Kevin McGehee posts a Letter to the Editor of Time magazine from an Amateur Radio licensee who took exception to a part of Lev Grossman's Time article on their Blog of the Year award (that's PowerLine, by the way).

Apparently, Mr. Grossman's article referred to Hams as "curiosity, a cult phenomenon, a faintly embarrassing hobby." Go read Kevin's post to see exactly how John Elicker responded, but I wanted to add my thoughts on the topic.

First off, Amateur Radio is primarily a hobby. We Hams participate in the hobby for a wide variety of reasons. Some of us just like to talk. There's generally a community spirit among Hams, where we like to help each other when we have questions and problems. Some revel in the technical aspects of the hobby, which cover a tremendous amount of ground, from radio frequency energy, to emergency power supplies (batteries, conventional generators, solor panels, wind generators and more), to a surprisingly large number of digital communications modes, to antenna technology and much, much more. Many of us really enjoy the public service aspect of Amateur Radio, providing communications support for local events, regional emergencies, and international disasters. But regardless of why we like the hobby or what we do in it, it's all because we enjoy what we're doing.

In years past, when RF technology was in its infancy, some Hams played significant roles in advancing the science and the practical implementations of it. As commercial interests have come to rely more and more on various types of radio communcations, they have taken the fore in pursuing new applications. That notwithstanding, Hams still serve a worthwhile purpose, even if we are a little geeky, in an old-fashioned kind of way.

But go ahead, crack a few jokes at our expense. We often do things deserving of a wisecrack or two. But don't dismiss us. As a group and over time, we have provided many benefits to society, and we still do so today.

Postscript: Both Kevin and Chris McGehee are Hams, like me (I didn't know that Chris had a license until yesterday). If we want to, we can pick out our own callsigns within certain parameters. I chose my call, N5CTI, for several reasons, one of which would be obvious if you know my career field when I was in the Navy. Chris also picked out her call, which I think is pretty neat: KL0UD (that's a zero, not an O, by the way).