Do your thing and find friends to play with

Foundations of Amateur Radio Today in Amateur Radio is no different from yesterday, last year, last decade or longer. The hobby today is filled with people who are here to have fun, learn stuff and experiment. This hasn't changed since our hobby came into being. You can argue that the hobby has seen a great many changes. We have seen spark-gap transmitters, valves, transistors, miniaturisation, chips and now software defined radios. The experimental nature of our pursuit has not changed. We still spend time looking for cool stuff to do and people to do it with. And that's the single point I'd like to make. Finding people "to do it with". If you're a new amateur you might look to a club or your fellow classmates to combine your efforts. This can be a great way to forge life-long friendships and it's a sure fire way to find exposure to other ideas and activities. There might come a time when you find yourself at a loss what to do next, or who to do it with. You might lament that the group you're hanging out with are not doing fun stuff anymore, or that activities never quite happen or any number of observations that make it less fun to be part of amateur radio. I've now been here for a little while and I've noticed that some of my fellow amateurs have fallen by the way-side. Of course family and changing interests will account for some of that, but often it's a lack of something to do that makes people fade away. There is nothing stopping you from organising your own event. You can plan a camp-out, or an antenna testing day, or a DX activity, a contest, an activation, some software hacking, or hardware building, soldering training, learning how to log, how to do a QSO, or any number of other things. If you tell the community about it, you're likely to be surprised by some other amateur who was just thinking to do the same thing. So, don't wait for someone else to do your fun activity. If you focus on doing things that you enjoy, you might find a few like-minded friends who will participate. I'm keen to hear your ideas and activities, so drop me a line. I'm Onno VK6FLAB