# Why is it "Ham" radio, anyway? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 3, 2005, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-ham-radio-anyway/282788 "2005-01-03T04:18:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-ham-radio-anyway/282788/1 "2005-01-03T04:18:53Z")
Are the antennae made from pork products? What’s the deal? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-ham-radio-anyway/282788/2 "2005-01-03T04:28:23Z")
[The Word Detective](http://www.word-detective.com/061300.html#ham) > [@](#): > > Dear Word Detective: My best friend, who is an actor, and I would love to know the origin of the word “ham,” referring to someone who overacts. – Steve Tabor, via the internet. > > Unfortunately, no one knows exactly where “ham,” meaning an inept, usually grossly melodramatic, actor comes from. We do know that the term “ham” first appeared in the mid-19th century meaning “clumsy and stupid fellow,” and acquired its theatrical meaning later, around 1881. > > The “clumsy” sense of “ham” may well be a shortening of “ham-handed” or “ham-fisted,” both describing persons (especially boxers) so clumsy that their hands are as useless as hams. > > [snip] > > Incidentally, the designation of amateur radio operators as “hams” also apparently reflects the old “clumsy” sense of the slang term “ham.” According to the American Radio Relay League, in the early days of ship-to-shore radio, commercial operators would often complain of interference from amateur operators, referring to them disparagingly as “hams.” Amateur operators eventually adopted “ham” as their own term, and today it has lost its derogatory connotations in the radio field. ---
**Author:** ![GawnFishin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e9bcb4/32.png) [@GawnFishin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GawnFishin)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-ham-radio-anyway/282788/3 "2005-01-03T04:36:34Z")
The National Association for Amatuer Radio web site [ARRL.org](http://www.arrl.org/whyham.html) explanation if you like. ---
**Author:** ![rfgdxm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c0e974/32.png) [@rfgdxm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rfgdxm)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-ham-radio-anyway/282788/4 "2005-01-03T04:54:37Z")
I’m a ham radio operator. The exact origin of this term is unclear. The one thing that we do know for sure is “ham” was being used in wire telegraphy to mean “a lousy telegraphist” even before radio was invented. There is some speculation that the term may have come from the telegraphist having “a fist like a ham.” As opposed to knowing how to send morse properly. All very early radio was wireless telegraphy. At this point they lacked the technology to do voice modulation. Thus, natural the the term from wired telegraphy would be used to describe lousy amateur radio operators. For whatever reason, early amateur operators started using the term “ham” in a non-derogatory way. (Perhaps some didn’t realize it was an insult?) ---
**Author:** ![Ezstrete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ea924/32.png) [@Ezstrete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ezstrete)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-ham-radio-anyway/282788/5 "2005-01-03T14:13:55Z")
[QUOTE=rfgdxm] I’m a ham radio operator. The exact origin of this term is unclear. The one thing that we do know for sure is “ham” was being used in wire telegraphy to mean “a lousy telegraphist” even before radio was invented. There is some speculation that the term may have come from the telegraphist having “a fist like a ham.” As opposed to knowing how to seon-derogatory way. (Perhaps some didn’t realize it was an insult?)[ The pre-ww2 Navy Signals were known as “Z-signals” An operator who ws “ham-handed” referred to someone whose ability was limited to the basic requirement of five words per minute-----and who was visualized as sitting there pounding out letters using a hammer like motion. As a matter of fact there was a pseudo z signal which was insultingly sent to a ham handed operator which meant “send with your other foot”–it was ZOB 123 In actual usage ZOB123 meant “your characters are indistinct,your characters are poorly spaced,send slower for clarity”. EZ ---
**Author:** ![Vlad\_Igor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Vlad\_Igor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vlad_Igor)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-ham-radio-anyway/282788/6 "2005-01-03T14:13:04Z")
It took my mother-in-law a while to figure out that hamfests weren’t about worshipping pork products, but mini-conventions/flea markets for the amateur radio community. Now, you should ask about the Wouff-Hong, or the Rettysnitch… Vlad/Igor KF4VCC ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-ham-radio-anyway/282788/7 "2005-01-03T14:20:09Z")
I recently read _Made in America_ by Bill Bryson, a book about the development of the English language in America. Here’s what he has to say: > [@](#): > > Ham actor, first recorded in 1875 refers to the practise of lesser performers having to use ham fat rather than cold cream to remove their make up. Soon a second-rate actor was known as a hamfatter; by 1902 he was just a ham. (He doesn’t cite a source for this particular claim)