[W2CRA] You Might Be An Amateur Radio Operator, If:

[William Powell]

You Might Be An Amateur Radio Operator, If:

1. You’ve bought black electrical tape in ten packs.

2. You’ve stripped wire with your teeth.

3. You told your child, "One day, all this will be yours," and he or she did not respond at all.

4. You’d rather help another Ham friend to hook up new equipment, or put up a new tower than to mow your own lawn.

5. You grabbed the wrong end of a hot soldering iron.

6. You’ve gotten an RF burn from your own antenna.

7. You’ve given RST reports on the telephone.

8. When the microphone or projector at a meeting didn’t work, you rushed up to the front to fix them.

9. You told the XYL, when she noticed a new rig in the shack, "Why, that has been there for years." 

10. You have your watch set to UTC. 

11. You’ve had to patch your roof after an antenna project fell onto it.

12. You put a GPS tracker in the XYL's car or on the riding mower, just so you could watch it on APRS.

13. You tapped out "CQ" or "HI" on the car horn in Morse Code to another Ham.

14. Your teenager has refused to ride in your car because it looks like a porcupine.

15. You know the Latitude, Longitude, and Elevation of your home QTH.

16. You used to go into the local Radio Shack store, and the store clerk has asked you where something is and how it
works.

17. You answered the telephone with your call sign, and then finished the conversation with "73.” 

18. You look for antennas, radios, and Morse Code in movies and television shows.

19. When you look at anything made of wire or metal tubing, you wonder if it could be used as an antenna.

20. Your call sign is listed on one or more of your hats, T-shirts, or other garments.

21. You regularly carry one or more tools in your pockets at any given time.

22. When any kind of batteries go on sale, you get really excited.

23. When you look at a barbecue grill, it creates ideas about ground plane antennas.

24. You have designated all your friends as Hams or Non-Hams.

25. You refer to your Ham friends by their call sign suffixes instead of their real names.

26. You have intentionally confused Non-Hams by telling them that the only things you talk about on the air are pork
products.

27. You’ve intentionally scared Non-Hams with the word "RADIATION”!

28. You’ve looked at telephone poles and power line towers as potential antenna supports.

29. You thought you were still hearing CW, SSB, or SSTV tones, even when your Ham radio was off.

30. Your Go-Bag has more clothes in it than your dresser does.

31. You have a SKYWARN sticker on your back window.

32. Your significant other sits in the back seat, and your radios ride in the front.

33. Your neighbors wonder if you are a Spy, or a Federal Agent.

34. The cops pull you over because they want to see the inside of your car.

If anyone knows the original author, give them the credit for this work. 

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