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It's the most fun you can have with a radio. It's a way to talk to people around the world, or even orbiting the world; to send e-mail without any sort of internet connection, and to keep in touch with friends while you're driving around town. But it's also a very important communications system -- when cell phones don't work, regular phones don't work, the internet doesn't work, ham radio works. When other systems are down or overloaded, ham radio still gets the message through. Ham radio is a “hobby” – that’s the fun part that gets most people interested and keeps them on the air. But it's also a “service” -a vital service that has saved lives again and again when regular communication systems failed.
"What is ham radio? It's the world's greatest hobby that can save lives. It's a hobby that instantly turns into a life saving service whenever there's a disaster or large-scale emergency. On September 11th, it was ham radio that kept New York City agencies in touch with each other after their command center was destroyed. When hurricanes like Katrina, Rita and Wilma or tornadoes or floods knock out other communications, ham radio provides vital life-and-death capabilities. But 99% of the time, hams do what they do because it's just plain fun.
This unique mix of fun, public service and convenience is the distinguishing characteristic of Amateur Radio. Although hams get involved in the hobby for many reasons, they all have in common a basic knowledge of radio technology, regulations and operating principles, demonstrated by passing an examination for a license to operate on radio frequencies known as the "Amateur Bands." These are reserved by offcom for use by hams at intervals from just above the AM broadcast band all the way up into extremely high microwave frequencies
