This 1960s film from the American Radio Relay League gives viewers a look at the “wide world” of amateur radio, also known as ham radio, a “popular hobby and service that brings people, electronics and communication together.” The film opens with Enrique Garcia on the phone in his office in Ensenada, Mexico, checking to see if lunch is ready. He leaves his wholesale grocery store and goes to his home for his lunch break to eat and operate his radio. He walks into his home, which has a large tri-bander radio antenna in front of it. He sits down at his “shack” and communicates with other hams. A high school student from Woodland Hills, CA named Matt strings up an inverted radio antenna (01:08). A woman named Sharon climbs into her convertible in Arizona and tunes in her mobile radio (01:34). Matt and Enrique speak on their radios. Sharon radios Enrique while she drives (04:44). Matt and his radio club meet on a hilltop to test a radio antenna (05:05). They fire up a generator and work with their home-built radios. A young man prepares for his novice test using Morse code. Hams all over the country fire up their gear for a field day, organized by the American Radio Relay League (08:22). People try to talk to as many stations as possible in one weekend. A man looks on a map while coordinating fighting a forest fire (09:10). There is an aerial view of a California forest fire (10:07). The film shows old footage of the harbor in Valdez, Alaska, where the water recedes right before a tidal wave hits (10:40). Children watch a new broadcast on their television of the earthquake in Anchorage. A ham in Arizona communicates with people in his “shack” (12:40); he connects a ship captain and the captain’s wife. A ham sits in California and relays a signal between a mother her son in Antarctica, the latter who sits in an isolation booth to speak to the former. Barry, the ham from Arizona, speaks to camera about volunteers in Arizona who handle radio traffic (15:40). Viewers see Louise sending Morse code from her shack (16:15); she belongs to the Brass Pounders League. Photographs show some of the early radios and wireless communication devices. The film follows that with footage of a spark-cap transmitter and WWI amateur radio operators working on the front. Viewers see a photograph of Hiram Percy Maxim photograph, American radio pioneer and co-founder of the American Radio Relay League, a ham radio on an expedition in the Arctic, photographs of hams building radio antennas, and a good shot of Brisbane, Australia (20:07). On Pitcairn Island (20:40), the one Ham operator VR6TC—Tom Christian—is the great-great-great grandson of the man who discovered the island: Fletcher Christian. Viewers see San Marino Castle with a ham antenna (21:30), an amateur radio convention in Las Vegas (21:58), and a clip of the OSCAR I satellite built by amateur radio operators and launched in December 1961. Tom O’Hara watches a ham teletype in action in his shack (22:43). Tom shows a fellow ham a 10-inch transistorized television transmitter he is making. The film concludes with shots of the experimental lab at the American Radio Relay League at world headquarters in Newington, CT.

Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, describes the use of radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radio sport, contesting, and emergency communication. The term “amateur” is used to specify “a duly authorized person interested in radioelectric practice with a purely personal aim and without pecuniary interest;” (either direct monetary or other similar reward) and to differentiate it from commercial broadcasting, public safety (such as police and fire), or professional two-way radio services (such as maritime, aviation, taxis, etc.).

The term “ham” was first a pejorative term used in professional wired telegraphy during the 19th century, to mock operators with poor Morse code sending skills (“ham-fisted”). The amateur radio community subsequently began to reclaim the word as a label of pride, and by the mid-20th century it had lost its pejorative meaning. Although not an acronym, it is often mistakenly written as “HAM” in capital letters.

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