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Where Did The Name "HAM" Come From? |
| There are many stories
about where the name "Ham" came from that commonly refers to
Amateur Radio Operator, but none of the ones I've been told seems to
check out with the exception of the following information that I
found. "Ham: a poor operator. A 'plug.'" That's the definition of the word given in G. M. Dodge's The Telegraph Instructor even before radio. The definition has never changed in wire telegraphy. The first wireless operators were landline telegraphers who left their offices to go to sea or to man the coastal stations. They brought with them their language and much of the tradition of their older profession. In those early
days, spark was king and every station occupied the same
wavelength--or, more accurately perhaps, every station occupied the
whole spectrum with its broad spark signal. Government stations,
ships, coastal stations and the increasingly numerous amateur
operators all competed for time and signal supremacy in each other's
receivers. Many of the amateur stations were very powerful. Two
amateurs, working across town, could effectively jam all the other
operators in the area. When this happened, frustrated commercial
operators would call the ship whose weaker signals had been blotted
out by the amateurs and say "SRI OM THOSE #&$!* HAMS ARE
JAMMING YOU." Amateurs,
possibly unfamiliar with the real meaning of the term, picked it up
and applied it to themselves in true "Yankee Doodle" fashion
and wore it with pride. As the years advanced, the original meaning
has completely disappeared. |