There are many different types of activities depending on your interests. I write a lot, so if you're not keen on reading, check out the included YouTube videos.
One common type of activity is attempting to make direct contact with a distant station. This could be using a voice mode, digital mode (text), or CW, which just means using Morse code and a keyer to communicate.
Operators can make contacts all over the world using the Earth's ionosphere as a mirror, to reflect signals, and send them further than any method of terrestrial propagation can achieve. This is called skywave propagation as opposed to groundwave propagation, which is like how cell phones work.
The caveat being that skywave propagation appears to have a degree of randomness to it. It isn't totally random but we collectively do not understand it enough to fully predict when and where our signals will end up.
So there's an opportunity to make direct contact with another station somewhere else on Earth, depending on the propagation conditions.
So to now actually answer your question, there's novelty in getting your station working, and then using it to have a brief conversation with a random person at least hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles away. This is known as a QSO.
At different times, for example, with my station being located in North Carolina, I might suddenly be able to reach stations in Europe around sunset. Usually, it's more limited to random areas within the United States with a basic antenna, but not always.
If I announce my presence over the radio (call CQ), and someone comes back to me, we'll exchange some basic signal quality info. Afterwards, if the other person wants, you can ask about their radio setup, and talk about common interests, while avoiding some topics like local politics, etc.
That's only one activity while there are many others. Another activity would be pointing a beam antenna at low earth orbit amateur radio satellites to make as many quick contacts with other operators as possible while the satellite is above the horizon. This is a very physically and mentally challenging activity. Here's a video of that:
https://youtu.be/QWtdyT4PYMw
There are also digital modes as well. FT8 is a common digital mode for making contacts with much less personal interaction using a PC. This one is easier to just watch and see than to explain:
https://youtu.be/bSpyYV-xz5c
Hopefully that gives you some ideas about what it's like to make contacts over the radio. Some people like the social aspects and others (like me) like the technical and experimental aspects of making contacts and seeing where and how far my signals will go.
FT8 is amazing and would be an amazing way to suck people on HN in. It's fun without transmitting. I'm at the bottom of New Zealand and get transmissions from all over the world including our antipode, Europe. And that's with a crappy short wave receiver with a tiny built in antenna that you can get for <$100.
The fact that someone made the FT8 modulation scheme up out or the blue and people started adopting it and using it and having fun shows the spirit of ham radio.
I bet there are folk on here who would be able to come up with some interesting new modulation schemes to push the envelope even further.
It's a shame that the venn diagram intersection between the modern tech world and ham radio isn't larger.
Yeah I've had WSJT-X (or JTDX) listening here in western Canada and I've picked up FT8 messages from New Zealand, Japan, Russia, Brazil... it's crazy! I just used a random piece of wire laying around on my balcony! So cool :D
If anyone fancies having a play with FT8 without any ham equipment, I was surprised to find I could do so using a regular "world band" shortwave receiver. It does need to have SSB (single sideband) mode, I'm not sure how common that is.
Just tune in to 14.074Mhz and listen for the strangely melodic modem-like tones. Download WSJT-X and pipe one into the other.
It was at this point I was annoyed to find my new PC doesn't have a mic socket (what's that all about?), but in fact holding my usb webcam up to the radio's loudspeaker was enough to get reports from all over the continent appearing.
Cool stuff, thanks for the info! I'll watch the videos when I'm no longer on a metered connection. I've always found the physics and technology behind radio fascinating but was never really clear what sort of activities amateur radio operators actually do.
One common type of activity is attempting to make direct contact with a distant station. This could be using a voice mode, digital mode (text), or CW, which just means using Morse code and a keyer to communicate.
Operators can make contacts all over the world using the Earth's ionosphere as a mirror, to reflect signals, and send them further than any method of terrestrial propagation can achieve. This is called skywave propagation as opposed to groundwave propagation, which is like how cell phones work.
The caveat being that skywave propagation appears to have a degree of randomness to it. It isn't totally random but we collectively do not understand it enough to fully predict when and where our signals will end up.
So there's an opportunity to make direct contact with another station somewhere else on Earth, depending on the propagation conditions.
So to now actually answer your question, there's novelty in getting your station working, and then using it to have a brief conversation with a random person at least hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles away. This is known as a QSO.
At different times, for example, with my station being located in North Carolina, I might suddenly be able to reach stations in Europe around sunset. Usually, it's more limited to random areas within the United States with a basic antenna, but not always.
If I announce my presence over the radio (call CQ), and someone comes back to me, we'll exchange some basic signal quality info. Afterwards, if the other person wants, you can ask about their radio setup, and talk about common interests, while avoiding some topics like local politics, etc.
Here's a video of someone doing this: https://youtu.be/tXIbSGX2SvU?t=3m40s
That's only one activity while there are many others. Another activity would be pointing a beam antenna at low earth orbit amateur radio satellites to make as many quick contacts with other operators as possible while the satellite is above the horizon. This is a very physically and mentally challenging activity. Here's a video of that: https://youtu.be/QWtdyT4PYMw
There are also digital modes as well. FT8 is a common digital mode for making contacts with much less personal interaction using a PC. This one is easier to just watch and see than to explain: https://youtu.be/bSpyYV-xz5c
Hopefully that gives you some ideas about what it's like to make contacts over the radio. Some people like the social aspects and others (like me) like the technical and experimental aspects of making contacts and seeing where and how far my signals will go.