Courage Center Handiham System

Welcome once again to my Humble QTH:

Amateur Radio, being what it is, has no boundaries. Radio signals have no way of knowing when or where state lines are. What is even of more interest is the fact that radio waves do not know about the boundaries between nations. Quite literally, the whole world could be listening to a radio signal.

In the United States there are people who come from many other countries or whose ancestors were immigrants and as such have many different ideas about politics and religion. The USA is a true melting pot of people. Name another country and you can find someone in the USA with a background from there. There are as many different religions. People in the USA have more freedoms than those in many other parts of the world.

In some areas of the world there are not so many freedoms. In fact, some places do not even permit Amateur Radio. In some places that do permit Amateur Radio, the operators can get into very "BIG" trouble with their governments if they even attempt to bring up some subjects such as religion or politics. They are only able to talk about subjects dealing completely with Amateur Radio.

Right here in Minnesota for example, we have a retired AM Radio personality who is a Native American and for years did an early morning program on farming that and who also just happens to be a licensed Amateur Radio Operator. Also, we have people around the city of New Ulm, MN who still speak their old country language of German, and of course then you might hear Norwegian, Swedish, Hmong, or Somali being spoken. Gosh! What? I have mentioned about three or four different religions and backgrounds just here in Minnesota. It is probably very true in the rest of the 49 states as well.

Now, here’s the thing. Hams communicate via the airwaves to be sure, but also via email. We have all received emails with a religious or political statement quote after the signature which has nothing whatever to do with Amateur Radio and it is usually automatically injected. This is forcing your opinion on someone.

It is not a very good idea to try and convince someone of your point of view on politics or religion either on or off the air.

To quote my editor, "My advice is don't send political stuff out to ham radio operators - it has always been bad form to mix ham radio and politics, religion, and the like."

So, until next time
73 es DX de K0HLA Avery