“The Times They Are A-Changin’”

As the singer-songwriter Bob Dylan wrote a long time ago, “The Times They Are A-Changin'”. This certainly applies to Ham Radio. We went from substantial effort to accomplish getting a station up and running to snapping one’s fingers and it is all before us. I am not saying which is better and in fact somewhere in the middle sounds about right to me. Fantastic radios, great antennas and even quality coax with the connectors already attached are only a credit card away. As for a license, the test questions are even available for the download. The ARRL during my tenure in the hobby went from Incentive licensing (their way of raising the quality of the operators) to just numbers matter. Okay I am old, so I am just not keeping up with the times. For example, I operate FT8 and FT4, but I just prefer operating a mode that requires a little more participation and skill by the operator. Therefore, I spend most of my operating time on CW. See I am old because I operate Morse Code.