Born again Apple Mac geek thanks to amateur “Ham” radio

I got my first Apple computer in 1993. I strayed from 1997 to 2006, frustrated at Apple’s operating system and restrained innovation. During my decade on the dark side, however, I couldn’t get Windows to work the way I wanted, and I lost countless nights and weekends trying to make things work the way I wanted.

These hours often ended in frustration and fist-shaking (not to mention the waste of thousands of dollars) with incomprehensible dialogue boxes, non-compatibility between devices, and ill-thought-through approaches.

One day in 2006, every Windows device ‘left the building’, and I came home with white iMacs, white MacBooks, and a Mac Mini (the latter had 2GB RAM!!!!) as well as a dot Mac/Me/iCloud. Then came iPod, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, HomePods, CarPlay, and many other things, including Apple Music. The rest is history.

For most of this time, everything has just worked, but as Apple and non-Apple developers in the ecosystem did their hardware, software, and services dance. But not everything was smooth sailing during the last two decades. These shortcomings allowed me to geek as an Apple hobbyist, and I loved every minute. It was rewarding and interesting. And you felt a part of ‘something’.

In the last few years, I started to de-geek as the Apple ecosystem with hardware, software, and services (Apple-specific and generic) got better. I also didn’t need as much hardware. An iPad could do what a Mac once did. I didn’t need a network of Apple Airport Time Capsules, Extremes, and Expresses. A Mesh system does that better (in my case, Netgear Orbi). I didn’t need a NAS or plug-in external hardware drives – iCloud and OneDrive are just fine. I didn’t have to spend any time working on things to make them work. They just did. I was becoming a lapsed geek.

That changed late last year. I rejoined the cult. At this time, I was looking around for a hobby for the ‘last quarter of my life’. I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life from my late fifties watching what I call “Sushi-train TV” every night and weekend (I’m talking Netflix, Prime, et al.). Sure, I hike, go to the gym, and more, but home and downtime often led to an endless banquet of TV that came to me. So I started thinking about a hobby.

During my teenage years in the 1980s, I got into shortwave radio listening or DXing, that is, listening to distant radio stations on shortwave frequencies above the known AM band (500 to 1600 kHz) but below the equally known FM band (88 to 108 MHz). I decided to go back to that. I knew it. It was geeky. I could do it from home, and there were plenty of hardware (as in radio options). The shortwave bands were once full of amazing signals – from Radio Moscow, the Voice of America, Voice of Free Europe, Radio Peking, and thousands of others. As a teenager, I remember hearing the Falkland Islands Broadcasting Service during the 1982 war talk about the latest in hostilities, firsthand. I still have my QSL cards from the 1980’s. They’re currently being scanned and catalogued and will be published soon.

I was interested in becoming an amateur radio operator back then, but a licence requirement was proficiency in CW (Continuous Wave), more commonly known as Morse Code. It was one thing I just didn’t ‘get’. And then I left school, left home, and spent the next 20 or so years living in apartments which weren’t conducive to long wire antennas, needed for shortwave radio. Then children came along. Hence, my involvement in DXing and SWR listening lapsed.

Fast forward now to late 2024 and my decision to get back into DXing and SWR listening. Sadly, with the proliferation of the internet, satellites, and government cutbacks, there isn’t much English language content on shortwave these days. Indeed, the only broadcasts that come into Australia are from China Radio International (the old Radio Peking) and Radio New Zealand’s Pacific Service. Sadly, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation no longer operates on shortwave despite promises by the now government when in opposition.

With a few shortwave radios in the house, I noticed there was activity on amateur bands, and this caught my interest. Indeed, there was quite a bit of activity. I then decided to investigate an amateur licence and was pleased (and relieved) to learn that the Morse Code requirement has been dropped. I got my foundation amateur licence with the help of the Coffs Harbour and District Amateur Radio Club. This was the beginning of what’s become a new obsession for me.

The most surprising and one of the best things about my rediscovery of radio is how it’s converged with computers and the Mac (and to a lesser extent iPad and iPhone). Computers are an integral part of modern amateur radio when it comes to controlling radios, seeing activity, transmitting and receiving voice and data messages, logging, and communicating via amateur radio repeaters on satellites, including the International Space Station. And that’s not even half of it.

The Mac is well supported in amateur radio and there’s a great, active, innovative and clever developer community and fan base. I’ve been introduced to great developers like Marcus Roskosch and SDR Control , Dogpark Software, RUMsoft, RT Systems and Chirp. There are many, many more (see Mac Ham Radio). A popular YouTuber Mike K8MRD is a massive Mac fan boy. The convergence of radio and computing has made me a born again Mac Geek. My iPad and iPhone are mainly used for logging and checking space weather for broadcasting conditions. There are also some familiar names popular in the Mac ham radio circles like Rogue Amoeba and its Loopback software.

I have assembled a flotilla of Icom radios. It’s what I had in the 1980’s (Icom IC-R70) and it was my first choice when returning. In ham radio land, to me Icom is like Apple (stylish, well built and well thought through with not too much stuff). The other big brand is Yaesu which reminds me of Windows and Android (too many knobs, complicated software and ugly).

Since getting my licence, radios and antennas (see my shack at vk2awn.net, ham profile and Facebook), I have:

Spoken to hams in Australia, NZ, Japan, France and New Caledonia.
Sent and received messages to hams globally via FT8 – similar to a SMS or text in layman’s language.
Had 1,200 QSO’s (contacts via voice or data) with hams in 69 countries. Here are my latest QSO’s.
Spoken with other hams in Australia after ‘bouncing’ off the International Space Station.
The ability to speak over amateur radio in every town in the world via EchoLink.
Got involved in “Parks on the Air”, which is rapidly becoming ‘my thing’. It’s like a global ‘find and seek’ or Pokémon Go except involving (mostly) shortwave frequencies.

I also meet in person and over the air some really nice, dedicated and interesting fellow ham nerds who are passionate about their hobby. I’ve also reacquainted with radio language, Q codes, and sign off engagements with “73’s”, a custom dating back to an 1859 edition of Western Union Telegraph Codes.

It’s said that amateur radio is the first social media. I agree. It began in the first decade of the 1900’s and the Wireless Institute of Australia, of which I am a member, began in 1910, making it the oldest national radio club in the world. It began with sending messages by voice and data (Morse Code) and that continues to this day with vastly improved technology but the fundamentals or foundations remain the same.

Like all hobbies, amateur radio is under pressure from modern life (time poor, Sushi train TV, less disposable income, social media, et al) but it has a place. I found and like that place. It is even better than I hoped for as it integrates perfectly with my passion for computers and Apple products. Everyday I learn something new and get amazed at what’s possible.

It is at times magical. Take for example, ‘bouncing’ off the International Space Station (ISS) and talking to someone else albeit it briefly and crackly. The ISS appears for ten or so minutes above me once of twice a week at a height of 400 kms (250 miles) and I have a low wattage radio and small antenna. Did I mention that it’s also travelling at 28,000 kmh (over 17,000 mph). Yet from my back deck, I can ‘hit it’ and speak to someone else via it using a computer program on the Mac that adjusts my radio for the Doppler effect. Now that’s magical.

To quote the late Steve Jobs: “It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough — it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our heart sing.” Ham radio is a multidimensional liberal art. Ham radio is a device for the pursuit of humanities. Ham radio and Mac computers make my heart sing.