Hey hey hey, I build networks so people can talk to other people. I don't want them talking to me.

You see, comms networks have nice, straightforward protocols for interaction. There's defined handshakes, everyone's clear on who the message is for and what's the actual content versus just the packaging (headers, etc.).

Human to human communication? Now that's a complicated mess. Can't always tell what the actual message is, there's multiple carrier types (body language, voice, etc.) and it's really bad at handling packets from multiple senders over short periods!

Just like so many amateur radio operators are afraid to speak on air

I went on a date with a girl who said she was going to school for communication.

We were at a bar and grill, so I misheard her and started deep diving into networks, fiber, PTP and OTA, my favorite switches and routers, why I hate and love Cisco, but why I prefer Brocade and Ruckus, was even starting to get into AM and FM when she finally stopped me:

not communications, communication. Like, you know, talking.

Oooooh. That's cool.

And somehow I saved the date and we were together for a good five years.

Didn't even get to satellites. She did really appreciate that she didn't have to pay to have her macbook repaired, or any other IT shit.

Well duh!
Most of the RF is invisible to people.

RF engineers are really the engineers of engineers, and I don't mean that in a good way. I don't think I know anyone in RF that I would describe as fully sane and neurotypical.

We're the weird kids that built radios instead of playing outside, I guess.

Also, it's the one subject with less women than even mech-eng in my experience (weirdly enough, I do know two female information theory professors), for whatever reason.

Unsung heroes

ooof... this was so true, noticed it while I was in the signal corps....

kojima spoke of this