I’m not going to lie, when I last posted to my blog, I didn’t think it was going to be 3 years until I posted again. Time flies at an amazing pace.
A big part of that was due to the Covid-19 pandemic and shortly after my last post it exploded in Australia and borders were closed and some time after that essential movement only. It wasn’t until mid 2021 and after vaccines that things started to open up again.
You would think this would have been a good time to play radio, however with all my gear hidden behind things and propagation conditions yet to improve, my interests lay elsewhere at the time, in video games and storm chasing.
The latter half of 2021 also allowed me to use my health insurance for the first time and a ride in the back of an ambulance thanks to the acute onset of kidney stones. While recovering from surgery and a subsequent stent I was introduced to the game Destiny 2, and so began another obsession that has consumed my spare time since.
It’s rare for me to get so invested in a video game, but the rich stories and lore, game mechanics, crafting and game lay along with having an amazing clan to play with just hits all the magic buttons for me.
All that time though amateur radio still hasn’t been far from my mind and certainly plenty of cajoling from fellow local operators has seen me gradually get my gear operational. Probably some of the notable radio things I have had going on include:
- Purchasing an Icom IC-9700 to give myself easier access to 2m, 70cm and 23cm
- Participated is several contests, including RD and VHF/UHF Field Days
- Placed a dedicated small form factor Windows workstation in for the shack operations
During late December 2022 everything started coming together though and I am now starting to get back on air – mostly with FT8, which I can easily control out of my office. I am finding it amazing how much FT8 has taken over and how much the propagation continues to be active on the higher bands past midnight in some cases now.
Seems like a perfect time to start getting back into the hobby.