You need to study the rules and take a test to get started in amateur radio. It's quite simple to do. I'd suggest contacting the American Radio Relay League (www.arrl.org) and find a club in your area that can point you to the resources and provide the testing. Ham radio is a lot of different things to a lot of different people, so you're bound to find an exciting niche in this hobby. I've personally operated the radio gear on the USS Iowa in Pearl Harbor, HI, talked with my buddies back home while operating in my over-the-water bungalow in Tahiti, and helped the local office of the National Weather Service spot severe weather. If you get tired of any of that you can communicate through satellites, bounce signals off the moon, use your computer to do weak signal work...the sky's the limit! Good luck.