I don't, but I have used marine SSB to get weather updates on long passages. No license needed, just ship station license and operator permit, no testing required for those. https://www.mwxc.com/chris_parker.php
I do, but one of the new, relaxed ones. I started to learn Morse when I was in high school, bailed on it pretty fast. When they dropped the requirement from the license I got it because it was not far off of my radio operators license I had to have as a pilot. Never really used it much, but am really tempted to get a new HAM unit for the Airstream and truck.
I got mine after they dropped the MC requirement too, but my dad made me learn it anyway. As for radios, the HAM walkie talkies are amazing these days, and you can still hook them up to an antenna on your rig.
Hope Solo….. holy shit. This bird finds new levels to sink to all the time. Now it’s currently Psycho Trailer Park status.
Yeah, it's amazing what they have. I was looking at a portable rig that I could have in my truck while driving, but then move into the Airstream when parked.
Yeah my granddad was huge into HAM radio. Was a radio man in the Navy. Had the huge towers out at our farm. Neat to find some of his log books from the late 50s with all the people he had pinged all across the planet. My brother got his license I think ended up taking all of the radio equipment which sits stacked next to his guitar equipment burning up room in our basement. It's the old glass tube 500 lb type. What was the recent flap about Chinese radios? I never got the full story. Type got banned or something? Everyone was trying to get their hands on them.
My dad was a radio enthusiast, our house was littered with old console stereos, stand-up radios, Hallicrafters, everything. He did some HAM radio stuff, and trying to dial in the farthest radio stations he could find. We had a homemade PVC pipe/wound copper antenna, hanging up in the tree outside.
My grandpa just young enough to avoid WW2 and was out of the service by Korea. He was a radio navigator in the back of a Grumman avenger. Parlayed it into radio then TV repair. Grandparents had the CB radios in both thier cars so they could talk on their drives to Florida. We used to just screw with truckers until they blew their tops.
I overestimated the amount of miles I was doing today. I'm not going to make it to BOOBS. I'm at BOOG3 and I only have 14 miles left to get home.