Well, this crapped the bed.

[cockpitbob]

Ham Radio a Seasonal Hobby

This is my first year as a ham and I'm starting to think it is a seasonal hobby. Now that the snow is gone and leaves are out it seems like people are thinking about other stuff. Sitting at my desk I often have the luxury of having my 2M HT scanning about 6 local repeaters and there is almost no traffic, even during the commute hours.

This leaves me optimistc that the Ham group isn't a pan-flash but just hibernating for the summer.

 

[Zappa]

This is my first year as a ham and I'm starting to think it is a seasonal hobby. Now that the snow is gone and leaves are out it seems like people are thinking about other stuff. Sitting at my desk I often have the luxury of having my 2M HT scanning about 6 local repeaters and there is almost no traffic, even during the commute hours.

This leaves me optimistc that the Ham group isn't a pan-flash but just hibernating for the summer.

Overall, 2M activity is down, but 440 has increased outside of the PAVE PAWS exclusion zone.
220 is a great band, with some interesting propagation, but pretty much stillborn these days.
900 activity is up, equiptment prices coming down as availability goes up.
Lot's of good linking going on there too.
6 Meter is still chugging along, but monoband radios are pricey and hard to find, just like 220.
Interesting things ahead when the humidity hits, band lifts, tropo, etc.
Field day is 5 weeks away, activity always picks up around then.
There's so much more to Ham radio than just repeaters.
I spoke to W1/KSZ in Arizona (he moved there from Lexington) and he was doing some EME (moonbounce) recently.
He QSO'd with Arecibo in Puerto Rico, and heard himself on the delay at 480,000 miles !

 

[Realtor MA]

I'm on HF most nights. 20 meters has opened a little in the past few weeks but most of the DX is on 40. Had a few dx QSOs last night on 75.
I would love to see some sort of NES HF net or even a shooters net if we could somehow organize it.

 

[THUNDERCHIEF]

My employer has me going all over the world fixing things lately so I have had NO time for radio. But, now I am seeing countries instead of making contact via radio and that is pretty cool too.

 

[maee]

I got rid of my HF station. Why don't we just use a repeater? Otherwise I can use the club station, but its more trouble.