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Picture yourself as an aging, overweight bachelor late at night in a musty basement among humming wires and glowing vacuum tubes, hunkered over a jumble of wires listening intently to the dot-dash rhythm of Morse code while the solder sets--that's not the way it is any more! (well, not for all of us anyway).

Technology developed by amateur radio enthusiasts is used in space (Mars mission, International Space Station, amateur satellites), on your cell phone (especially digital phones' "spread spectrum"), and--get this--the internet itself (packet radio begat TCP/IP).

And don't forget disaster relief--when the phones go out and the internet is down, when police, fire, and hospital services are overwhelmed, amateur radio operators are there to take up the slack as emergency communications volunteers. They have, in fact, been there in virtually all disasters in recent memory (hurricanes, fires, floods). Want to learn more about this invisible breed of citizen? Check it out:

• KF4BQF Ham Radio
• Emergency Operation and Preparedness
• The Local Club