Folks,
I am not sure what it is, but I have lost my radio muse for a while. I have not been on HF for a while. Occasionally, once a week I check my winlink account for email. Other than that, the equipment sits idle. Perhaps this is the effect of summer? Being outdoors, going to the gym, and living out the most of these long days makes sitting in front of a radio seem like the least interesting thing to do. I find that reading the posts here and helping with test sessions is fine, but getting on the air seems uninteresting right now. This is an odd situation.
Please do not get me wrong. I like the Amature radio service and find that it is an excellent utility for being prepared for an emergency. I just cannot get myself to use it lately. The only reason why I do use the radio lately is to practice for a situation when I would really need it.
Is anyone else getting to this point? I suspect during the fall and winter months, the radio will be more interesting when the days are shorter.
Luigi
Hello Luigi,
We all need breaks from our hobbies, perfectly natural, especially when the weather is goo. Though I like operating outside.. I have other hobbies I alternate throughout the years, but always come back to them or just slow down while having fun with something else. Right now I am on a photography kick... But I still listen to the radio and have a few QSOs a week.. I wouldn't worry about a lull in your interest, it will come back. Don't even force yourself to operate..
Gil.
I've gone through periods of inactivity/disinterest many times throughout my amateur radio career. Something comes along that peaks my interest and as such requires more of my time (at the moment it's flying lessons as I work towards my private pilot certificate) and amateur radio becomes less significant in my life for a time but I've always returned to it in some capacity after a few months. Perfectly natural in my opinion.
Thanks for the input. Both of you have fun with Photography and Flying. Hobbies come and go in terms of interest. Thanks.
I welcome the change.
Luigi
It may just be a seasonal thing. In 3-4 months you may find the radios much more interesting than the leaf rake. I know I do.
Quote from: cockpitbob on July 16, 2014, 08:39:41 PM
It may just be a seasonal thing. In 3-4 months you may find the radios much more interesting than the leaf rake. I know I do.
Same here, there's definitely a seasonal component to my amateur radio activity level as well. Long winter evenings find me indoors more often which often leads to more amateur radio.
Same for me too! I just can't summon up the motivation to sit outside with all my gear and sweat my butt off in the north Texas heat. I need to run some soft of antenna in my attic so I can operate HF in my garage. At least that way I'm in the shade and can have a fan nearby.
Summer Heat! My radio shack does not have AC. About the only way I can do summertime radio work is after 10PM at night. This spring I was busy with all kinds of activities except radio, think I have logged one contact in 2014. Here in New Mexico our monsoon season brings lots of afternoon thunderstorms. I don't even try to use 80 meters due to static crashes.
73'S KA5SIW
I noticed that the summer has much different propagation than the winter. When I first started shortwave listening. Getting on HF and connecting is a bit more difficult this time of the year.
I got an email from a GMRS repeater owner who put up a repeater in my city. I was not able to pull up his repeater last night but we did communicate on the 2 meter band in simplex mode (The two meter band reaches further over hills than 70 cm GMRS).
It felt nice to chat again on the radio after a few months of radio silence.
Luigi
Summer activity drops off for me. Between kids, yard work and fishing it's hard to get out or go down in the shack and operate.
The radios are best used in conjunction with other hobbies. When I am riding my bike, I take the radio with me. That is a nice time to talk. When I have to go up on the roof to do some maintenance, the radio (FRS or GMRS) is excellent to use to communicate with my family on what needs to be done. When camping, occasional use of Winlink is a good way to keep people informed on how we are doing. This is one of the ways that I motivate myself to use a radio. It seems like the need for a reason to use the radios is important.
If there was a non-amateur HF land mobile service that was available for data and voice and if it was inexpensive to license, I would go for that instead of the amateur service. My usage would be purely utilitarian. Does anyone else here feel that way? The Australians have such a service. They can apply for Subscription HF Networks.
I cannot bear to sit in front of the radio for hours on end anytime of the year. Maybe it is just me, but i wish the amateur radio service was more like a utility. Use it for emergencies in places where other comms will not work. Use it to actually communicate. I am sure many will say that it is a hobby service and should be treated as such. I cannot disagree with that either. The service seems to support both utilitarian and hobby users.
This is why in a local setting I use GMRS rather than the VHF and UHF amateur bands on many occasions. A lot of the amateurs are just talking about their radios and power levels and antennas all day and I feel that gets really boring.
Lugi
Lugi has a good point. Amateur radio is an excellent accessory hobby. I enjoy doing Ham radio when I am doing other hobbies. Bike riding and ham radio, camping and ham radio. You get the idea. Even when I sit down at my radio desk I can turn my chair 90 deg. and work on my electronics bench at the same time.
Even copying the mail on the local repeater, it is amazing to range of activities other hams are involved with. One of my Elmers once said, working in electronics sure ruins a good hobby.
Years ago my Wife and I had our direct TV disconnected and we save about $90 per month. One of the smartest things we have ever done, I stopped watching TV 4 hours a day, become more active, lost weight and we use that $1000 a year to pay for one of our vacations. In the winter I spend lots more time repairing radios and working the bands too.
"One of the smartest things we have ever done, I stopped watching TV 4 hours a day..."
You nailed it. TV is less than worthless. There is so much to do out there and TV is a monumental waste of time.
Luigi
I think it's the same with everyone. Right now I'm attempting to build an electric guitar and also having a metal building put over our travel trailer, although I did make contact with an operator in Spain (forget his call) operating a special event station commemorating the crowning of King Phillip VI of Spain. I need to get my QSL card out to him. Summer's for fun and getting projects done. Winter is for being cooped up in the house messing around with radio when it gets dark at 5pm.
My wife and I have been bike riding 2 to 4 miles a day. We are getting ready for Burning Man. I bring the 2mt HT along and visit with hams from all over New Mexico while I am on the bike. Hey, it's not rocket science but it is fun.
I have always dreamed on trying HF bike portable and I may try that using my IC-703 and a 20mt. ham stick. I do have some 12volt 7AH gel cells and that makes a do-able station. Think a 17 foot counter poise would be a good addition.
Maybe if I add a front basket, mount the antenna mount to the bike frame. Use wire ties to mount the gel cells in the bottom of the basket. Add a piece of 1/4in plywood on top of the batteries, then mount the radio to the plywood.
I have to help a friend out at the gun show this weekend. Gee, I have a ton of work to do before this trip, this bike HF station sounds just to good to skip. I will let you know if I get it going. 73'S KA5SIW
HF on a bike might be dangerous if you hit a powerline with the antenna.
Sometimes all it takes is one contact to make it interesting again. After two months of not being on, I turned the radio on yesterday evening and after a few minutes heard S51DX calling. Recognizing the call, I looked him up in my log only to find out it was S57DX that I'd made contact with before. So, I contacted S51DX and learned that he was Janez in Slovenia, brother of S57DX (Slavko)! Two months apart, I make contact with two brothers in Slovenia. That was the kick in the pants I needed to finish up QSL cards and get them in the mail. Made contact today with W6L in San Diego. I enjoy special event stations.
I've worked S51DX myself before! Too cool! I'll watch out for his brother.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
All,
I am back at it. The summer was too nice to pass up the outdoors. Now that the weather is rainy, HF seems like a nice thing to be into. The conditions were really great this weekend. I carried out a PSK-31 conversation for about 45 minutes at 5 watts. That was great.
Here are a few things to do this fall.
Update the list of winlink RMS nodes.
Check the Generator and the batteries.
Turn over water and food supplies.
Etc.
Getting ready for the winter conditions up here.
Luigi
It hit me a few weeks ago. I'm finishing building my MTR-2 kit radio and trying to find and kill noise sources in my house that have all bands below 15meters at S-8+.