I think this is a brilliant story from the CBC:
Almost every morning and night, Therese Mair can be found sitting on her favourite chair in her living room, in front of a ham radio.
Mair lives in Georgetown, P.E.I., but by fiddling with a dial and searching through static, she can speak with people from around the world.
On a recent evening, Mair reached someone on a ship in Scotland, who — to her delight — struck up a conversation.
“The main thing I’m hoping for is a connection with somebody else — even just for a few minutes,” Mair said.
“There’s no pressure at all. We’re never going to meet. So it’s just a chance to talk with somebody else from a different part of the world.”
As a self-described introvert living alone in a small town, Mair says amateur radio has opened a social part of her life she didn’t know existed.
It has also allowed her to meet people, free of judgment, she says.
“I don’t think I’m a normal person at all, and so finding ways of connecting with people face-to-face hasn’t always been the most successful,” Mair said.
“Once I come home from work and close my doors, I don’t really communicate with people very much at all. The radio is a way for me to make that connection without being judged at all.”
She first picked up her hobby in 2017, after hearing that ham radios were the only way people in Puerto Rico could communicate in the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Maria.
Mair says speaking with people around the world through her radio reminds her that there are caring people everywhere, “no matter what the news brings.”
“There are all these people around the world; they just want a human connection, just for a few moments, and then that fills you up, makes you feel really good.” she said.
“And then — great. On with the rest of the day.”
Click here to read this story and listen to the interview.
By absolute fluke, I started the car just as this aired. Colour me confused when the first thing I hear is a ham calling CQ! My HF radio is in the house, not the car! The kids thought it was neat too.
Oh now that’s brilliant!
Hi
I am from India. Like the post very much.
Same thing here with me just one or two contacts daily on my Ham radio inspite of bad propagation makes my day.
Running just 100watts and a modest antenna.
Mostly I work on CW.
Hope to work VY2TAM one of these days.
73s de Sam
Vu2usa INDIA.
I hope she never runs into one of the hams who starts criticizing her audio or says something like, “Come back when you can afford this hobby.”. She should definitely stay away from 7200 kHz.
Some years ago I went to Field Day at our local park.Before long it became
apparent that these “amateurs” were not amateurs at all but Whackers,
complete with EMA khakis,green EMA polo shirts and a new tricked-out
Windstream trailer full of EMA ham gear.
Everyone had a pseudo military rank and everything was a “mission”.
But the saddest thing I’ve ever seen was one of them explaining to an
older lady like the one in this article that “Amateur Radio is Only to be
used in emergencies”.
She had enquired,thinking how cool it would be to talk to someone
half a world away.
Took a long time to get over it…we all need to share our Hobby with
those interested.
Interesting, although it reinforces the stereotype of hams as socially awkward introverts. Some of us hams are quite outgoing and good conversationalists!