Explore your hobbies—June 15, 2012
My husband has a new hobby. A couple of weeks ago he got his Amateur Radio License, KD0RLZ, with Technician Operator Privileges. Now he can talk throughout the world with his Ham friends on the radio. I asked why they didn’t just call each other. He explained that there is much more involved in Ham radio operation than just talking with people.
He’s been interested in radios since childhood, and even had a Hallicrafters 38B short-wave radio when he was a teen. Now he finally has some time to devote to this hobby. He started by going to the Amateur Radio Association of Nebraska meetings, the third Wednesday of each month at the Red Cross building here in Hastings (shameless plug added by husband). He also took the classes offered by the Grand Island and Hastings Amateur radio clubs, and he used HPL for additional resource materials.
A book that was really helpful for him was “The ARRL Ham Radio License Manual, Level One Technician.” He used information and practice tests from this book to prepare for the test that must be passed in order to get the license. Now he’s using another ARRL book to study for the General Class level of license.
One of the great things about the library is that you can find information to get you started on almost any hobby in which you might be interested.
Want to take up archery, but don’t even know what you would need to get started? The book for you is “Basic Illustrated Archery.”There is a brief opening chapter on the history of archery, then the book gets to the practical, basic information such as equipment and gear and archery safety.
Geocaching is a hobby that seems to be fun. If it sounds interesting to you, check out “The Geocaching Handbook” by Layne Cameron. Some of the most helpful sections for beginning this hobby will be: Gathering your equipment, Geocache etiquette, purchasing a GPS receiver, and backcountry safety.
Another good book on this topic is “Local Treasures: Geocaching Across America.” This book contains gorgeous pictures of locations throughout the United States.
“My Cooking Class: Preserving Basics” is a fantastic book. If you have any interest in making mustard, jelly, jam, chutney or marmalade, you must have this book. It has wonderful illustrations of each easy to follow step for each process. You could make the Asian plum sauce, the tomato and date chutney, the mint jelly, or seventy-four other foods including the raspberry curd. This is a hobby your family and friends would enjoy too. From there you can try making any other kinds of foods you want to experiment with. Maybe you’ll even want to write a blog about your experiences!
These are just a very few of the hobbies and interests you can get information about at your public library, so grab a book and live your dream.
