I've been a radio amateur since I was 14 years old.
It was pretty primitive stuff way back in 1976, sending out morse code from a straight key through a Heathkit radio that you built yourself. I remember the shock and thrill when someone from France answered my call one afternoon.
Now such things are commonplace with the advent of the Internet, global email and so forth. The world has shrunk.
....but nothing that Sony has built has yet matched the magic of bouncing a flea-powered signal off of the ionosphere and communicating with someone thousands of miles away.
I drift in and out of this hobby as time permits, but I've never lost the fascination of communicating via morse code.
This is an older site that I don't maintain very well anymore, which shows some of my vintage equipment.
APRS stands for "Automatic Packet Reporting Service" which gives me a tracking feature for my vehicle. This is one of the coolest and most practical technologies that I've yet encountered in amateur radio.
If you look at the pictures of my 1996 Honda ST1100, a careful examination will show that I have a Garmin GPSIII+, a Kenwood TH-D7A radio, and a 5/8 wavelength whip installed on the back. This setup has successfully worked a ton of terrestrial (ground) stations, as well as the ISS and PCSAT satellites. I have also used a similar setup on my 1999 Accord.
Motorcycle APRS is the way to go if you're taking a long trip.
Yell to [email protected] if you want more information.