# Year end 2024
Similar story to last year really, I don't feel I have made much
progress in anything of real significance. Several negative life
events have robbed me of a lot of motivation but still, it's not been
all bad.
## Stuff
I've managed to sell a few more unused items. Unfortunately several
new items have been acquired due to entering into amateur radio. I
guess I am a bit of a hoarder and have way too much stuff I don't
actually use. It has been gradually accumulated over the years and
various hobbies, maybe too many. Some of it is now of some value due
to its age and rarity, other parts are pretty worthless. The problem
is it takes time to sort, value and sell. Maybe more time than I have
and I don't want to leave a legacy of crap for my family to deal with
when I exit() this mortal coil.
## Amateur radio
I passed my foundation exam in February and have been fairly active
on the air since. Mostly 2m FM and 40m, but I have been active on
most HF bands.
I've not been interested in chasing DX or contesting, honestly the
contesting just creates noise and many contesters appear to have no
manners. Not checking frequencies are in use before keying up, using
huge power and splattering all over adjacent stations with no
consideration whatever and for what? "You're 5+9, thanks, QRZ". It
has all the appeal of collecting stamps to me.
Every hobby is full of rabbit holes, areas of interest within it.
Amateur radio has many and I have tried to keep my rabbit-holing to a
minimum by keeping my computers and radios air gapped and sticking
for the most part with analogue.
If you are going to use the internet to make contacts then you might
as well just use a video calling application, for which you need no
license. It also doesn't serve as an alternative communication
medium.
CW has been a really challenging mode which I am enjoying. It's still
very early days for me with CW but I am at the point where I can
scrape my way through the odd QSO. I am finding it very rewarding as
it requires physical involvement and skill on the part of the
operator, unlike data modes.
For me the essence of radio is analogue simplex communication, radio
to radio with no infrastructure in between.
## Computing
Not many changes this year but a continuation of the power saving[1]
and computing minimalism theme. The only significant change was
replacing the Asus B202[2] with a HP T620[3]. I have already written
a more comprehensive summary[4] of the computing year, so I won't
repeat it here.
## Gardening
Gardening got off to a fairly good start but yields this year have
been poor:
* Beetroot were a total fail, very few grew to a usable size.
* Carrots were fairly good but were being eaten by slugs.
* Potatoes grew poorly and when cooked dissolved into the water,
resulting in mush-potato rather than mashed-potato
* Tomatoes were slow growing and many hadn't ripened when the cold
weather came
* We had our first coxes orange pippin apples!
* We had a reasonable yield from our transplanted raspberry canes
* Only a handful of strawberries
* Blackberries did ok
## Activities
Unfortunately I haven't gotten out as much as I would have liked this
year.
I started to get back into cycling before the weather turned, but it
has been pretty dank and miserable for weeks at a time.
I took part in a radio club special event field day, although there
were only two of us that turned up at the start and operated through
the day. I have also taken my dual band hand held radio with me on a
couple of occasions to locations on higher ground to work portable
and see if I could work stations other than the usual local ones.
More recently I have taken to walking a couple of times during the
week, to get out of the house, get some exercise and fresh air.
Sometimes I take my dual band hand held radio along with me.
At the end of the summer I did level one of the RYA (Royal Yachting
Association) training to achieve my first level certificate in
sailing. Myself and my brother did this two day course at Lake
Bala[5]. I had never been there before, what a magnificent place it
is! Hopefully I will be returning next year to complete level 2.
We camped over night at one of the sites around the edge of the lake
and a very nice campsite it was too. I still have vivid memories from
some grotty campsites we visited with our parents on various holidays
as kids. This place by comparison had very modern and clean amenities
and was a pleasure to stay at.
I hope to do more camping this coming year but I am getting to an age
where I like my creature comforts. Maybe I can mix some of my hobbies
and ride/drive to some places where I can camp over night on some
peak somewhere and see what radio contacts I can make...
About all that remains is for me to wish you all a happy and healthy
new year. Stay well and stay safe!
[1](
gopher://gopher.icu/I/phlog/energy/energy_usage.png)
[2](
gopher://gopher.icu/I/images/asus3.jpg)
[3](
https://www.parkytowers.me.uk/thin/hp/t620/)
[4](
gopher://gopher.icu/0/phlog/Computing/Computing-in-2024-Review.md)
[5](
https://visitbala.org.uk)
