Spelling

Recently, I have been seeing a number of people that should know better do something that really makes The Ham Radio Curmudgeon annoyed. That is, their spelling of ham radio.

The Ham Radio Curmudgeon does not like to see it spelled HAM radio. Capitalizing the word ham indicates that the letters h, a, and m mean something distinct. IBM, for instance, stands for International Business Machines, the name of a company. So, IBM should be all capitals.

Not so with ham radio. Ham is a shortened form of the proper name – amateur radio. It does not mean anything. It is not somebody’s initials. It is not three people. As a matter of fact, nobody knows why we amateur radio operators are called “hams” at all.

So, quit calling it HAM radio.

And, for god sake’s, never call it Hamm. Hamm’s is a brand of really awful beer. Yes, I have had people write me about Hamm radio. Stop it.