What is Amateur Radio? -this link probably best explains the hobby. It is, in particular, emergency communications training - Radio Amateurs were the first people to be getting messages out of the areas struck by Hurricane Katrina, for example. To become a licensed Radio Amateur I had to study all the rules, regulations, physics of radio transmission, propagation, reception, the relevant electronics, and I had to pass an exam. I have passed "Basic with Honours" which allows me to transmit in all the frequency bands reserved for Radio Amateurs. I hope to soon go on to pass "Advanced" which gives me even more entitlement.
My equipment is very precisely tuned, maintained, and regulated. It is only allowed to transmit in Amateur Radio bands, and tests are routinely performed to ensure it's not transmitting out-of-band. If it causes interference to any of your equipment, the fault is unfortunately most likely to be in your equipment (which doesn't have to pass such stringent tests, and you usually don't require a license and an exam to operate it), but I can most likely help anyway - just let me know (especially if you can record dates, times, and equipment affected) and I'll see what can be done. Amateur Radio interference issues are rare, and usually resolved quite easily at no cost to yourself. That said, if you're seeing no interference from the low antenna I'm currently using, you're far less likely to see any from an antenna above roof height!
My radio spends most of its time receiving. A lot of time is spent listening for signals from International Amateur Radio Union Beacons to study the physics of the ionosphere.
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