One of the more, let’s call it challenging, skills to learn in amateur radio is the pace of the process. For many new amateurs I meet, face-to-face, on-air or online, the excitement to get started, to get on-air, to make a contact, to do something, anything, is contagious. It’s absolutely delightful to hear the reports of victory and triumph in the face of adversity, and truth be told, it’s worth celebrating, more than we often do in this community.

So, let’s start there, if you’ve made it on-air, congratulations, well-done, very nice! If you feel so inclined, perhaps you’d like to document this achievement. I’ll hasten to add, this documentation is for your own records, more on that in a moment. I will point out that you are under absolutely no obligation to create documentation, and even less obligation to make it public, you know, aside from any record keeping requirements set-out by your regulator.

Now that you’ve made this first on-air contact, your obvious next activity is to do it again, perhaps with a slight variation in frequency, location, antenna or radio. This process will likely continue until at some point making contacts like this is no longer exciting or rewarding. Some amateurs stop here and are never heard of again, and while that’s disappointing, that is absolutely your prerogative, since this is a hobby, more precisely, your hobby. I’m mentioning this because it’s all too easy to forget this fundamental aspect of our community, especially when you’re swept up in the excitement of it all.

Over the years I’ve experienced the excitement associated with this hobby and the community first hand. I’ve also witnessed the activities of others, amateurs who come in with their tail wagging, running from here to there, sniffing all the bushes and drooling all over their homework, imagine a puppy exploring their new forever home and you’ll get the idea. Just like puppies, these excited amateurs get to a point, about two or so years in, sometimes more, sometimes less, and then basically stop, exhausted, dissatisfied, disillusioned and disheartened they depart the hobby, never to be seen again.

It reminds me a lot of new employees at the computing help-desk where I used to work. After about six months of running around, putting in long hours, pleasing every customer, putting on a smile all day long, dealing with the emotions of being the first point of call for every problem, many succumbed to burn-out and quit.

It occurred to me the other day that the radio puppies are following the same pattern, albeit over a longer time span. And with that insight comes the realisation that we can do something about this.

As I told my new colleagues at the help-desk at the time, to slow down, I can use the very same advice to you and for similar reasons.

The field of computing is bound by imagination, so, essentially it’s unlimited. The same is true for amateur radio. The hobby you perhaps unwittingly stepped into turns out to be unlimited as well. The implications of this are that one lifetime is not sufficient to know everything about either computers or amateur radio, and much more than three lifetimes if you choose both, ask me how I know.

With that comes the realisation that patience and persistence pays off. The journey, not the destination, is the reward.

So, if that’s the case, what does this mean for you?

For starters, it means that each contribution you make is valuable. It means that finding new stuff is inevitable and it means that you’re not alone on this journey.

So, next time you feel that you’ve done all there is to do in this hobby, think again. Each time you do something, anything, celebrate it.

I did say I’d come back to documentation. Hopefully, by now you’ll understand what the meaning of it is. If not, permit me to make an observation.

If you don’t know or remember what you did, how will you know that you’re on a journey?

I’m Onno VK6FLAB