Amateur Radio, for me, got very very boring. 

I started over 50 years ago as a Novice and got on the air with a homebrew, crystal controlled CW transmitter. The final amplifier was a horizontal sweep tube scavenged from a TV. It had a power output of 8 watts! The receiver was an antique Hammarlund HQ-129X boat anchor. That was so fun and I was hooked.

As years went by, I built and operated various Heathkit radios: HW32A (20 meter SSB/CW), HW101 (multi-band SSB/CW), SB200 Linear Amplifier and many Heathkit accessories including their power supply, speaker and SWR meter. With my Vibroplex Semi-auto bug and 4 element tri-band yagi I racked up thousands of contacts from all over the world and filled shoe boxes with QSL cards. That was also fun.

Then the 2 meter craze started peaking during the 80's and 90's. Radio clubs flourished because it took a lot of people to support repeaters and towers. With some repeaters you could actually make a phone call from your mobile! That was awesome. About the same time, CW requirements were reduced to 5 WPM and eventually dropped (I accepted the reasoning behind that).  Question pools were published and clubs administered tests. A person with a great memory could potentially go from no license to Extra in a couple of hours. I heard of a 5 year old little girl who passed her exam for Extra. What happened to the concept of starting from the bottom and learning operating skills? It is what it is.

The digital modes, e.g. FT8, are interesting. Spend a couple of hours connecting a computer to your hybrid radio/computer, make a few mouse clicks on your computer, and voila! You just completed your first digital "QSO". The "QSO" is logged and sent to LOTW or eQSL and sometimes a few minutes later you get a confirmation from the other op's computer. Somehow, WAS and DXCC don't have the same meaning as before.

Then came cell phones. Interest in repeaters dried up and clubs lost membership. Radio clubs became social events with a focus on monthly breakfast meetings and emergency comms. With cell phones you can talk to someone on the other side of the planet with the press of a button. When Starlink's Direct to Cell becomes widely available, emergency comms will be a moot point. Lugging solar panels, batteries, radios and antennas into the outback won't be necessary when cell phones and power packs will do the same job, only better. Time moves on.

The remainder of this site is now focused on other interests.