Quote Originally Posted by Singlestack View Post
Well, I think I reached a crossroads of sorts in my ham radio investigation. After joining ARRL, I read the ARRL operators guide and talked to many ham operators. My conclusion is, at least at this point in my life, that I'm not putting together a base station or home HF rig. A mobile rig is to me a very different proposition, and I do believe I want a mobile rig, possibly with HF too.

The main reason I'm not putting a home rig together is more or less lifestyle related. My job is already extremely sedentary, and puts my butt in a chair for 40-50 hours a week. Add in normal email and internet usage, and that is a LOT of hours on my tail. I really don't need another hobby that sits me down for even more hours - I just physically can't do that. I have observed many of the members of state radio clubs, and observe that most members seem to be some combination of elderly, handicapped, or quite obese. For them, I get it - but I don't fit into those categories (yet).

The other thing I am discovering is the learning curve for effective HF comms is very steep compared to line of sight UHF/VHF. The dollar investment is considerably higher, as well.

I may well decide at some point that the station investment is worthwhile, but for now its on ice. My next area of investigation is likely to be line of sight semi-secure comms - and I'm getting further along that path. Anyway, just an update...
Can't say I blame you on that. I've had my general for a little over a year now, and still do 2m/440 only. Now I, and you both have learned a little bit with working local events, etc, but HF is a different breed. It can turn into a lot of money really fast, and I already have a bunch of irons in the fire now. If or when I do get into HF, I think it'll be portable operations only for now. If we were in a seismically active area, or hurricane prone area I would look at it differently. Other than Yellowstone, we are pretty benign here. I think(call the fire dept) that getting something like the icom 718 or similar, a tuner, and stuff to make a dipole antenna or a couple of them, or wire antennas to run in trees would keep things rather inexpensive, but it's going to be a while, at least till we can get black jesus out of the whitehouse and get the country moving again.