What does Ham mean in Ham radio?

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poltergeisty

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RLG, Fly heading 053, intercept 315 DVV
Sent from my drone using encrypted SSH, L2TP, P25, Astro, Provoice-ESK, Tetra, VSLEP, DECT 6.0, WPA2-PSK with a dash of Tapatalk

I thought I got an answer a long time ago, but I don't remember. This has bugged me for a while.
 

Voyager

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There are a few theories, but nobody knows for certain.

Some say it came from the Cockney English pronunciation of the word amateur, h'amateur.

Alternately, in 1908 it was the station CALL of the first amateur wireless stations operated by some amateurs of the Harvard Radio Club. They were ALBERT S. HYMAN, BOB ALMY and POOGIE MURRAY. (H, A, and M)

I've also heard a similar story that it was the initials of the first 3 operators.

There are also the "poor little ham" stories.

It's one of those mysteries that will never be known for certain...
 
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pinballwiz86

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There are a few theories, but nobody knows for certain.

Some say it came from the Cockney English pronunciation of the word amateur, h'amateur.

Alternately, in 1908 it was the station CALL of the first amateur wireless stations operated by some amateurs of the Harvard Radio Club. They were ALBERT S. HYMAN, BOB ALMY and POOGIE MURRAY. (H, A, and M)

I've also heard a similar story that it was the initials of the first 3 operators.

There are also the "poor little ham" stories.

It's one of those mysteries that will never be known for certain...

Never heard any of those. Most common story is that a long time ago commercial morse code operators would deride the amateur radio morse code operators by saying they were sure "ham fisted."

So..the hams embraced it...kinda odd.
 

Voyager

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Only problem I have with that is that hams I think predate commercial ops.

But, as I said - lots of theories out there. The ones I posted date back to the 80s.

Maybe QLF should be QHF???
 

SCPD

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Back in the 80's...
I read an article somewhere,(probably 73 or pop com) that the term predates ham radio, and was used to describe one who does something out of love of the hobby. It refered to actors who used hamfat in place of makeup because they couldn't afford it and weren't making money on acting but doing it because they liked acting so much and had to be creative and improvise and make do with the little resources they had.
That's one of many interpretations...
 

SCPD

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Back in the 80's...
I read an article somewhere,(probably 73 or pop com) that the term predates ham radio, and was used to describe one who does something out of love of the hobby. It refered to actors who used hamfat in place of makeup because they couldn't afford it and weren't making money on acting but doing it because they liked acting so much and had to be creative and improvise and make do with the little resources they had.
That's one of many interpretations...

But it's one that fits with the mission statement and stated purpose in the original form of ham radio back when you built your station from scratch piece by piece from a pile of used parts.

Another lost art, most of us are now just appliance operators.
 

poltergeisty

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Interesting. I thought there were theories out there, but wasn't sure what they were.
 

majoco

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Actors who weren't very good in their chosen careers were known as "hams" to - I wonder if that predates radio.
 

Voyager

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That's funny. You have experts who have stated time and again that the etymology is unknown, and suddenly Wikipedia chooses one of the many theories and claims it true and all others false.

They likely have a full explanation of string theory posted, too.

Something else interesting is that they took the Harvard example, and added things to it, then proceeded to prove it false based on the additional storyline.

You could do the same thing with their etymology - just say that in the 50s some bad ops were called ham fisted. But, that etymology must be false since the Harvard theory predates it. :D
 
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MeddleMan

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I'll never look at the term the same again. I'm nobody special, and by no means a scholar. Yet, I can relate a little too some derogatory terms. Words can hurt albeit elementary. Even still, amateur is derogatory. I guess it's not all that bad. Sometimes all that knowledge, even if it's just appliance operation, can be very useful.
 

SCPD

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Correct

.....
Some say it came from the Cockney English pronunciation of the word amateur, h'amateur....

This is the close to the correct answer.
The word "amateur" got truncated to "am",said as ham, and it stuck as a nickname.
 

cmdrwill

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This is the close to the correct answer.
The word "amateur" got truncated to "am",said as ham, and it stuck as a nickname.

Correct, Ham is kind of a short hand for Amateur Radio Operator. As learned back in the late late 40's from Mom's Uncle who was a Amateur radio licensee.
 
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