Radio Operators facts
While investigating facts about Radio Operators Certificate and Radio Operators Licence, I found out little known, but curios details like:
When cowboy/actor Slim Pickens (Blazing Saddles/Dr. Strangelove) joined the military during WW2 he stated his profession was “rodeo”, the recruiter heard “radio” and Slim spent the entire war as a radio operator
how radio operators might indicate?
After Ameila Earhart's plane was presumed lost, all subsequent distress calls were treated as hoaxes. Recent research concluded however that half of the calls, many of which were received by amateur radio operators, were credible, indicating that she may have survived for weeks after the crash.
What do ham radio operators talk about?
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what did radio operators do in ww2. Here are 50 of the best facts about Radio Operator's License and Radio Operators Handbook I managed to collect.
what do ham radio operators do?
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While working as a radio operator, Johnny Cash was the first American to know of the death of Joseph Stalin.
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In 1942 RMS Laconia was sunk by a German U-Boat who then commenced rescue operations, broadcasting their humanitarian intent on open radio. With a deck full of survivors, USAAF bombers then sunk the boat. The German navy subsequently abandoned attempting rescue of civilian survivors.
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It's possible for amateur radio operators to call the ISS and even get a response from an off duty astronaut
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In 2006, amateur German radio operators managed to receive radio signals from the Voyager 1 space probe, which at the time was 14.7 billion km away.
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As NASA's Jupiter-bound Juno spacecraft swung past Earth on Oct. 9, 2013, amateur radio operators around the world sent a Morse Code "HI" to the spacecraft, and Juno heard them!
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The existence of 'Numbers Stations'; hundreds of shortwave radio stations featuring broadcasts of formatted numbers and sounds, which since the 1950's, are believed to be addressed to intelligence officers operating in foreign countries.
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Your neighbor's ham radio can interfere with your wifi signal, and that it is the ham radio operator's responsibility not to mess up your wifi, and if they do, you can report them to the FCC and they can lose their license
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Amateur radio operators contributed to the sinking of the Titanic by interfering with the ship's calls for help and spreading malicious messages about the doomed ship. Congress responded by regulating radio broadcasters with the Radio Act of 1912.
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The first radio operator to pick up news of Stalin's death was Johnny Cash, who was serving with the US Air Force in Germany in 1953.
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Several ships warned Titanic of icebergs the night she sank. The radio operators were more concerned with clearing a backlog of passanger messages, and cut off the last warning by replying "Shut up! Shut up! I'm working Cape Race!"
Why do ham radio operators need a license?
You can easily fact check why are ham radio operators called hams by examining the linked well-known sources.
About Ghost Riders - people who hop on to accident scenes and claim injury, or claim injury without ever being present. In one US sting operation, 17 people hopped on a bus and claimed injury. Some were scanning police radio.
There's a radio organization operating since 1949 that broadcasts all over the world to countries that restrict the free flow of information; they were critical during the fall of Communism - source
Johnn Cash worked as a radio operator in Germany for the military during the Cold War and World War II, and was the first American to hear and announce Stalin's death. - source
Researchers working at Bell Labs are credited with the development of radio astronomy, the transistor, the laser, the CCD (image sensor), information theory, the operating system Unix, and the programming languages C and C++. Oh and they've won 8 Nobel Prizes.
The University of North Texas (UNT) used to be called North Texas State University. After the name change, the radio station there decided it would be best to not change the name and still operates as 'KNTU' - source
When is a restricted operator's certificate required for vhf radio?
Johnny Cash was the first radio operator to pick up the news of Joseph Stalin's death.
How many ham radio operators in the us?
Amateur radio operators sometimes communicate by bouncing their signals off the surface of the Moon.
King Hussein of Jordan was a ham radio enthusiast and insisted that fellow radio operators refer to him without his title
Unmanned combat vehicles were used in WWII. Teletanks, employed by the Soviets, were remotely operated by radio control and were often equipped with guns, flame throwers , smoke canisters and even massive time bombs.
Researchers working at Bell Labs are credited with the development of radio astronomy, the transistor, the laser, the CCD, information theory, the operating systems Unix and Plan 9, and the programming languages C, C++, and S. Eight Nobel Prizes have been awarded for work completed at Bell Labs.