Despite ever more sophisticated technology, amateur radio operators are still here, still sending call signals out into the darkness, and proud that much of the chirping on the Internet was made possible thanks to their developments. All that's lacking is a major earthquake, to prove to all of us how essential the hams still are. Way before Facebook and Twitter linked people very far away from each other, there were those for whom a conversation with someone on the other side of the globe was a routine thing. They were the ham radio operators, who had home radio stations full of equipment with which they talked to enthusiasts like themselves all over the world. From time to time they cropped up in movies and popular culture, and always had an air about them of being masters of the mysteries of technology.