Have You Ever Had Someone Ask You That Question, Now You Can Give Them An Answer
Have you ever wondered why we radio
amateurs are called "HAMS"? Well, according to
the Northern Ohio Radio Society,
it goes like this: the word ham was applied in 1908 and
was the call letters of one of
the first Amateur wireless stations operated by some members
of the HARVARD RADIO CLUB. There
were Albert S. Hyman, Bob Almy and Peggie
Murray. At first, they called their
station Hyman-Almy-Murry. Tapping out such a long
name in code soon called for a
revision and they changed it to HY-AL-MU, using the first
two letters of each name.
Early in 1909, some confusion resulted
between signals from Amateur wireless HYALMU
and a Mexican ship named HYALMO,
so they decided to use only the first letter of each
name and the call became HAM.
In the early pioneer unregulated
days of radio, Amateur operators picked their own
frequency and call letters. Then,
as now, some Amateurs had better signals than some
commercial stations. The resulting
interference finally came to the attention of congressional
committees in Washington and they
gave much time to proposed legislation designed to
critically limit Amateur activity.
In 1911, Albert Hyman chose the
controversial Wireless Regulation Bill as the topic for his
thesis at Harvard. His instructor
insisted that a copy be sent to Senator David I. Walsh, a
member of one of the committees
hearing the bill. The Senator was so impressed, he sent
for Hyman to appear before the
committee. He was put on the stand and described how the
little Amateur station was built.
He almost cried when he told the crowded committee room
that if the bill went through,
they would have to close up the station because they could not
afford the license fees and all
the other requirements that were set up in the bill.
The debate started and the little
station HAM became a symbol of all the little Amateur
stations in the country crying
out to be saved from menace and greed of the big commercial
stations who did not want them
around. Finally, the bill got to the floor of Congress and
every speaker talked about the
poor little station "HAM."
That's how it all started. You will
find the whole story in the Congressional Record.
Nationwide publicity associated
station HAM with Amateurs. From that day to this, and
probably to the end of time, in
radio, an Amateur is a HAM.