I notice that in a lot of buildings, there are Ham Radios setup. You can "activate" them, but that just seems to animate the dials turning, and you get some static sound. Is there any point to the Ham Radios, or are they just scenery? I mean, I guess it makes sense that people would use old Ham Radios to talk to each other across the wasteland, and across the country, if they can get them working.

Would've been kind of cool if they played some role in the game though. I beat the game once already, and don't recall ever do anything with them, so if there is, it must be a very minor thing, like one quest or something.

I've been wondering that for a while but never bothered to check. I just check the wiki. And they are pretty much useless. Just for atmosphere, since they were popular in the 1950s.

Here is some more info:

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Ham_radio

EDIT: now that I think about it, it's kind of like Ham Radios were the 1950s version of the internet. Because they could use them to broadcast comments and social network around the world, like a super-primitive version of forums and twitter, etc.

They sorta serve the same purpose as the parking meters you can "activate", its just a little game-world interaction going on.

One of the biggest promising but wasted features in the game.

IIRC, the only ham radios you can really interact with are the "distress beacons" that you turn on and give you the chance to search for underground caches. Those are done by ham radios and you can turn them off to end the signal and let you know for future play that you've been there and gotten the goods.

I heard somebody say one time that everytime you used one of them it was supposed to unlock a new area on your map that you hadn't discovered yet, but as far as I can tell they don't actually do anything.

I think there are mods that might make them do something if you are on PC.

edit: nope I checked. they DO come into play in a F:NV DLC though

Living in Australia, we wouldn't have any infrastructure in the bush if it weren't for the Ham Radio. And thats only vast properties & small outback towns
Be No Flying Doctor
Be No School of the Air
Be no Interior to Oz without the Ham Radio. A real shame it wasn't put to use in FO3 :down:
Oh! And before batteries the operator peddled a bike to turn a generator to power the Radio

Yes for real world Hams! Keep it up. QSL forever.

I use them for roleplaying.

Ham radios are part of The Conspiracy. Best leave them alone.

The mod RobCo Certified uses Ham radios. If you take the perk Xenotech Certified, you can use the Ham radios to summon new drones from the mothership. Not very useful to be honest. The drones are weak, and you have to finish MZ first.