Lol I like your style, I just picked up an IC-7000 myself for the same reasons, I get it :)

I am not one to chit chat. I listen mostly and occasionally dust off the microphone when I have something interesting to add to the discussion. I also go out of my way to say hi and welcome to a new voice on the local radio repeaters, and make sure they know the local radio resources to find out what's happening in our area.

Amateur Radio is a vibrant community with a lot of really genuine people interested in the many different aspects of radio. Some people (like myself) enjoy building radio networks/infrastructure and doing projects that enhance our community resilience or our ability to communicate. Others like building radios themselves, or antennas, or go boxes, or a lot of other things.

Then there are the plethora of other things you can do with amateur radio:

• communicate locally with little or no infrastructure
• communicate around the world with no infrastructure (all you really need is a radio, a bit of feedline and a wire antenna to talk around the world)
• explore the radio spectrum
• compete in radio contests
• participate in radio events
• experiment with electronics
• community service/emergency communications
• learn/teach STEM through hands on experience

The most rewarding experiences I have in amateur radio are working with other local amateurs towards a common goal. People from a wide variety of backgrounds that all bring different skillsets and knowledge to the table that all gets combined to create some magic. It's really fun.

Three months ago, we organised an infostand on amateurradio at a makerfaire .. and 'talking to people' was hardly ever mentioned.

Amateur radio is a technical / scientific hobby for everything about radio, radio communication, radio technology and radios propagation.

Actually, the first thing we showed was a small WSPR transmitter and showed that with just 'a little bit more transmission power then your wifi-router at home' we could be receiver 4000 km away. (and explained that by transmitting a radio-signal very slowly, you can reach very long distances, ... and about HF propagation, greyline propagation, and as wspr signal is so simple, you can build such a transmitter yourself)

please do not equate hamradio with 'talking on the radio'. That is probably the worse way to explain what our hobby is about. Ham-radio is 'a giant playground that allows you to play around with radio-technology and learn how radio really works'.

Kr. (ON1ARF)