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Workshop radio amateurs - a citizen access to the radio waves - Introduction, explanation and demonstration   Amateur radio, often misunderstood or associated with the chattering cibists on the airwaves, seems to be of no interest in the Internet era. This very elaborate discipline is practiced worldwide by more than 3 millions of passionate citizens, especially on the international space station. Amateur radio operators are constantly experimenting - trying to communicate by bouncing off the moon, building infrastructures ranging from simple mountain relays to orbiting satellites - and are organized in various communities. Emerging in the early 20th century, they are the original geeks, the first hackers, long before computers, building and modifying radio equipment to communicate without intermediaries. Amateur radios are also a plan B, in case of disaster, allowing to communicate independently through a network spread all over the planet.   Where do amateur radio operators come from, who are they? What about nowadays? What are the perspectives and alternatives that this represents in our hyperconnected society? What is a radio wave? How is it produced, captured? How does it propagate, what can we do with it? What are its characteristics and why do we find them everywhere in our environment? All these questions will be addressed in this workshop, led by Matthias Coinchon, EPFL engineer in communication systems and CTO at RTS, in the form of a presentation interspersed with visual and sound demonstrations, during which we will try to transmit waves around the world with a small transmitter.   Warning: you might feel like becoming a radio amateur after the workshop. We are not responsible for the effect this may have on your entourage.