[KYHAM] Yet another reason for "Ham"...

[Ham Radio]

We've heard a lot about where "Ham" (for example: "Ham"- Fisted CW) came
from, well here's another one to add to the reasons:
This explaination is said to come from the Congressional Record.

I found this one at:
http://www.larc.on.ca/shtml/about_ham.shtml

Have you ever wondered why we radio amateurs are called HAMS? Well it
goes something like this - the word ham was applied in1908 and was the
call letters of one of the first amateur wireless stations operated by
some of the members of the Harvard Radio Club. They were Albert Hymen,
Bob Almy and Peggie Murray. At first they called their station
Hyman-Almy-Murray. Tapping out such a long name in code soon called for a
revision, and they changed it to Hy-Al-Mu, using the first two letters of
each name. Early 1909 some confusion resulted between signals from HYALMU
and a Mexican ship named Myalmo, so they decided to use only the first
letter of each name and identified their station as HAM. In the early
pioneer and unregulated days of radio, amateur operators picked there own
frequencies and call letters. 

Then, as now, some amateurs had better signals than some commercial
stations. The resulting interferance finally came to the attention of
congressional committees in Washington, DC and they gave much thought to
proposed legislation designed to critically limit amateur activity. In
1911, Albert Hyman chose the controversial Wireless Regulations Bill as
the topic of his thesis at Harvard. His instructor insisted that a copy
be sent to Senator David Walsh, a member of the commitee hearing the
Bill. The Senator was so impressed that he sent for Mr. Hyman to appear
before the committee. Hyman was put on the stand and described how the
little amateur station, HAM, was built, and he almost cried when he told
the crowded committee room that if the bill went through, they would have
to close up the station because they could not afford the license fees
and other requirements which were set up in the bill. The debate started
and the little station HAM became a symbol of all the little amateur
stations in the country that were crying out to be saved from the menace
and greed of the big commercial stations who did not want them around.
Finally the Bill got to the floor of Congress and every speaker talked
about the poor little station, HAM. 

That's how it all got started. You can find the whole story in the
Congressional Record. Nationwide publicity identified the station HAM
with amateurs. From that time to this, and probably to the end of time,
in radio, "Every amateur is a HAM".... 


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