[CW] Origin of the term "hams" as applied to amateur radio operators.

[Richard Knoppow]

    First of all, thank you for all the detective work. Its 
amazing how difficult it is to find out some things.
    I have the vaguest memory of seeing the term "ham" applied to 
something other than radio or telegraph in the very distant past. 
It meant badly done but I don't have any memory of what it was.
    Lid also goes back a very long way. Good luck to anyone who 
can find out its actual origin. It seems to me I have seen 
references to its use in very early radio telegraph or maybe wire 
telegraph for exactly what it is used for now.
     When I was a kid I thought of the San Francisco Earthquake 
and Fire as being ancient history. Does not seem so ancient now. 
When the famous M-G-M movie "San Francisco" with Clark Gable was 
released it was still within living memory of many who saw it. It 
is interesting the PH actually predated the earthquake (but not 
by much).
On 9/12/2021 1:48 PM, D.J.J. Ring, Jr. wrote:
> This is a response from the California Historical Radio Society, 
> Bart Lee, K6VK received on the radio-officers googlegroup email 
> list. This is the earliest reference to amateurs being hams that 
> I have found, from the 1906 PH station log (San Francisco):
> 
> 
> "8:30 a.m. The combined forces of 3,000 ham factories are 
> bursting forth with their weirdcodes upon the quietude of this 
> lovely rainymorning."
> 
> Excerpt: DeForest Wireless Telegraph Company San Francisco 
> station PH 1906 log; from/Pacific Radio News/, 1917.
> 
> 
> I think that 19th Century landline telegraphers referred to bad 
> sending as "ham" -- as in hamfisted.
> 
> == ==
> 
> 73 de Bart, K6VK ##
> 
> -- --
> Bart Lee, K6VK, CHRS Archivist and Fellow, AWA Fellow, ARRL Liaison
> 
> 
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-- 
Richard Knoppow
1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com
WB6KBL