FORCED RETIREMENT!

The last few years at work have been pretty tough and sales have been in steady decline, but nonetheless, it came as quite a shock to hear that the company is officially no longer solvent and will be liquidated at the end of February!

At the tender age of 66, I realise that I am highly unlikely to find another job and certainly not at the rate of pay that I've enjoyed over the last few years. 

I've had to face the fact that all of a sudden I have no job, no income, no car and no house!! Yes that's right - the house I lived in was owned by my employer and that too has to go 😲. Although I'm worried about the future and all the changes that are coming, I'm also well aware that there are many people far worse off than me, so I'm doing my best to stay positive and try to make the best of a grim situation - I still have my health and a wonderful wife, so onwards and upwards!

Thankfully, we have a holiday home on the edge of the Forest Of Bowland in a tiny village called SCORTON, so for now, we'll move there and I'll start to look for a part-time job that befits a man of my maturity 😁

To be honest though, I am wholly ready for retirement and I very much look forward to enjoying my new found leisure time playing radio, walking, photography, painting and many days out on my motorbike.

One big change I'm going to have to make is the size of my shack. I have to massively scale things down because my "holiday home" is, in fact, a static caravan and space is always at a premium. I've already started to sell off excess radios and accessories and a friend has offered to store some other radio stuff that is just too good to throw away and yet not valuable enough to try to sell.

A spare room in the caravan is already setup to incorporate my "radio shack" but now that things have changed, I need to rethink it. I can't really afford to have a full-sized radio on the small desk, so I've been looking for something that is very compact which can be tucked away out of sight.

That requirement narrows things down enormously. Another consideration is that my main PC from home (a large tower) has to fit in there at the side of the table with a monitor against the window. All this means that I need a proper computer-controlled SDR (as opposed to a standalone radio with screen and buttons). 

I also wanted something which didn't need an external amplifier to get me to my permitted 25W and something that I didn't feel like I was pushing hard. If I have an FT8-day, I don't want to sit there worrying that the finals are ready to burst into flames.

Almost instantly, I knew which model to go for - the SunSDR2 DX from Expert Electronics. It fits the bill perfectly and from my previous ownership of their MB1 Prime, I know that the control-software is just fantastic!! I considered buying a SunSDR PRO which is the 20W version, but that would mean I'd be stretching the radio all the time instead of just coasting along as the DX will.

 

 

Needless to say, I had no intention of paying £2,300 for a new one, so I searched around for a great deal on a used one. I actually ended up in a situation where I bought two!!! This was because I thought I'd found a good deal from a guy in Scotland, only to find an even better deal the day after. So I advertised the one from Scotland before it even arrived and sold it on for an extra £100 😂

So here I am with a mint condition SunSDR2 DX with accessories for just £1100. I call it my retirement gift! 😁 And very nice it is too!

And since I'm going to have lots of time on my hands, I also decided to upgrade my aging Sony A6000 to the new A6700 so that I can continue to enjoy my photography hobby for a few more years (before the zimmer-frame arrives) 😂

So there you go! A new life begins and although it's not what I expected, I'm sure there's lots of opportunities ahead to make the most out of the final furlong!

Some pics of our caravan life....

 

RETIREMENT FUN! 😁