Choose your path carefully.

Lead, follow, or wallow in the past.

By Matt Erickson, KK5DR

At some point in each and every ham’s career they will stand at a virtual crossroads, the road that leads forward represents the future, the roads to the left or right represent the static present, and the road to the rear represents the past, where you and your predecessors just came from.

Those who choose to reverse course and go back on the road into the past may do so because they fear the unknown future and find comfort in the familiar things of the past. They may feel that having these old things will bring back a youth that is long gone. A ham can fill his radio room with lots of antique gear, but this is akin to a house filled with nothing but antique furniture and goods, it all looks very pretty, but due to its age and fragility it is hardly practical or very useful in the modern world of radio, when we speak of old radio gear instead of old furniture. Fewer and fewer of the old craftsmen that can maintain such ancient treasures are left, and only a handful remain that are even willing to do such work, not to mention the fact that parts are becoming as scarce as rocking horse droppings.

The road into the past is a road into the darkening mist of time, with no hope for a bright future. “Those who enter, abandon all hope.”

Those on the road to nowhere (past), are those who do not wish to increase and improve their knowledge base, nor do they wish for the hobby in-general to move forward, which would leave them to collect dust and rust in the past.

Next, we have those who choose the roads to the left or right, which are actually the same road, a road to a static state, unchanging, stagnant. The hams on this road don’t want anything to change from the present, each day just like the one before it and the one after it. Those who stay on this road long enough find themselves stalled on the side of the road into the past, neither going backward or forward, just stuck in the mud. If a ham sees that his road is turning into the road to the past, he can turn around, and begin a course forward again; it is never too late to do that.

Lastly, we have those forward thinkers who yearn for new excitement, and the next “big thing”. These hams are seeking the enlightenment that the future holds, not satisfied to stand still for very long. They rejoice in the wonders that always seem to be just over the horizon – the promise of a better day tomorrow, and a bright future is the road forward, into the light.

Which “road” have you chosen for your ham radio career?