Ham radio

Maryland resident Murray Green has helped connect overseas soldiers with their families without ever leaving his home.

Mr. Green reaches out to new friends in the military and all over the world via his ham radio.

Amateur radio enthusiasts, commonly known as ham radio operators, work on the lesser-known frequencies of the radio dial. The AM radio frequency ranges from 540 to 1600 kilohertz, but the band extends far beyond those parameters.

That’s where the ham operators roam.

Amateur radio operators work along nine bands, or groups of frequencies, in the high frequency range (between 1800 and 29,700 kilohertz) and seven bands in the very high frequency, ultrahigh frequency and superhigh frequency ranges.

Amateur-radio-based chats can be heard by anyone with the right ham equipment who stumbles upon the frequency being used. Mostly, though, the conversations are two-way communications.

A ham radio operator can talk to a neighbor, a stranger in China or even an astronaut orbiting Earth. Although relations between the United States and other countries might run from hot to cold, ham operators tend to bond above and beyond national ties

Ham signals typically arc upward toward the ionosphere, the electrically charged atoms in the Earth’s atmosphere that extend from about 50 to 300 miles above the surface of the planet.

“Where it comes down could be in Europe, the Middle East or a small island in the Pacific. You can’t control the bounce, [but] you can put out a better signal by virtue of a better antenna,” Mr. Green says.

Some signals even bounce off the moon before landing at their destination.

Ham radio offers more powerful frequencies and more channels than CB radio transmissions.

A solid ham radio system includes an antenna, transmitter and receiver. Lesser units combine the latter two into a “transceiver.” The price for a ham radio system can range from about $100 for a used setup to thousands of dollars.

In 1919, Frank Conrad of Wilkinsburg, Pa., began broadcasting music to his neighbors in the Pittsburgh suburb via an early ham radio, a move that helped spark the creation of commercial radio.

Mr. Green, whose home features a 70-foot tower, can turn his antenna and aim its beam like a flashlight.

“You’re aiming the beam of signal toward the country you’re trying to reach,” he says.

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