AmateurRadio.com

Almost hit 14,000...

Once again it's year in the rear-view mirror time at the shack. I do want to start by saying I am thrilled that 2024 has come and gone with no health issues for our entire family! To me, that is the best gift of all our health. As for me I am finally getting settled into retirement and feeling the "normal" feeling. In 2025 I will hit the milestone of turning 65...funny as I get older it seems that those older than me are "old" until I hit that age and the "old" timeline moves further ahead. One area I will be working on in 2025 is my mindset. I find with all that has been going on in our globe it has started to slant me in the wrong direction. I want to make the effort to re-balance, reset or see the other side of things. I guess more of the bright side is what I am saying. 

Ok, enough of that and on to the hobby end of things......I had a great year of CW contesting. I am now very comfortable calling "CQ contest" or running as it is called. I have improved on my pileup skills, being able to pick out a call from the many that are coming at me. I have gained the art of coping ahead but it's still new and if I do not practice for a few days it slips. 

There was no real improvement of antennas here as I do live on a small lot and not much space at this time to go crazy. I did however do some computer upgrades such as an M.2 SSD  which turned out to be a great upgrade. I did have my share of RFI issues over this past year BUT finally forking out the money for quality toroids from Fair-Rite did the job. There was some fine tweaking along the way but I am confident I have now worked out all the bugs and am RFI free.....famous last words. 

Looking ahead into 2025 at this point radio-wise it looks like the same old same old but I am very happy with that. The funny thing I have noticed over the past 2 years or so around the time I changed the focus of the blog to CW only basically the readership and comments have taken a dive. I will continue to look into this and over the course of 2025 see if it is time to close the door or refocus on the content.