I left the service in 1998 after 15 years.
I regret this decision to this day; however, it was probably the only decision I could make at the time.
The navy wanted to send me over to the middle east for a year. They were also threatening to kick me out for being a fat boy. I spent 12 years on the edge of the body fat standards, slipping under the wire time after time.
My 2nd wife had a great job in the local economy and was making good money. On top of that, I really couldn’t see leaving her to fend for herself with my 3 growing sons from my first marriage.
Faced with all of these hurdles, I opted to get out and find a job in Omaha.
That was in the winter of 1998 and I think that’s essentially when my time in ham radio came to an end. I may have puttered around a bit now and then but by the time my license expired in August 2000, I hadn’t touched anything in months.
I was buy with my job as a Unix systems admin and with my kids, growing into their teen years.
Money was needed for other things and I began selling off my equipment. All my VHF and UHF gear went first. Then, my wife and I decided to split and divorce and money got tight.
My Kenwood TS-830S went next.
At some point, my father had given my his rig. It was a really nice all mode, all band HF rig from Yaesu. I think it was an FT-757GXII.
Finally, I sold his power supply.
After that, all I had were a couple of old antenna, some CW keys, and a bunch of fading memories.
Over time, I tossed my collection of ham radio magazines (I had all the 73 mags for years and years. Some CQ and a couple of other ones, too. I did manage to hold on to some of my reference books about antenna construction, but that was about it.
And here we are today, in September of 2020. Literally 20 years after my license expired. I’ve suddenly decided I want to be involved in ham radio again.
I can’t explain why.
Everything seems to have changed and then nothing seems to be different.
I’ve joined some ham groups on Reddit. And I’ve watched a few hours of youtube videos.
The hobby has become significantly cheaper to jump into but also seems to be significantly more expensive to enjoy at the same time.
It seems like no one actually learns about the hobby any more. They buy a full featured handheld radio for $25 on amazon and memorize the answers to 35 questions.
Then they get online and ask some really ignorant questions that they *should* already have answers for simply by studying the learning material.
Removing the code requirement from ham radio also removed the requirement and incentive to learn about radio wave propagation and radio theory.
New hams just study the questions and answers and hope for the best.
I feel for the bait myself when I saw how cheap some of the new hardware is: $23 for a dual-band VHF/UHF handheld radio. $199 for a 4 band HF rig.
Yeah, you can jump in with literally no money. But why?
When I was introduced to ham radio, there was still a bit of adventure in the hobby. People were still repairing their own equipment and building their own antenna.
I spent so much time trying to create home-brew ground plane verticals and built many a dipole antenna with bits and pieces from all over.
I wasn’t much good with repairs on the old Kenwood though.
And even then, the old timers looked down on me for my cheap, garbage radios from Radio Shack.
Radio Shack is out of the picture today but Chinese companies like Baofeng and Xiegu have stepped in with low(er) priced alternatives for the thrifty ham.
I guess we’ll see if I actually go through with it.