Sometime in 2024, a person I follow on social media mentioned they were considering getting a ham radio license. This was a direct reaction to recent hurricanes, which had prompted this person to wonder what they could reasonably do in the event of natural disasters.
That got me thinking about the same thing, and I came to a similar conclusion. Lots of practical tasks are outside of my wheelhouse or beyond my capabilities. But running comms? I could learn that.
So I ordered The ARRL Ham Radio License Manual to start studying for the Technician exam. I made it about halfway through before I ran out of steam. My brain simply didn’t want to wrap itself around the material. 2024 wound down. The book sat in the reading nook, its pages yellowing in the sun.
Fast forward to the beginning of 2026. I had not acquired any new apocalypse skills and various threats to infrastructure—including but not limited to the exacerbating effects of climate change—continue to be threats. I picked up the book again. My brain was more cooperative. I reaquainted myself with national and local groups, useful websites, and so forth.
In February, I took the Technician exam and passed. I got my callsign. I started making plans for equipment, events, and projects. I ordered the study guide for the General exam.
I set up ham radio accounts for email, social media, mailing lists, and so forth. I set up a very basic website. Then I decided to set this one up. This is partially practical: I generally prefer to segregate specific interests in different accounts than rely on filters or hashtags or whatever. It’s also partially a brain hack: I have email/socials/subscriptions/website for various things I do, so because I have those things for ham radio it’s an actual thing I’m doing.