Congress passed the first laws regulating radio transmissions in the U.S. By 1914, amateur experimenters were communicating nation-wide, and setting up a system to relay messages from coast to coast. In 1927, the precursor agency to the FCC, (Federal Communication Commission) was created by Congress and specific frequencies were assigned for various uses, including ham bands.

Although the origin of the word "ham" is obscure, every ham has his or her own pet theory. One holds that early amateurs were called hams because they liked to perform, or "ham it up" on the air. Another proposes that the name came from the "ham-fisted" way some early amateurs handled their Morse-code keys. One of the most exotic possibilities holds that "ham" is an acronym from the initials of three

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this ever growing and always popular hobby.  A beginning setup does not have to be expensive, and there are numerous sites on the Internet that will assist with beginners information to help you get started.

Although Amateur Radio can be fun, it is called the "Amateur Radio Service" because it also has a serious face. The FCC created this "Service" to fill the need for a pool of experts who could provide backup emergency communications. In addition, the FCC acknowledged the ability of the hobby to advance the communication and technical skills of radio, and to enhance international goodwill. This philosophy has paid off. Countless lives have been saved where skilled hobbyists act as emergency communicators to render aid, whether it's during an earthquake in Italy or a hurricane in the US, or a winter storm in Maine. 
Ham Operators are licensed by the FCC. There are three classes of license, Technician, General, and Extra. There is a minimum fee, usually $10.00,

Amateur Radio: Just What is it and Who Does It?

Amateur radio operators are a community of people that use radio transmitters and receivers to communicate with other Amateur Radio operators.  The things that amateur radio operators do with their radios is actually as diverse as the people themselves.

Amateur radio operators, often called "Hams" belong to a community of more than six hundred thousand people in the United States alone, and the estimate easily triples those numbers for hams around the world.

Nobody knows when Amateur Radio operators were first called "Hams," but we do know that Amateur Radio is as old as the history of radio itself. Not long after Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian experimenter, transmitted the Morse code letter "s" from Poldhu, Wales, to St. John's, Newfoundland in 1901, amateur experimenters throughout the world were trying out the capabilities of the first "spark gap" transmitters. In 1912,