The power of patience and pacing

Foundations of Amateur Radio

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.

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