A failed introduction to our hobby

[KILLERPARSNIP]

Yesterday a friend of mine who I hadn't seen for a while ( Originally a friend from 1980's CB radio) came around, He knew I was a radio ham and as I had radio gear on the table said he had been thinking of the CB radio days and was considering Ham radio. He asked me to turn it on and I did a few calls through the 11 or so repeaters I could get into ,this covering mid Wales to Birmingham down to Oxford and up to Stoke we had zero replies . On the plus side he said he still had a Mustang 1000 knocking about and I told him to have a listen on that ( There is still some CB activity about). If only one person had replied it may have sparked his interest ! I must admit I'm slowly talking my self into giving up the hobby as it causes more frustration than pleasure now days !

[Antoni]

With a three foot magnetic loop antenna anyone can get onto 14MHz and higher HF. A bit a bigger will get you onto 40m.

VHF and higher is more often used for chat between people who know each other, and that's what I use it for. Appreciated that there's little happening in your area, but 40m is often used as a chat frequency. I'd very much like to use top band but the size of my plot would make that difficult. I like 60m but that band is swamped with noise in this area.

Basically use what you can!

[Transwarp]

I must admit I'm slowly talking my self into giving up the hobby as it causes more frustration than pleasure now days !

Take this from a radio user of over 45 years who's never been without some radio gear, put your stuff away and do something else, later in time it's there when you want to revisit it - and usually most will and do.

[KILLERPARSNIP]

With a three foot magnetic loop antenna anyone can get onto 14MHz and higher HF. A bit a bigger will get you onto 40m.

Basically use what you can!

HF is just not my thing a long time ago I went from a a Class B Licence to an A after a long struggle to learn CW ,I brought a HF radio and spent about 2 months using it occasionally and then sold it on. I do take your point about using HF but just cannot justify the expense of a radio that I most likely will not like/enjoy.