 2002: The HF Chronicles -- Part Deux--or--So Many Knobs, So Many Buttons
September 2002: The HF Chronicles -- A New Mode of Thinking
October 2002: Short-Lived Success with Shortwave
November 2002: CW -- Her Plan Versus My Plan
December 2002: The HF Chronicles -- EC-001 and Contacting NTS

January 2003: We Have Met the Examiners, and They are Us
March 2003: The HF Chronicles -- The Sweet Sound of Success
April 2003: But Are You a Real Ham?
May 2003: The Junkman Cometh, Part I
June 2003: The Junkman Cometh, Part II
July 2003: The Junkman Cometh, Part III
August 2003: Saturday in the Park with Ray, Part I
September 2003: Saturday in the Park with Ray, Part II
October 2003: Smoky Mountain High
November 2003: Thanks for the Megahertz
December 2003: Fifteen Milliseconds of Fame

January 2004: A Classy Seminar, Part I
February 2004: A Classy Seminar, Part II
March 2004: Discovering the Junkosphere
April 2004: Wake Me Before the Disaster Starts
May 2004: A Wealth of Possibilites
June 2004: Barking Up a Storm
July 2004: Q-S-Who?
September 2004: Net (Controller) Quake
October 2004: My First One Didn't Work Like That
November 2004: Simplexity
December 2004: All I Want for Christmas ...

January 2005: The First Ten Years
February 2005: Sad Shack
March 2005: Where Do Old Antennas Go?
April 2005: Hanging Around the ARES Table
June 2005: Creeping up on the Digital Modes
July 2005: Pouncing on the Digital Modes
August 2005: Dallying on the Digital Modes
September 2005: Hamityville Horror
October 2005: Don't Hurt My Car!
November 2005: Doughnuts Will Be Served
December 2005: Raiders of the Lost Shack

January 2006: Can You Hear Me Now?
March 2006: Our Net Controller is Missing
April 2006: Unpreparedness
June 2006: Aftershock, Part 1
July 2006: Aftershock, Part 2
August 2006: Closed for Reshacking
September 2006: Not-Quite-In-the-Field Station
October 2006: It's Not Over 'Til the Fat Man Falls
November 2006: So Long and Thanks for All the Cookies
December 2006: Three (or Four) Words About ARES

March 2007: Dances With Aerials
May 2007: The Return of Unpreparedness
May 2007: "Dump" Bag
July 2007: Field Day; An Etude in Three Movements
August 2007: Towering Prices
November 2007: A Tale of Three Tents, Part 1
December 2007: A Tale of Three Tents, Part 2

January 2008: Past Tents
March 2008: View from the Other Side of the Couch
June 2008: Tipping the Mast, Topping the Hill


Other columns and articles

The Amateur Amateur #6 -- Antenna Wars (This appeared in the SABRE newsletter.)
NEW: Winter in Kaboogie Falls. A completely off-the-wall bit of ham radio fiction


© 2008 Gary Ross Hoffman
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