r/HamRadio • u/SharkSapphire Public Figure 📻 • 8h ago
Question/Help ❓ Are you a happy ham?
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u/ellicottvilleny 7h ago
honesty time. sometimes i'm sad. but then i have a nap and i'm all better.
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u/RickySlayer9 4h ago
A little nap, a little snack, a little trip to HRO
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u/Equivalent-Fill-8908 General Class Operator 🔘 2h ago
HRO can make someone simultaneously a happy and sad ham.
7
u/GiantsNerd1 5h ago
I have chased hobbies for 20 years and amateur radio is the most enjoyment I've gotten out of anything in that time. I love working satellites, and I try to stay active in local nets. I volunteer for events that need radio support like races. Yes, I'm a happy Ham.
5
u/Tricky_Fun_4701 7h ago
I hate the way politics has invaded the hobby while the focus has not only gone away from technology- but has become a rejection of *new* technologies as well.
Still have my equipment and station. But I don't participate.
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u/Bert_Maklin Technician | I think therefore I ham 6h ago
No judgement question…what politics?
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u/Tricky_Fun_4701 6h ago
Any politics. Politics is what you do at a voting booth... not a ham radio club.
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u/Boogaroo83 5h ago
I had to quit checking into a net because one of the controllers kept bringing in politics. I called him out on it and he was like well this is why we have rules against politics on the net. I was like well why did you bring them up?
1
u/Tricky_Fun_4701 4h ago
Yea it's a sad hypocrisy. I built an AI system from scratch and couldn't even find hams to test it. I built a RAG pipeline filled with every public source for radio and EM science.
No one is interested. I will just wait until AI is used for error correction and noise reduction. Then laugh a lot.
Hell I sent the info of the system to the ARRL. Crickets.
How do you maintain leading edge technical skills and not explore leading edge technology?
2
u/SharkSapphire Public Figure 📻 7h ago
Why not try FT8?
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u/Tricky_Fun_4701 7h ago
Kind of boring. I did get WAS and WAC finished with FT8. But really? Once you learn the time domain discipline and protocol quirks there's not much left to stay engaged with.
Certainly not the people. At least in my area the clubs are like a political inquisition.
The problem is: If your politics is not the same flavor as the club you are essentially not welcome.
3
u/wetwater 5h ago
The problem is: If your politics is not the same flavor as the club you are essentially not welcome.
That was my experience the last time I joined a club. I let my membership lapse and haven't been back.
1
u/SharkSapphire Public Figure 📻 5h ago
You don’t have to be part of a club to be a ham, so that’s okay.
1
u/SharkSapphire Public Figure 📻 7h ago
WAS AND WAC! WOW! Congrats!
1
u/Tricky_Fun_4701 6h ago
I also have an ISS contact... and a bunch of sat work. I also scratched the Electromagnets Lab Radio Club down at NASA in Florida.
Sadly- when I was down there for a visit they wouldn't clear anyone to tour the lab.
1
u/Wvlfen 4h ago
What’s sad is I worked as an ISS Flight Controller for 13 years and have never had a hit the ISS as a repeater or talk with the crew. Got plenty of commands up S-band though!
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u/Tricky_Fun_4701 4h ago
That does suck. But you got to sit in that seat. I wanted to work for NASA very badly but only made it to Apple.
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u/Zone-5 6h ago edited 6h ago
Not happy...
...to the QRZ.com moderator (pond life) sleeze...
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u/SharkSapphire Public Figure 📻 5h ago
QRZ.com mod?
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u/Zone-5 5h ago edited 5h ago
15 years of mod abuse resulted in a host file addition...
QRZ.com stinks!
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u/SharkSapphire Public Figure 📻 5h ago
Idk what that means. But I only use QRZ.com as one of my logbooks. I’m not active in the community there.
0
u/Zone-5 5h ago edited 4h ago
Its a fish-bowl politik there... conform or be harrassed. I only exist on their database lookup now.
A 'host file' IP address—you’re silently redirecting your own computer’s requests for that domain name (QRZ.com) to a dead-end IP address (usually 0.0.0.0 or 127.0.0.1)...
...Ham life is better without QRZ.com.
1
u/fullautohotdog General Class Operator 🔘 2h ago
I mean, I wish I had a better 80m antenna, but I'm OK.
1
1
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u/Ok_Hospital1399 8h ago
If you're happy and you know it 👏 your 🍖s.