A Pin Drop

[WD8BIL]

TNX OM!

[K1JJ]

Hello Everyone!

It's great to see youse guys posting and talking about rigs, life, etc. Yes, things have certainly slowed down on the air and on AMFone.   Jeff/ NBC, I must agree that even the charactor of stuff on eBay has changed.

I look around my shack here and see a time when my absolute peak in building, including the antenna contruction peak, was in 2022. I am looking at nine homebrew rigs - as little as a pair of plate modulated 6146s up to a pair of plate modulated 4X1s.... all still connected up and working. Outside there are five towers, two 190' freestanding, holding arrays from 160 to 10M.  

I haven't climbed up there since 2022, even though I need to make some repairs. All working OK.

I've had a few (minor) health issues over the last 2 years... though I still walk Yaz a couple of miles a day and can maintain the house and yardwork OK. Age here is 73, best regards, OM, hihi)

Rick/KHK, funny comments you made. You're a trooper. I just love to hear about single guys staying in their homes as long as possible. How's the Max processor going?  I saw the nice write-up Paul did on it - FB.

My ham activity has always been in long cycles, just like the stock market. Funny that my absolute peak was in 2022 when about 15 tall ships suddenly appeared on 3885 one evening. It was a who's who QSO and I did mention that this was possibly a peak in building and operating. I really have no excuse for why I'm not on the air... I could find the time if I really was motivated. Nope, no excuse at all... just blame it on life's cycles of interest.

I feel guilty not doing my share to populate the airwaves and post here with new projects like before.  I've gotten many emails axing me where I've been.  I keep promising myself I'll be on soon, though I will probably not build another big rig again... :-)

I did a few searches of my homebrewing posts... some of the projects seemed to go on forever, especially the 4X1 threads  - where did I ever get the fricking motivation and energy to do it all?

Now?  I am still a S&P 500 (Emini) futures day trader.  I do my best to earn a living from the craziness of the market.

Man, time is going by SO fast! I hear the next 20 years is even faster than the last 20. And life sure can be a bitch at times.

There's so much more going on but maybe I should save it for the air?  I'd like to see this thread go on with more stories of what you've all been up to.  Please post and tell us. It's good therapy to stay in touch they tell me... :-)   Jeff, tell us all about your new towers, ant plans, ...

Buddly, I hear you down on 3605 talking with Bob N1KW and the gang quite regularly. I plan to drop by one day.

Tom, K1JJ

[WD8BIL]

Hi Vu!!!!!

Ya, I've miss your presence. 'Course, summer on 75 meters is a pain before 10:00PM from here to the east coast! But I have the Derb Memorial FT101E up and running there with the 4 Horseman homebrew amplifier and check in every once in a while.

I got a Henry 3K-A for $385 I'm restoring, and it'll be on AM by the fall season. Gonna use it with the Viking Bud setup.

I, also, have had some issues that have slowed me down a bit at 70 yrs old so I pray yours are as manageable as mine.

I'm thinking, which is dangerous, of creating a TALL SHIPS NIGHT for some time in November or December to maybe get some of the ol' timers out for a retro performance. Nothing really formal just, hey guys. 3885 at 10PM........

So stay loose and I hope to hear ya down the log.

Buddly

[Tom WA3KLR]

Tom Vu,

It's good to hear from you. I wuz wondering about you since I haven't heard you on in a llllong time. Same age here OM. Some AM operation here but not too much, mostly SSB.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Hey Tom! Happy to see you're on the upside  

The S&P 500 and tariff announcements were making me lose more hair on my head, so I got out in April  

The 75 and 160 meter antennas have been down for over a year. The 40 meter inverted vee was working well until my neighbor decided to cut down the tree that one leg was attached to. So now I load up the other leg as an end-fed. The 5 element tri-bander is now down to 4 elements. Front director was broken off right at boom in two pieces several years ago when a another neighbor's tree was whipping around in a hurricane and hit the beam. The beam is 50 years old so it had a good run.

My son didn't want me climbing up on the house roof anymore diddling with antennas and telescoping masts (at one point I had one of those Channel Master 50 foot telescoping masts up there), so when I had the roof replaced, I had the roof installers remove it all.

I thought I saw when you first post your message that Yaz was bitten by a snake but now it's not there ( unless I was imagining (old people do that)). Both of my 4-legged girls have passed so now the house is real quiet. Sometimes I get the urge late in the evening or early morning hours to turn up the volume on the classic rock music.

I have to spend more time down in the shack area; it's become highly disorganized and some stuff needs maintenance.

[KD1SH]

   Well, Tom, if you never build another big rig, many of us will miss reading about them here in the forum. But, and this is coming from a guy who thus far has only built small rigs, I can relate to where you're coming from.
   My wife and I used to own offshore speedboats, one of which was a 30-footer with twin 400-hp Chevy big-blocks. I often miss those days terribly, but when all is said and done, I'm glad to be done with it. You spend more time working on boats like that than actually enjoying them; it was more than an hour drive down to the marina; my workshop and my vehicles were cluttered with boat parts, and, in short, it was enjoyable but a ton of work.
   For me, it's not a matter of no longer being able to do the work physically: at 69, I can still ride a bicycle a brisk 40 miles (I used to race, in my younger days) and still do a three-hour weight workout twice a week, but it just seems that as you get older, especially after you retire, you start to re-focus a bit, and maybe back away from those things that tend to dominate an inordinate percentage of your time. Distributing my time a little more equally among several activities, I guess, is the thing, rather than allowing one activity to predominate until it becomes more burden than fun.
   I just look back and celebrate the fact that I've "been there; done that," with no regrets; it's just time to re-focus.