MARS is a network of volunteer HAMs who, among other things, facilitate defense-related emergency and morale communication. My experience with them is in the “moral and quasi-official record and voice communications traffic” realm, by which I’m sure the site means “morale” based on the usage I’ve seen. These HAMs volunteer their time and equipment while (I believe) phone companies donate time on the CONUS land lines for military communication including calling loved ones from deployed locations around the world, especially in places where comm resource/bandwidth priorities do not include morale calls. Very helpful bunch of guys.
Scarlett67, are you my long-lost sibling?
Daddy used to be prez of the local ham radio club, for over 10 years. His “studio” is covered with wall-to-wall racks of equipment. We had 6 antennas on the roof (two isopoles), and a 100’+ tall telescoping antenna in the backyard that could be ratcheted even higher for varying signals (spoke with Germany and Japan from SoCal on that one). Yeah, the neighbors loooved us - our house was dubbed “the aluminum tree farm.” He’s got a large cb antenna on his truck, and his personalized license plate is his call sign.
He still climbs very large antennas as a hobby, is a volunteer radio dispatcher for disasters, and does remote location live signal broadcasting for local small radio stations. Last time I talked to him about it, he was bitching about how applicants don’t even have to know morse code to get the basic operating license anymore. And I, his only daughter, STILL haven’t bothered to learn anything beyond “E” - “dit.” What IS this world coming to?! :eek: :wally
Oh yeah, forgot to mention - his obsession also started early. He broke his nose at 12 when he was climbing his very first antenna and it fell over. To this day, one nostril is larger than the other. 
I wanted to learn to be a ham radio operator but I shared a bedroom with my older brother and I knew he would screw with my stuff so I never did it.
I’m an amateur radio operator.
Others have mentioned some great things about ham radio and I have a few more.
The fests are truly wonderful. You really don’t have to be a ham to enjoy them (though geekyness might be required). I’ve never been to Dayton (its this weekend, I think…the weekend before my final exams as always ) but I’ve heard wonderful things. I do try to go to RadioExpo in suburban Chicago every year.
There’s a seemingly endless array of niches. I ‘specialize’ in Motorola radios. Many Motorola radios, having been designed for public safety and business use, need to be massaged if not outright hacked to work on the ham frequencies. Its a joy for a tech-head like me.
Wireless projects are possible. And at potentially great distances. I picked up a pair of data radios that transmit full duplex rs232 serial data at 9600bps. With 2W of output at 445-470MHz, I have a few projects in mind for these things.
Another public service hams are often called upon to perform is pirate radio tracking. There have been some high profile cases of individuals stealing or cloning police and fire radios and harassing, abusing or otherwise just tying up emergency channels. The FCC is stretched super thin and its usually hams who volunteer to track the source of the pirates.
Yup, Dayton is today and tomorrow. My friend James has been going there for, I think, more than 20 years.
Cheer up. It won’t be too long before finals are a thing of the past (unless you plan additional degrees). Then you’ll simply hafta find a job that’s compatible. I dunno what you’re studying, but it might be worthwhile for you to send a resume to Analog - when the time comes that you’re looking for a job. I think it’s geeks only, in that place. But some very nice geeks. 