TECSUN S2000 QUICK REVIEW

 TECSUN'S FLAGSHIP RADIO

I've had my eye on an S2000 for quite a long time and even when I was ready to buy one a coupe of years ago, I chose to hold back again and opted for the PL-680 instead. And to be honest, I don't regret that decision because the PL-680 has been a fantastic radio - I just love it. It's been a joy to operate and to own - a little treasure.

But sometimes, you want something that little bit bigger - something with more accessible buttons and dials - something with a bit more heft - enter the Tecsun S2000!

My initial reason for not buying an S2000 was its size. In all the magazine and online reviews, it looked like a big ghetto blaster and it wasn't until I saw one in the flesh that I realised how compact they actually were. Sure, they're not tiny, but they are not as big as they look in photos.

For many people, the appearance of a radio is what initially catches one's eye. The S2000 is certainly a piece of eye-candy and that bulky, almost military style with chromed grab handles, big tuning dial and slightly retro signal meter really grabs your attention. But a pretty face isn't everything. This good lookin' gal has to perform as well!

You will hear  that the Tecsun S2000 is really a Grundig Satellit 750 and to be honest, that's no bad thing, but the Tecsun version actually has a little extra in the form of an IF-OUT (more on that later). In all other regards, the 2000 and 750 are identical. Needless to say, some will always make claims to the 'superiority' of the Grundig model, but the truth is, the only real difference is the badge! Anyway, Grundig went bankrupt years ago!

The other reason for me not buying an S2000 up to now, was the cost. Some people sell these things for a ridiculous price and it seems that some are foolish enough to pay it! I've even see them sell at £444 😮 even though the MRRP is closer to £300.

 

As I switched the radio on for the first time and played around with the dial in FM mode, my first impression was that this was a neat radio and one which was pretty well built. All the knobs felt tight and responsive. The dial was nice and smooth with just the right amount of resistance. Everything was very clearly labelled and I didn't have to pick up the manual - not even for storing frequencies in memory. Mind you, I do own another Tecsun.

On FM all the stations were pulled in with absolute ease and I noticed that the signal didn't really change when I switched from my external AOR SA-7000 to the built-in telescopic whip - so that's good! The only odd bit was when I tuned to ClassicFM - it was a cleaner signal through the telescopic whip than through the external antenna - and it wasn't a case of overload.

But FM is only a tiny part of my interest in this radio - my main interest is ShortWave and AirBand. Like the PL-680, the S2000 has AM, MW, LW, FM, LSB and USB modes, so there's not much it can't do. In the bottom right corner of the front panel it has a BFO dial which provides that all important fine tuning of SSB signals (bearing in mind that the lowest tuning  resolution is 1KHz via the big dial). One mode which is sadly absent is CW but the signals can be heard quite well using the Narrow bandwidth filter.

The radio is littered with nice features including two 50ohm BNC sockets for external antennas (one marked FM and the other marked SW). That's a fabulous and highly valued feature to me. Below those are a couple of snap-lock connectors for a high impedance SW antenna. Also in this cluster is a switch to swap from Internal/External antennas. Nice!

Antenna options don't end there though! On top of the radio is a rotatable AM antenna which works incredibly well. At first, it just looks to be part of the radio cabinet, but it soon becomes apparent that it can be rotated (either way) to find the best MW/LW signal. And there's more! Using the 3.5mm jack-plug in the center of the AM antenna, you can plug in an external antenna or even something like Tecsun's own AN100/200 LOOP antennas. 

The S2000 has other useful connectors including the usual stereo 3.5mm headphone jack, a 3.5mmstereo Line-In jack and a pair of RCA sockets for stereo Line Out. And then of course, there's that IF-OUT.

Although the Line In/Out connections make sense, I can't really understand the point of the IF output.To use it for a panadapter for example, you'd need to inject that signal into an SDR device such as the SDRPLAY RSP1A and a computer. Well if you had an RSP1A and a computer, there's not much point plugging the S2000 into the loop - the RSP1A would do a much better job anyway. I guess you could use it to connect to some sort of demodulator for DRM, but it just seems like too much faffing around to me.

So what's the receiver like? Well without posting lots of video examples (there's already loads on YouTube), I'd simply say that I'm quite happy with it. For comparisons, I connected it to the same antenna as used on my ICOM IC-7300 - it's an EFHW. Before comparing the two radios, I switched off the pre-amp, noise-blanker and noise reduction on the 7300.

Using a high quality antenna switch, I tuned both radios to LW/MW frequencies and switched between the two. I was pleasantly surprised at the lack of difference between them. Sure, the SDR technology inside the Icom did a better job than the Tecsun, but the latter was perfectly audible and on some stations, even better! 

The SSB performance test wasn't easy because at the time of testing, there were very few HAM stations on air. I managed to find one on 40M, 20M and 80M. Even though you can only tune in minimum steps of 1KHz, you can then turn to the BFO dial and fine tune the signal. It's not 100% perfect (as none of these radios are) but it's good enough. It's only when you're trying to hear very weak stations that frustration creeps in. Overall though, I think I'm going to be very satisfied with the S2000 when conditions are better. 

In fact, that's what I like about these portable radios - I can sit wherever I like such as a comfy couch in the lounge or conservatory, idly flicking through the bands and then when I find something that really interests me, I can go to the shack and pull out the big guns. It's great when you're tuning through and hear a Radio Ham who you've been chasing for months and hear him on your portable, allowing you to go work him/her on a transceiver.

The noise floor and general sensitivity of the S2000 is quite good and I don't really have any complaints. When I've read elsewhere that people have struggled with a radio (any radio), I've come to realise that something may work for someone in one location very well and not for someone else in a different location. It's the same with antennas - many people say that a G5RV is not very good and yet at my QTH, I find them to be quite effective and have worked the world with one at QRP levels.

Without doubt, this radio (and any other) will benefit from an Antenna Tuning Unit when using a long wire antenna. I found an old GLOBAL COUPLER AT-1000  which works a treat. They're cheap and worth every penny. As for MW/LW, the rotatable antenna on top of the radio is amazingly effective. I really was surprised by this.

The squelch is a little odd. It seems to quieten the background noise rather than provide a clear-cut threshold. Maybe I'm doing something wrong - I'll investigate more and update this post.

The S2000 has lots of memories for each band and it's incredibly easy to store stations that you've found - it's just a case of pressing the M button briefly, then choosing a location to store it and holding the M button for a couple of seconds.

The AirBand reception was pretty good through my AOR SA-7000 antenna but Manchester Airport's ATIS signal sounded a little weaker than I'm used to, so I need to look into that a little more. I might try putting my AirBand Filter inline and see if that makes a difference. I need to bear in mind though, that I normally listen to the Airband on a dedicated AirBand radio connected to a colinear mounted much higher up than the SA-7000. This is why you have to be careful not to make unfair comparisons. I'll update on this later.

The audio from the S2000 suits me perfectly well. It's great for Broadcast radio (especially FM) and it's good in other modes as long as you adjust the tone controls to suit the modulation and noise levels. No use moaning about muffled signals on SSB when you've got the tone settings all wrong.

Up to now I've only used the S2000 on internal battery power (4xD Cells). Apparently, the radio has quite a reputation for long battery life, so I'll keep it on DC until the cells expire, then try it on Mains via the supplied psu. It's worth pointing out that the centre-pin of the power supply is  ground which is not typical, so don't be plugging in any old 6V supply you have hanging around.

Construction and overall quality of the Tecsun S2000 is good.  It's tough, it's attractive and it seems to be well made. Sure, there's a little play to be felt in the large tuning dial, but I've witnessed similar levels of play in much more expensive radios! 

Although this is really a desktop radio, I'm quite looking forward to slinging it in the car in Spring and having a play outdoors, higher up than my home QTH. I reckon it'll be a lot of fun. I also think I'll come to love this radio like I do my PL-680.  In fact, I will try to do a side-by-side comparison of the two over the weekend and report back. I'll try my ELECRAFT AX-1 on it too!

Found this lovely pic on Facebook

ABOVE : Here’s a small sample of the Tecsun S2000 on SSB using an outdoor resonant antenna. This signal could hardly be copied with the internal antenna.

Thanks for visiting the blog.

Leave any comments below.

73, Tom, M7MCQ.

UPDATE :

I managed to get hold of a Tecsun AN200 Loop antenna and tried it on both the S2000 and the PL-680. I have to tell you that it was DEFINITELY inferior to the radios internal ferrite bar! No doubt about it whatsoever! Don't waste your money if buying it to use with either of those two great radios.

I'll try the loop with some other (cheaper) transistor radios and see if it makes an improvement there, but it certainly doesn't improve reception on the S2000 or PL-680.

 

Thanks for visiting - please take a minute to leave a comment below 

73, Tom, M7MCQ.

FLIGHT SIMULATOR 2020 (NOT RADIO)

MICROSOFT'S LATEST

BUT IS IT THE GREATEST? Well it's a far cry from the very first offering from Microsoft way back in 1982! Looking back at an early screenshot, it seems incredible that we even bothered to load it, let alone pay for it! But back then, it was every bit as "cutting edge" as the 2020 version is.

1982 FlightSim

 

When it comes to sims, I've always preferred to play with CombatSims like Falcon, LockOn and more recently DCS WORLD. I do own a copy of X-PLANE and have bought a study-level GA, but never really got too far into it. I've also owned a few Microsoft Flight Simulator versions over the years, but in the main, I prefer military aircraft over civil.

When I first heard about MSFS2020, my ears pricked up a bit, not least of all because of the stunning graphics and live streaming of ground mapping data. This introduces realism at a whole new level. IN THEORY it meant that when you fly over one of your known local landmarks (such as Winter Hill in Bolton), you should see it on the ground. WOW!!

It hasn't quite worked out that way. But damn it's good!

The graphics are simply stunning!!! Not just the flyable aircraft, but the airports too. And the general scenery and the weather and the 'objects' scattered around, here, there and everywhere.

I opted for the Premium Deluxe version of Flight Simulator because when you buy the basic version, you only end up spending extra on more planes and airports anyway! I also opted for a physical DVD version instead of a mega digital download. And then I upgraded a couple of airports using ORBX.

10 x DVD's!!!

Anyway, the point of this post is to show some doubters that this massive simulation will run perfectly well and without any hitches or problems on a decent PC and I don't mean one with an i9-Extreme CPU and a GeForce 24Gb RTX3090 !

So let me tell you the spec of my PC so that you can make comparisons...

• ASUS ROG STRIX Z390-F GAMING motherboard
   
• INTEL i7 9700 CoffeeLake 3.6MHz OC to 5,000MHz
   
• 32Gb Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3000MHz
  
  
• 2 x CORSAIR MP-510 SSD storage drives
  
  
• MSI GAMING-X  GEFORCE GTX 1080 Ti 11Gb
   
• Monitor Resolution : 2560 x 1440p

So yes, it's a nice computer, but it's not a beast or anything. Before I installed FS2020, I was honestly thinking I was going to be disappointed and after reading all the complaints about stuttering and FPS figures only just getting into double figures, I envisaged an evening of pushing sliders back and switching off a lot of eye-candy 😨 There's lots of videos online showing people doing their best to tweak the sim so that they can achieve a steady 30fps.

On with the installation - I should say that even though I had DVD's it still took an incredible 5 hours to complete the installation and even then I had to download a further 100Gb of up to date data before I could run the sim 😵. Oh by the way, I installed the sim on its own dedicated 500Gb SSD.

Once it was up and running, I went into the settings and saw that the software had estimated which settings I should use based on the hardware it had found. To my amazement, it had selected ULTRA for everything!

Despite what the software thought of my PC, I was still rather sceptical. As recommended, I chose to start my first flight from a very busy and visually complex airport in order to get a true picture of what my PC could handle. I also made a point of using an aircraft with a glass cockpit instead of steam gauges.

Innsbruck Airport

Once in the cockpit, I found that I was in the mid-30 fps and everything was supremely smooth. There were no hiccups, no delays and no stuttering, even when I spun my views around and around. Up in the air, it was the same - no issues whatsoever and never once did the fps drop below 30. I purposely flew through clouds, flew past magnificently complex scenery, taxied past some of the most realistic (and heavily populated) airports I've seen. 

So based on this experience, I have to say that I don't understand why some people who claim to have very high-end PC's are struggling and criticising Microsoft. Sure, if your PC is getting a bit long in the tooth, then you're going to have a dreadful experience - this is, after all, an incredibly complex and demanding sim. Now it's a fact that Microsoft have not yet developed this sim sufficiently enough to take advantage of ultra-modern, high-end GPU's, but this will improve over the coming months hopefully.

Is FS2020 better than XPLANE?? I'm not even going there! I'm a flightsim hobbyist and not one of these techno-geeks who will tell you it's all about the flight model and not the graphics. My enjoyment is somewhere in-between the two. For me, FS2020 is a whole lot of enjoyable fun!!

I even got my Amateur Radio callsign on the aircraft 😂....

 

 

 

UPDATE : 24 Nov 2020

I have decided to change my monitor to give me 4K Ultra High Def. This will make FS2020 look absolutely awesome but it will mean that the GPU will need an upgrade if I want to have everything maxed out at that resolution (3840 x 2160).

So the only real card to buy is the Nvidia RTX 3080 but availability is simply shocking!!! Anyway, I eventually managed to get my hands on a new ASUS RTX 3080 TUF OC 10GB but it cost me £100 over RRP (robbing b'stards)!! This is the OverClocked version and is about as good as it gets for the money. 

ASUS RTX 3080 TUF OC 10GB

'TUF GAMING'

 

It's a monster of a card and is all-metal construction. It weighs a ton and one does worry about the weight of such a beast - I feel like it could do with a vertical support at the end of it.

Performance is a given at this spec - it just screams along at a blistering pace no matter what you throw at it. You can get as much as 150fps in some games at ULTRA settings, but FS2020 is still really in development and has yet to be optimised to take advantage of these new video cards. It will no doubt get better as time moves on and updates improve efficiency. Still, it looks like liquid silk with absolutely everything maxed to the hilt.

   Click to see league tables

The temperature control of this particular card is pretty spectacular! It runs cooler than my 1080Ti - no matter what you throw at it. The only down side (apart from the eye-watering price) is the power consumption. There's no such thing as a 'green' game PC anymore 😂

My only concern is that the Intel i7 9700k CPU will be the next bottleneck. And the fact that my Z390 ROG STRIX MotherBoard only has PCIE-3 slot for the GPU when it should really be a PCIE-4. It is, of course, backward compatible, but it means that I'm not squeezing every ounce out of that card.

FULL REVIEWS HERE

Review-1

Review-2

Review-3

UPDATE TWO YEARS LATER!!

WOW!!!! Just look at this madness from Amazon...........

YAESU TO EMULATE ICOM's SUCCESS?

 HF,  VHF/UHF COMBO?

Icom have had incredible success with their IC-7300, followed by the superb IC-9700. It's a great combo and I'm sure that all the other big manufacturers have been green with envy, these last few years. 

And now, in 2020, Yaesu launch the FT-DX10 which is a compact 100W SDR transceiver like the 7300. It looks to be a great bit of kit and I love the look of it (apart from that chavvy 3D waterfall). The spec looks fabulous and I don't doubt that it's going to receive great performance reviews, despite its £1550 price tag 😮 

I reckon that they'll follow it up with a challenge to the IC-705 (their FT-818 is ooooh so very long in the tooth (but still a great radio)), and maybe they'll design a  high-spec 2M/70cm/23cm radio with C4FM to compete with the IC-9700. 

And maybe they'll sort out all the limitations that the 991A has when it comes to Fusion and dual-band operation. Hopefully it would be able to offer VHF/VHF, UHF/UHF, VHF/UHF, VHF/C4FM, UHF/C4FM and C4FM/C4FM just like the little FT300 does. 

Whatever they do, I hope they don't make the same mistakes that they made with the 101D. They need to match Icom's feature set and ergonomics or better still, bring something new to the table.

We'll see 😊

PLEASE NOTE : this FT-DX90 is not a real radio - it's a guess at what Yaesu might do!

GLOBAL COUPLER AT-1000

 ANTENNA TUNER FOR SWL

Being a newly licensed amateur radio enthusiast with transceivers and long wire antennas, it soon becomes evident that ATUs are not only great for transmitting, but also for receiving. Getting the right match between antenna and receiver greatly boosts those weaker stations to the point where it makes the difference between hearing them clearly or struggling to make any sense of the signal.

When I installed an SDRPLAY RSPdx in the corner of my lounge or when I use my AR3000A, I found myself wanting to tune the G5RV to get a better match and a stronger signal, so I decided to buy a tuner. Sadly, the vast majority of manual tuners on the market are made for transceivers and are very expensive.

I posted on some SWL forums/groups for some recommendations and I got quite a few links sent to me which pointed to Auto ATUs. Obviously, Auto ATUs need to transmit in order to get a match, so they were no good. When I pointed this out to people, they got quite snotty and defensive, so I just moved on. 😕

Finally, I found a cheap solution in the GLOBAL COUPLER AT-1000 which is an older piece of equipment which can be found on eBay for around £60. The one I bought was actually from my local Radio Club - it was surplus to requirements.

The unit looks a little old fashioned, but it's perfectly functional and in great condition - the front panel in particular, is in fantastic shape. All the screws are original and apart from some of the usual marks to the case's paintwork, it's like new. 

Inside is the same - probably better, in fact, than some newer-built stuff!

Unfortunately, I couldn't find a manual for it online, so I had to refer to one for the AT-2000 which is very similar. It's pretty obvious what you've got to do anyway! You connect your antenna to the "ANT" SO-239 on the back and then connect a patch-lead from the Coupler to your radio's antenna input.

 

Once you're ready to listen to a frequency, tune your radio to it, then on the Coupler, you choose your band with the BAND SELECTOR, adjust the TUNING-1 dial until you get the best signal, then adjust the TUNING-2 dial to improve it further. Once you've got a better, clearer signal, you can again make a final tweak by repeating the operation for finer-tuning.

Is it as good as just pressing a button on an AUTO ATU?? No, of course not, but it does the job and gets you a better antenna match and therefore a better (usually) signal. Without it, you're simply stuck with whatever you can hear.

Is it worth it? Yes, they're a really handy tool to have in the SWL toolkit and the good thing about stuff like this is they never really lose their value.

Thanks for popping by.

73, Tom, M7MCQ.

SONY ICD-UX570 AUDIO RECORDER

PORTABLE AUDIO RECORDER

My trusty 12yr old Olympus VN-5500 Audio/Voice Recorder decided that enough was enough and fell into an eternal sleep. It had been a really handy device and I've enjoyed many years of reliable service from it. So it's time to find a replacement.

Looking around, there's lots of choice but having experienced the quality and reliability of my Olympus, I decided to ignore all the obscure manufacturer's offerings and stick with big names. 

The Olympus only cost me around £30 (12 years ago) and I could see from the internet that you could easily get carried away with modern recorders, so I was determined not to go overboard. I set myself a maximum budget of £60 and in all fairness, there was quite a lot to choose from. My main focus was on devices which would provide me with good built-in stereo microphones plus a LINE IN facility to permit the connection of an external mic or to record from a direct connection to another device using a 3.5mm jack to jack lead.

The very first thing I noticed in my search for a replacement was that some digital recorders had a file limit of 99 recordings. That's woefully inadequate and a definite backward step. My Olympus could hold 100 recordings in each Folder (and it had four)!

Storage capacity wasn't a massive consideration because my old recorder only had 512mb and all the new devices had  far more space. Mind you, I should take into account that the modern devices were capable of recording at CD Quality and therefore produce some pretty big files.

A feature of the Olympus which I really liked was its quick startup. It was almost instant and that can sometimes be important. My iPhone has a built-in recorder of course, but by the time you've unlocked the screen with your password, found the App, loaded it and started recording, you could have missed something important.

So, after spending an hour or so mooching around the internet watching videos and reading reviews, I plumped for the SONY ICD-UX570.

 

It is lighter than my Olympus, just as compact and far more functional. The screen is nice and crisp and the controls are typically Sony - they fall to hand and everything's pretty intuitive.

Above that OLED crystal-clear screen is an LED indicator and on top of the device (either side) are the high-sensitivity, low-noise 'S' microphones. Depending on which mode you're in, the microphones capture the sound from the top in a directional way or from the sides too, for more of a surround/omni-directional capture mode. The external Mic and Headphone sockets on the top there too.

 

In addition to being able to 'just record', you can also let the Sony work in an 'Auto Music' mode where it will pause inbetween tracks and split the recordings into separate files as long as the songs have got a 2-second gap between them. That can save a whole lot of editing.

Recordings can be made in Linear PCM 16bit,  44.1kHz Stereo WAV files through to MP3's at 48kbps Mono to 192kbps Stereo. That's a much better range of options than I had before.

The SONY ICD-UX570 'only' has 4Gb of built-in memory, but that's 8x more than I previously had and it will provide up to 59 hours of STEREO MP3 recordings! You can also add a micro-SD card to provide you with an additional 64Gb of space 😮

I mentioned file-quantity limitations previously and how some devices only permit 99 files. The Sony will handle 5000 and you can place them in Folders which can be named and edited straight from the unit itself.

A great feature of the Sony Audio Recorder is the built-in USB Port which slides out from the bottom of the device. I really like that feature, since there's never any need to find an interface lead to connect to your PC (or MAC).

Yet another great feature of the Sony is the Noise Reduction. It can be found in the menu under the heading of Clear Voice and it has two levels. The first one attempts to reduce ambient noise while boosting the human voice frequencies. The second level of noise reduction further attempts to reduce ambient noise. In practise, it really is quite effective.

Of course it always a good idea to record in the right mode from the start, but if you feel that you chose the wrong method initially, you can always use the noise reduction to improve your recording.

Speaking of choosing the right mode, there are a few to choose from. They range from a close-up and personal mode where you're going to be speaking directly into the mic like you would with a dictaphone, to a wide mode where there might be lots of speakers sat around a large boardroom table or recording music in a hall. It's worthwhile practising with the modes so that you know which is best for each situation.

If you're recording your amateur radio QSO's with the Sony, you can use the recorder in the normal method of placing the device in the proximity of the radio and the operator, or you can plug the radio's headphone socket into the Sony's Mic socket and activate your radio's Monitor feature so that the audio from both operators can be heard.

There's also a sound-equaliser built-in, with some great settings... Excited : Relaxed : Vocal : Treble Boost : Bass Boost and Custom. The Custom setting lets you define sound levels in five different frequency bands. 

The built-in speaker has a decent volume level but in a noisy environment, you'll probably want to use headphones/earplugs. The speaker should really be considered as something to use to quickly check recordings and not for critical listening. 

Your files can be protected against accidental erasure by simply choosing the PROTECT option from the menus. These files can be played back but not deleted without UNprotecting them. It's worth noting that you can also mark any part of a recording with a 'Track Mark' so that it's easy to find it later. You cannot mark a protected file though. 

Power is supplied by rechargeable battery which is recharged via the units USB port. A very brief charge can give you an hours worth of recording for emergencies. 

So in conclusion, I'm very pleased with my purchase! It's such a great recorder. My one and only regret is that I couldn't find the "F" model here in the UK because that gives you an FM Radio tuner too.

The Sony comes with a nice pouch style case...

 

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Thanks for visiting - please take a minute to leave a comment below 

73, Tom, M7MCQ.

IS HAM RADIO UNCOOL??

MY SECRET SHAME

Whenever I find myself discussing my hobbies with other people, I have no issues declaring my interest in Photography, Art, Motorcycling, Walking, Sci-Fi or Music. But as soon as I mention Flight Simulation and HAM Radio, I find myself becoming defensive.

I always feel that it's not enough to just say "I'm into Amateur Radio". I have to follow it up with a long, wittering explanation of why I do it and explain what makes it interesting and worthwhile. It's almost as if I  know, deep down, that it really IS a bit of a sad hobby.

Going back to when I was a youngster growing up, I believe that I was always a bit different to most of my peers who simply wanted to play football, climb trees and break into derelict buildings. I enjoyed some of those things, but I also had a strong interest in engines, transistor radios, tape recorders, television and generally how things worked (also known as pulling things apart).

I was also a prolific Model Kit builder. Planes, tanks, cars, ships. Anything that was a bit challenging. Needless to say, most lads my age found it all a bit 'sad' 😂

In my teens, all my mates loved the Beatles, I loved Steely Dan. My mates dreamed of having a Ford Cortina, I dreamed of having a Kawasaki Z900. My mates watched The Fonz in Happy Days and I watched Captain Kirk in Star Trek.

I was not a brainiac! I was not even the slightest bit clever. But I was curious about things and always a bit 'contrary'. Not for the sake of it - just because I liked to explore alternatives and not just accept the mundane, run of the mill stuff. 

Anyway, here I am in my 60's and nothing's changed much. I'm still into Photography, Art, Motorcycling, Walking and I'm still building models, listening to Steely Dan and riding motorbikes.  I added serious SWL to my hobby-list about 30 years ago and Flight/Combat Simulation about 20 years ago. 

So are we a bunch of saddos? 

Well no - I don't think so. In fact, I honestly feel sorry for those people who have no hobbies - and I know a few of them! Personally, I can't even imagine a life without hobbies - and not just any hobby, but hobbies which challenge you or things which provide a creative outlet.

I often find that it's those people who have no hobbies who are the ones who have the most to say about my hobbies. And it's not always 'dumbos' who cannot see the value of my hobbies - I've even heard mocking banter from some pretty intelligent acquaintances when it comes to Amateur Radio!

I find Amateur Radio quite exciting for a number of reasons and I especially love exploring the wide range of operating modes. I love to speak with people from all walks of life, from all sorts of countries, with all sorts of outlooks and attitudes. I like to look people up on QRZ as I'm talking to them and finding that they're actually an airline pilot or something similarly interesting. I love the idea of speaking with someone in space or bouncing a signal off the moon! Or just having a bit of a natter with a local friend on 2M or maybe joining in the local LockDown Net.

And I still just love to sit twiddling the dial on a ShortWave radio listening to foreign broadcast radio, as I did when I was a young boy, marvelling at the idea of radio waves travelling from China to my house through a little cheap transistor radio.

I do know that many people link Amateur Radio to CB and as soon as I mention my hobby, I get the usual "Breaker Breaker" and "Eyeball Eyeball" comments, along with "Oh yeh, I used to do that in the 80's". 

But then I have a confession. 

I too, can be a bit snooty about certain hobbies, so maybe I'm just as bad as my own critics. I frequently distance myself from any notion that HAMS are similar to CB operators! No, no, we're way above  the Children's Band. We have an Ofcom Licence don't you know? 😂

I think Fishing is a bit sad. Having a day off work to sit on the wet bank of your local lodge waiting to catch a fish that you're going to throw back into the water 😵

And what about Train/Plane Spotters in their anoraks with notepad and pencil?

And Football Fans who watch rich guys kick a ball, shouting "Come on you reds"!!

And Stamp Collectors. And Comic Collectors.

Maybe we're all a bit sad in our own way? But surely, we're all that little bit better off than those people who don't have an interest in ANYTHING?

Personally, I would never let anyone'sopinions effect my enjoyment of a hobby. Sure, it would be nice if everyone agreed with our choices, but that's never gonna happen is it?

What do you think? Leave a comment below.

73, Tom, M7MCQ 😀