So?

IYKYK. Hams are known for a distinctive personality type that can be at strong odds from other tech people and other comms people. Usually in ways that clash with consequences.

I know a few hams that are chill and they are precious doves. I know quite a few more who I won't even engage with for fear of crossing them and them dedicating their lives to making mine hell. Because I've seen them do it to others.

That's not _just_ the hams, mind you. This behavior is overrepresented in hackerspaces in general. But there's a lot of overlap between those groups. Hasn't changed much in the 40-some-odd years I've been involved there either.

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jimnotgym 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I have an amateur radio licence and I agree. One reason I rarely operate...

I always found it interesting how many useful little apps hams write, keep them closed source and then...die.

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toyg 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Could it be because of the history of radio and early electronics being full of inventors getting ripped off by unscrupulous parties...?

	▲	4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		[deleted]

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busterarm 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It's kind of alarming how much more enjoyable the less legal communities in the radio hobby are to spend time around.

	▲	DrewADesign an hour ago \| parent [-]
		I get the sense that a lot of the hams I’ve met have a framed hall-monitor sash from their high school years. I’ve been sniffing around it as a hobby for decades but there are just a ton of people involved that clearly are exorcising trauma from being bullied or feeling marginalized in their life on a whole. Following and enforcing the rules seemed like the beef big draw for a sadly large chunk of them.

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bobsomers 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I don't really think its fair to lump hams into that behavioral bucket. It's certainly a personality type that tends to get attracted to lots of different technical hobbies.

	▲	busterarm 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		[flagged]

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dostick 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

What is IYKYK ? If you know you know?

	▲	DrewADesign an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		IYKYK
	▲	sweetheart 9 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		yeah

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mystraline 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> IYKYK. Hams are known for a distinctive personality type that can be at strong odds from other tech people and other comms people. Usually in ways that clash with consequences.

Yes, old mildly misogynist, mildly racist, wellakshually, holier than thou, pro-trumper types.

I was there at Dayton Hamvention (2024) when they had to turn off the 2M repeater because 2 or 3 of them got into a screaming match over trump.

Naturally, I skipped over any trump-flag hanging booth. But the hatred and extreme conservatism is everywhere in the community.

And its not my community any longer. I let my license lapse, and I will not renew. I also sold my radios, except for 2 2M handhelds, just on the off case SHTF.

I'm a radio hacker, not a ham. I'm no liddy elmer. And nor will I perpetrate shit like YL (you g lady) or OL (old lady), which is common vernacular.

	▲	busterarm 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It's not even just a pro-trump thing. That's not even the thing particularly annoying about hams because that's annoying across all of society. I can tolerate disagreeing with peoples opinions but not disagreeable/disharmonioous behavior. Hams act super gatekeepey and act insanely protective/defensive around things that don't actually belong to them. They tend to have a high sense of self-importance around their skillset and try to do their own "enforcement" of rules that they feel empowered to harass people about. Hams tend to be "fixated persons". They care about their personal capabilities and usually some made up authority they think that gives them. All so they can just endlessly chirp hello world at each other. They developed a skillset and then don't do anything useful for the community with it. Notice I said the community and not their community. They love building insular clubs. They act like authority figures _across the whole damn spectrum_ when their purview is tiny. The coolest radio hacker I ever met was an ex Army radio guy and Desert Storm vet. He ran a licensed LPFM station somewhere in the rust belt but with a pirate radio mindset. Their transmit power was way above what the license allowed but they also weren't bothering anyone :). His station ran afrocentric community/educational content and he ran after school programs teaching teens in his community brodcasting/radio/electronics skills. He helped several of them obtain scholarships. I've rarely if ever seen hams do anything nearly that cool.