I have no idea what amateur radio is like these days, I had thoughts of pursuing the hobby once more, but I have a feeling it's not changed much since then. anyone care to enlighten me ?
Mr. Scott H. H. from SD . . .
Yeah, I just looked you up by your callsign & see you're not very active as only 37 people have looked you up on QRZ.COM , compared to my almost 8,000 even after being inactive for around 35 years or so until a few years ago when I became active again.
I only operate HF CW these days, I've been a ham for 55 years. I can tell you 55 years ago, when I was a teenager, most other hams I worked were also around my age. These days, almost everybody I work on CW is as old or older than I am. The young people on CW are VERY rare since it is no longer a requirement for any class of ham license. But the very few who do take the time to learn CW well, usually get hooked on it.
IMO, in many ways it has changed for the worse over the years. But not all that noticeable on CW other than there are VERY few younger hams on CW these days.
For the rest of the modes, I cannot say, as I don't work anything other than CW these days. Not even FM, but I do have the equipment for any FM band up to UHF. But I cannot remember the last time I used any of it. I have never even connected a mic to any of my rigs--not even for a test.
I always take a small HF rig on my RV trips these days. A
KX2, and a
KXPA100 & the antenna from here, a
TW4040 (along with center coils for other bands, 80-10M. Most active on 40 CW.
At my houses I have a
Yeasu FTdx1200 at each.
G5RV antenna in Auburn, CA.
That is another thing that changed. Even me. I used to design and build all my transmitters and more as a teenager. I used to go to the local dumps and get the parts from junked TV's to homebrew most of my ham gear.
These days, it is just way too easy for me to buy everything and no way could I match the quality of the stuff that we can buy these days. But there are a few hams that can and do. Look up the call W6JL on
QRZ.com I work him a lot. He is now 80 years old and still refuses to buy anything other than the parts. Very rare exception. All his designs and equipment are shown on his QRZ webpage. He also ONLY works CW and nothing else. So I chat with him a lot on CW.
73, -Don- AA6GA/7 Reno, NV