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Stardate: 20190922.1633
Location: Home office, zero-gravity lawn chair.
Input Device: Cybah rig + Cybah cheez keyboard
Audio: Portable A/C unit, child process playing Minecraft
Visual: Olympus Face-Mounted Display
Energy:  80%
Mental: 80%
Emotional: Chill, introspective.

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Since I've been seeing some cyberdecks in my 
mastodon feed, I thought it would be appropriate to 
post with the Cybah Rig.  It has been awhile and 
I have some time for geeking out since I took 
vacation time for Monday and Tuesday.

I have read a couple posts in the gophersphere 
regarding an inexpensive ham radio that will no 
longer be available at the end of this month due to 
some new changes made by the FCC.  I think it was 
tfurrows and mhj that wrote about this.  Well, this 
new change has got me thinking again about ham 
radio.

I have had a facination with radio going way back, 
not just AM/FM, but also with citizen band (CB) and 
police scanners.  I loved going to Radio Shack!  My 
folk's Cadillac Eldorado that I grew up with even 
had an OEM CB radio built into the AM/FM stereo 
with 8-track player(!)  Yeah, I'm old.

In college, I had an FCC license for my college 
radio show (back when students needed a license) 
and dabbled with all kinds of consumer radios 
(world band, weather radios, crystal radio kits, 
etc.)  I was aware of ham radio, but it seemed a 
bit out of reach for me.  I had some friends that 
did have licenses, and would tell me tales of 
who they talked to or what they heard...I found 
these stories facinating.  One guy would even 
talk and listen on the radio to find out when 
trains would pull into town just so he could 
snap a photograph of the engine.  And this was with 
analog film!  

I never got around to studying for a license since 
I think back then you needed to learn morse code.  
Plus BBS's and eventually the advent of the 
World Wide Web consumed my time.  I did have a CB 
in my car and a police scanner, which seem to 
satisfy my radio curiosities at that time.

Fast forward a bit to when I moved out west, I 
started getting exposed again to ham radio.  This 
exposure was from a local wireless user group that 
was formed by ham radio operators to discuss the 
new 802.11a/b standard and the equipment that uses 
it.  Along with these discussions, the 
conversations would usually include ham radio.  I 
got interested again and loved hearing about the 
stories, but again, did not persue a license, even 
though they changed the licensing to include a no 
code license.  Spawning child processes seem to put 
a damper on resource allocation for leisure 
activities.

So fast forward to the gopherspace of now...with 
the recent phlog phosts and FCC rules, I decided to 
gift myself with a cheap radio.  It is here and I 
have been exploring the features, but have only 
been receiving.  No transmissions up in here.  I am 
unauthorized.  So I listen.

I probably have much to learn about the current 
state of the art of ham radio and licensing.  I 
still have an older ARRL manual (2nd edition), but 
unsure how far I want to proceed with this hobby.  
The child processes are evolving and have become 
more autonomous which has freed up some resources 
to be reallocated to other pursuits.  Perhaps it 
might be this one.  But for now, I just research 
and listen.

Are there other ham radio operators out there in 
gopherspace actively involved with this hobby?  I 
know that people are doing stuff besides chatter on 
the radio.  What are you doing with your license 
these days?  Is it worth pursuing a license?  Any 
feedback would be greatly appreciated.

And it is now time for International Wasabi Mix 
by snowdusk on aNONradio...gotta jack in.

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