When I was in eighth grade I acquired my first HAM ( Amateur Radio) License. Then, a Morse code test was required as part of the test. Fortunately, now that is not required. I may still be testing for the license. But, my interest in emergency response, and my career in the National Weather Service was incentive enough to test for this license given the opportunity.
I now have a 2 meter mobile transceiver hooked up to a home made J-pole antenna. It was actually fairly simple to make. It just required a 10 foot length of copper pipe, some connectors and a rejuvenation of my soldering skills.
Here are some pix of the J-pole. When in operation I normally hoist it up into the tree, where it cannot be observed by passing HOA inspectors.