I have fallen in love with ham radio the past few years. I got my technician license about 15 years ago and didn't really do much. I went to a local ham meetup

I have fallen in love with ham radio the past few years. I got my technician license about 15 years ago and didn't really do much. I went to a local ham meetup and honestly, they were all kind of abrasive and lame. Most were old and came off as gatekeeping. I putzed around local repeaters and took my 2m/70cm handheld around with me when I went on vacation and hit local repeaters on my trips. Met some nicer people, but it was all very different to me. I grew up with online chatrooms and AIM and so the idea of speaking with strangers, like with my voice, made me feel kind of uncomfortable (and still does!). Anyway, fast forward to the pandemic and I found myself thinking about radios again. I decided to study for my General because I started learning about over-horizon radio and how you could use HF to bounce off the ionosphere. I had some extra time so I studied the pool with an app and in a few weeks took the test. Once I passed, I took to the internet and read about HF and what I needed to get started. Purchased an Icom IC-7300, an Alinco 330MVT power supply, and an hfkits EFHW build-your-own 80/40/20/(15)/10 wire antenna with 49:1 unun. I also eventually purchased an LDG Z-100A-DXE antenna tuner, a RigExpert AA-230-ZOOM, and a Moonraker AV-600 inline meter. Building my own unun and antenna made me feel like a Jedi building their own light-saber as part of the experience! lol This is when I got hooked. Tuning into 40m at night and hearing from Boston all across the eastern seaboard, into Europe, the Caribbean, and Latin/South America was wild. Then I tuned into 20m and made SSB contacts in Europe. What an electric feeling to call out to someone and having them respond from thousands of miles away! Then I re-purposed a raspberry pi 4 and imaged DragonOS to a card and, omg, digital modes through my radio is where I spend 90% of my ham time now. FT-8 is so much fun. I've made contacts all over. I've hit Japan, Nepal, Asiatic Russia, Brazil, Suriname, Ghana, basically every European country, basically every US state, Canada, the list goes on. I've started building new antennas basically monthly. Copper pipe J-pole was the most fun for 2m. Testing the new antennas with WSPR is a really easy way to see how it performs. There are listening stations in Antarctica and Australia and New Zealand that I can regularly hit at 1 Watt (wtf!?). So cool. DragonOS also does ADS-B tracking and monitoring, which I'm just getting into having purchased a Tram 1410 and stuck it in my attic. Anyway, the world of radio is just incredible. I highly recommend it for any technologist as the fun and crazy shit you can build now for cheap is remarkable. We are truly in the golden age of wireless tinkering! 73