Ria's Ham Shack

Mike, VA3MW alerted me to an opening on 6 meters tonight (11/28 EST, 11/29 UTC). Just as I had walked in the door. I dropped everything, put on dinner quick then went to work the opening on FT8. It didn't last too long, about 40 minutes. At least for me, as I started well into it. Anyway, here is a PSKReporter screen shot of who was hearing me. I was running 1kW into 6 elements wide spaced (34ft boom). Furthest hearing me was NA6L in California. My other friend Howard, KY6LA told me that NA6L heard me for one cycle and tried to call. But the opening had probably started fading out by that time I suspect. Oh well! 

Why this post? So let's start off by saying that this won't be yet another reply to Sterling, N0SSC's article  about why Millenials are "killing" ham radio.  I am in the millenial demographic, but I come from 20 years of experience in the hobby, starting off as a teenager. However I feel that an alternate view is important because Sterling's post does have a few valid points, but a lot of it ignores what is right and wrong with the hobby. The spark. I can't really pin down what was the spark that got me specifically into amateur radio. I can say that ever since I knew myself, I was always fond of technical things. Suffice to say, this is what got me into the hobby. I had a few great elmers along the way, mostly SK now, but they nurtured me in the hobby. Why ham radio? Why did you get into this hobby? For me it was a vehicle for electronic experiments and science. I later on discovered things like DXing and contesting which were simply a w...