Amateur Radio
The practice of operating a shortwave radio transmitter for non-commercial two-way communications is known as amateur radio. Licenses are granted by authorized government agencies.
Amateur radio operators have made many technical advancements in the field of radio, and make themselves available to transmit emergency communications when normal communications channels fail. Some amateurs practice operating off the power grid so as to be prepared for power loss. Many amateur radio operators started out as Shortwave Listeners (SWLs) and actively encourage SWLs to become amateur radio operators.
Read more about this topic: Shortwave Radio
Famous quotes containing the words amateur and/or radio:
“The true gardener then brushes over the ground with slow and gentle hand, to liberate a space for breath round some favourite; but he is not thinking about destruction except incidentally. It is only the amateur like myself who becomes obsessed and rejoices with a sadistic pleasure in weeds that are big and bad enough to pull, and at last, almost forgetting the flowers altogether, turns into a Reformer.”
—Freya Stark (1893–1993)
“A liberal is a socialist with a wife and two children.”
—Anonymous. BBC Radio 4 (April 8, 1990)