Failure is a dirty word
About this episode
The episode discusses the challenges and learning experiences in the amateur radio hobby, particularly focusing on the concept of failure.
Foundations of Amateur Radio It's a curious thing, this hobby of ours, in that the more you want out of it, the more challenging it becomes. For example, you might start your journey with a VHF or UHF handheld radio, sometimes referred to as a Walkie-Talkie or a Handy, and you start listening to the local repeater, or you try to make contact with a friend. Then you discover that it doesn't always work, so you learn about interference, terrain and antenna gain. You start looking for higher elevation or a better antenna and you discover that now you hear more, but you still can't talk to your friends and before long you're building filters and testing other gear and the journey continues unabated. This same incremental experience happens across every aspect of the hobby and it happens to all of us, perhaps unwitting participants on this amateur radio journey. Sometimes this experience leads to becoming discombobulated, discontented, disinterested and ultimately leads to disengagement, which in my opinion, does not need to be the case. Throughout our community we often talk about failure, as-in, a failed contact, a failed activation, a failed antenna or failed design, and on and on…
More episodes of Foundations of Amateur Radio
- The power of patience and pacing
- The things you hear when you least expect it.
- What does expertise look like?
- Building a new resource: How do you get into Amateur Radio?
- Telling Stories to Strengthen a Community
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