In the age of instant messaging, Facebook, Instagram and Zoom, you’d think radiohams would have had their day. But lockdown has seen a resurgence in people taking to their garden sheds or spare rooms to try and raise strangers in far off lands over the quaint old-school technology of radio waves.

Interest in amateur radio (also known as ham radio) is booming across the U.K., as hundreds of new enthusiasts discover the joy of transmitting signals over specially allocated frequency bands to make new friendships and even communicate with satellites.

The Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB) has helped 1,500 new starters take their first steps into amateur radio by passing Foundation exams in the past four months, while broadcast regulator Ofcom granted 505 Foundation licences in July alone (compared to 144 the previous July).

One new enthusiast is William, a 10-year-old from near Blackpool, Lancashire. While many were baking sourdough and considering going for a run, William was chatting with new friends thousands of miles away over the radio waves.

William was introduced to the hobby by his keen amateur radio enthusiast father, Michael, and decided to take it up a notch while spending more time indoors. “If you get the schoolwork out the way, you’ve got the whole day to do what you want,” he says. “I thought now was the perfect time, as I haven’t been doing much.”

He’s far from alone. Prevented from spending any time with his school friends with the exception of digitally frenzied sessions of video game “Fortnite,” William recently passed his own Foundation exam, which went online for the first time earlier this year in response to the outbreak.

While his first contact was with a member of his dad’s radio group based in the U.S., William has been chatting to plenty of new people for the first time over the airwaves.

“We’ve had some openings to Brazil recently, and heard someone in what we thought was Indonesia. We attempted to speak to them but failed.”

While William was recently been approached to join YACHT — the Young Amateurs Communications Ham Team in the U.S. — he’s optimistic he may be able to persuade some of his friends to take up the hobby once they’re able to spend more time face-to-face. “Some of them know about it and think it’s cool, but you can’t really show them what it’s like when you’re not able to see anyone,” he says.

Looking to the future, William hopes to start working towards his Intermediate radio licence and is weighing up a potential future career in technology, but not before (hopefully) returning to school as a year six. “I’ve been going insane,” he jokes. “It’s the first time I’ve ever wanted to go back to school!”

(SD-Agencies)