WHY RADIO AMATEURS ARE CALLED "HAMS"

WHAT’S THE ORIGIN OF THE TERM “HAM”?

One of the first amateur stations to go on the air adopted the call sign” HAM”. The operators of the Harvard Radio Club station were Albert Hyman, Bob Almy, and Poogie Murray. They first used the call sign “Hyman-Almy-Murray” and then shortened it to a less cumbersome “Hy-Al-Mu”. But, this was confuse. with a Mexican ship named Hyalmo and the call sign became “HAM”.


The meaning of the word HAM according to The Original Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases (Americanized Version) is as follows:
ham (adjective) Ignorant: lay, amateurish, nonprofessional, unqualified, inexpert, ham, unskillful
unskilled: nonprofessional, ham, lay, amateurish, amateur, self-taught


WHAT’S THE ORIGIN OF THE TERM “HAM”?
"Ham: a poor operator. A 'plug.'"