A New Year, A New Focus?

A day or two ago, I changed the 'strapline' on the G4VXE.COM from 'News/Views about HF/VHF, DXing etc' to 'Amateur Radio - or at least, my version of it!'.

I thought the distinction was important. When I started the blog, which was back in 2006, I was very much focussed on DXing (long distance) activity as well as contesting. Over time, my interest has changed somewhat.

I'm still interested in making long distance contacts, but I no longer chase DXpeditions like I used to? Why?

I think the day that particular dream died, was a day that I was listening to an expedition (3Y?) on 80 CW. It would have been a lovely contact, but as well as a fierce pileup, the idiot quotient was high with all sorts of obscenities being sent in morse! I wondered why I'd got up in the middle of the night to listen to rubbish like that. We could talk for ages and not very productively, I suppose, about why that's happened. The long and short is that I concluded that DXing does not bring out the best in a number of people.

So, over the last two or three years, my HF interests have simplified, so that I tend to make simple portable HF contacts - or perhaps playing with WSPR or some of the data modes. On VHF, I still find making CW/SSB contacts on 50, 144 and 432MHz very interesting with a focus on the propagation.

With my interest in computers then APRS, Echolink and D-STAR all fit into my version of the hobby and I enjoy talking to people all over the world in ways that we couldn't have considered possible ten years ago.

So if you started reading the blog, looking for tips on DXpeditions and contests, you're probably disappointed. On the other hand, hopefully I can offer you a varied read - and even more hopefully try to inspire you to try something new in radio.

I hope so! Happy New Year!