-align: right;">BEA District II

John Dillon, Ph.D.

Professor, Dept. of Journalism & Mass Communication

Murray, Kentucky  42071   john.dillon@murraystate.edu   270 762-4741

Amateur Radio in the 21<sup>st
Century:

Issues of Recent Importance to

the Amateur Radio Relay League

Abstract

Amateur radio known as Ham radio is both a service and a hobby. 
Ham operators use more than a dozen bands of the VHF, UHF and high-frequency
electromagnetic spectrum to transmit signals for non-commercial purposes. 1  As a hobby, the practice goes back to the early 20<sup>th
Century, when radio Amateurs helped to pioneer techniques still in use
by commercial and shortwave broadcasters.

More recently, Ham radio has been alongside the other older technologies
in facing rapid technological and sociological transitions.  Young
people are flocking to newer technologies from computer-based instant-messaging
to cell phones while the radio community ponders how to reposition
itself in the evolving world of digitization, deregulation, and media
overabundance.

While not a mass medium, Ham radio is a case in point demonstrating
how older communication technologies are adapting to change in the 21<sup>st
Century. 

The Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL) represents Ham operators around
the world, and acts as an agent to educate people about radio communication. 
It also helps to define the role of Amateurs in emergency communications,
and functions as a political lobby to protect the non-commercial use
of radio spectrums.

ARRLs main periodical, QST (Ham lingo for announcement or bulletin),
is published every month, containing feature articles about the radio
community and about technical issues.  Since 1915, the publication
has been a guidepost to which issues are most salient to Amateur operators.

The proposed research is a content analysis of trends posed within
the key news columns of QST magazine from January, 2000 to August,
2003 (N=44).  Which technological, educational, political and sociological
issues surface, and how are these topics treated?  The answer will
provide a framework for understanding how this brand of electronic communications
is poised for its 21<sup>st Century adaptation phase, and may
also suggest how radio in general might handle these policy issues over
the coming years.

Quantitative at its base, this research would more importantly provide
a qualitative assessment of items found.

Contribution of Research

to the Field

Amateur radio is an understudied aspect of electronic communications. 
An analysis of news and policy trends within the Ham community would
be worthwhile, particularly within the scope of media adaptation research. 
As an Amateur radio operator (K4JFD), the author can bring special insight
to the discussion.

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