A Thought for World Amateur Radio Day

Amateur radio is the means of communication with others on equal terms, of finding friendship, adventure and prestige while seated at one’s own fireside. In picking his human contacts out of the air the amateur is not seen by them. He is not known by the clothes he wears but by the signals he emits. He enters a new world whose qualifications for success are within his reach. There are no century-old class prejudices to impede his progress. He enters a thoroughly democratic world where he rises or falls by his own efforts. When he is W9XYZ, a beginner, the radio elders help him willingly, and when he becomes W9XYZ the record-breaker and efficient traffic-handler, he willingly helps the younger generation. Without a pedigree, a chauffeur, or an old master decorating his living room he can become a prince—of the air. At the close of the day, filed with the monotonous routine of the machine age, he can find adventure, vicarious travel, prestige and friendship by throwing in the switch and pounding his signals into the air.

Dr. Raymond V. Bowers, Yale University ¹