Non-Edible Hams in the Dining Room

I received a blast from the past in the mail the other day. It was a renewal for my Amateur Radio License. I totally forgot I even had a Radio License. I've had it for 10 years and talked on air 5 to 10 times I guess.

So why do I have one? Well this is just another example of the experiences I had as a homeschooling mom. Both of my kids were in Civil Air Patrol and radio communications play a big part in that organization. Keith was the Communications Officer of his squadron and even did communications work at the state level.

At one point we had an eight-foot table in our dining room filled with radio communications equipment. You might think that's a bit strange, but it really went well with the existing decor, which was another eight-foot table full of computer equipment. Yeah, YOU might eat in your dining room but not a family of electronic gadget geeks. But hey, it is called Ham radio so maybe it makes some sense.

Anyway, I went along with their idea and decided I would get my license too even though I knew nothing about electronic doohickeys of any sort. I worried I might not be able to learn all the technical information but my kids were great mentors. They were very patient, positive and persistent when they prodded me out from under the bed on the day we were scheduled to take the test. The poke up my nose with the j-pole antenna was particularly motivating.

Even though I ended up not talking on the radio much, I do have some fun memories of learning with my kids. And you know, I kind of miss having those tables in our dining room, especially when I trip over all the exercise equipment that fills up the room now.