After deciding last year to only concentrate on HF CW to the exclusion of all other aspects of amateur radio I enjoyed a happy few months over the summer of 2023 doing just that - using manual telegraphy on the HF bands. I became comfortable on the Vibroplex bug keys and had many nice CW ragchews.

Winter came and drove me indoors, away from the shack and since I'd vowed only to use CW I found I did nothing radio related for many months. I had a few brief sorties on 60m digimodes using VNC to operate the shack PC without needing to sit in a cold icy shed….

Now as spring approaches I find I miss the variety of other aspects of the radio hobby, and I can't always find the time to sit in a shed using only manual telegraphy (enjoyable though that is). I want to be able to do radio even when I'm not able to spare the time to do cw.

I've found my DMR radios and hotspots and resurrected them. I've had some DMR QSOs, and I expect to have more over the coming weeks/months.

I've had one (so far) SSB QSO on 60m, after finally locating a microphone for my IC-7200.

I've put a V/UHF antenna up, only 2m agl adjacent to the shack, and set up an APRS i-gate (GM4SLV-2) and (after repairing the fan control circuit and fitting a new cooling fan) installed my TM-D710G in my van - for APRS and to monitor other V/UHF activity.

I've decided not to be so narrowly focussed on one (fun) aspect of the hobby, and to stretch myself into other areas.

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