What's a common occurrence in your hobby that you think shouldn't be?
For me it's driving while under the influence. If you couldn't tell, I like me some ganja. However I have long since held the belief that it is utterly insane to drive while under the influence of most substances, with maybe nicotine and caffeine being the exception. All too often I see other stoners smoking and driving, which I simply can't fathom. I've only operated a vehicle once under the influence and it was just to move a U-Haul around the block to a different parking spot, which was such a scary experience while high that I refuse to even consider getting behind the wheel again while high.
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Ham radio: treating newcomers like idiots, and general gatekeeping.
Archery: spending way too much for stuff and pretending that it'll make a huge difference in your performance.
Cycling: see archery
Backpacking: see archery
Fishing: see archery
Marksmanship: see archery (except kinda true for optics)
Quadcopters: pretending it's easy. It's not fucking easy! You're going to break your quadcopter five dozen or more times before you can fly without crashing if you don't learn on a simulator first.
I guess that's it
ha, the hobby is basically just break-fixing your quad with a bit of flying time in between. And spending hours trying to recover it because aren't sure exactly where you crashed.
I started in the LiftOff simulator and then moved to a TinyHawk Freestyle before moving to a 5", and I've had pretty good luck. But, I put in a ton of practice time to get to where I am, and I still crash occasionally.
The ham radio thing makes me so sad, it really does seem like a dying hobby. But when I took my test the club sponsoring it had guys there who immediately berated me for using a practice test guide and getting a cheap piece of crap radio. Like yeah, I know it's a terrible radio, but it was $70 with the practice guide and I'm a poor af college student. That little radio lasted me years and I only bought a new one cause it's battery died and I couldn't find a replacement
I'm sorry that was your experience. Out where I am all the hams have been lovely people and been very welcoming and open to all people and radios.
It sounds like you are plugged into some great clubs! I will say that I just moved a few months ago, and one of my neighbors is a ham who has been really helpful. She keeps sending me information about local clubs, reminding me that nets are happening, and offering to help me move my antenna from the terrible location it is in right now. I guess maybe most of the negativity happens online, since that's where I usually experience it.
that would make sense. the clubs in my area have been super welcoming and inviting to new people
I'm planning to get into archery but I don't want to spend a fortune, though, cheapest set I've found is $300, what do you think of this?
https://www.htarchery.com/products/recurve-bow-kit
It's hard to say because they don't specify what they'll actually send you. Most of the accessories in that kit are like $10 each, so depending on the bow, it's probably overpriced. I'd go with something like a Samick Sage Archery Takedown Recurve Bow, or a SAS Spirit 6. You want a takedown so that you can replace the limbs with something better if you love the sport and stick with it. Then if you really love it you can replace the riser later and you'll already have the limbs. The finger tabs are like $6, the arm guard is like $8-10. You can get a good softshell case for $20, or a Pelican hardshell case for $35 (I just bought one yesterday). A decent SAS waist quiver is $12 and a good one $25. That just leaves the arrows. I'm using Victory V-force Sport .245 carbon arrows right now and they're pretty good for the money. Only $50 on Amazon. You can get wooden arrows for like $2 each. Field tips are like $6-$10 per pack.
Put that all together and you're still like $50-$100 less than that kit. That'll leave you with some money to get a Yellow jacket or Black Hole backyard target (always shoot with a backstop as a newb). Yeah man, I'd do that. Oh, the bow may not come with a string, so check if it does when you buy it. $20 for a string of it doesn't come with one, and spend $6-$10 on wax within a few weeks of getting the bow. Wax your string every 3-4 shooting sessions. Just make sure you get the right length arrows.
Do it! Welcome to archery! Watch some videos on form so you don't hurt yourself while you build your muscles up, and always quit before you're fatigued. You're going to love this hobby! Once you get everything it's basically free! That is of course if you can stop yourself from upgrading to the next swoopy tier of gear, which admittedly, I'm not very good at. :)
I hear the bolt on limb attachments aren't as good as ILF since ILF has more options available, should I spend more to get a bow that uses ILF instead?
ILF will have better options, but those better options also cost a lot more money. If you can afford it, and you think you'll stick with it, then yes, go with an ILF system. There are some good bows with the bolt on takedown limbs though. My first adult recurve bow is a bolt on system. I used it for years without issue, achieving very tight groups. Now my son uses it. I ended up moving to compound bows, but my original bolt on recurve still sees several uses per season, and is probably 20 years old now.
I do have to say, my experience as a ham has been the exact opposite. I have a BF-F8HP and everyone i met has been awesome so far
That's great! I suppose it's not universal, but I see a lot of bashing on new people for not knowing stuff. There's a lot of material to cover for the technician test, and that's just the beginning. It's easy to forget something, or just have never learned it before.
Like saying 73 at the end. I may just be lucky that the ham organizations in my area are just super nice
Regarding backpacking: I experienced the ultralight community to be a very friendly and welcoming (although a bit nerdy) group of people. Yes, you CAN spend a lot of money on hightech equipment like many people do in cycling, archery etc. but it is also very common to MYOG (make your own gear). You can spend 200 bucks on the latest leightweight highend titanium cook pot. Or you can simply reuse an old fish can to cook in. And while this selfmade gear sometimes looks a bit clumsy, it often beats the hightech stuff. And the lightest gear sets I've seen were mostly self-made.
When I started backpacking I was just a poor kid going with my Boyscout group. I used a WWII rucksack, carried canned food, and had a crappy $5 BSA mess kit. I had cheap boots and always got blisters. I still had tons of fun.
It's worth pointing out that good gear will last you decades if you take care of it, so it's one hobby where spending extra can actually make sense. I just finished replacing my last piece of equipment with ultralight gear last year. Now my whole setup is UL. It definitely makes trips more enjoyable, especially now that I'm middle aged. But I see young people drooling over some lightweight tent that costs a bajillion dollars, and I'm like "dude, you'll get better performance from eating fewer cheeseburgers". LOL
You're right that you can make some pretty sweet equipment if you're willing to learn about it and take the time to craft it. I made a lot of gear substitutions when I was first getting into UL, like using aluminum instead of titanium, and stuff like that, but I never did make any of my own gear. That always intimidated me, so I'd just be really strict about what went into my pack to keep the weight down, until I had enough legit gear to splurge my weight allowance for something like a camp chair.
How did you get started in ham radio? I've been considering it but I keep seeing comments like yours online about the community being standoffish.
I just started using the hamstudy.org website and app, and started participating in the ham subreddit on Reddit. Then I bought a Baofeng UV-5R and got my GMRS license. I used that to learn all about finding repeaters, programming the radio, etc.. Then I kept studying and got a Yeasu FTM-7250DR, a power supply, and a Comet antenna. Once you have a radio you can start learning hands on. It doesn't need to be an expensive radio, and you don't need a license as long as you don't broadcast.
Thanks !
NP. One more thing I did was read a book called Pass Your Ham Radio Technician Class - The Easy Way. Hamstudy is really good for practice, and memorization, but it doesn't really explain the principles behind the answers. That book does a great job of explaining things like bands, frequencies, tones, etc.. You'll have a much stronger understanding of how things actually work, instead of just having answers to questions.