Well, in response to Nightfox and general chatter here, here's my hobby list.

Firstly, there's Amateur Radio. Been licensed for 30 years, held the same callsign since day 1 (check my handle ;) ), though I picked up an additional callsign, VK3IRL, at the request of another ham on his death bed in 2008. Over the years, I've dabbled in photography and video editing, and done a bit of announcing/DJ on community radio. I also chased storms for several years. Time/money constraints precluded too many long chases, though I did go on a week long stormchasing trip to Darwin in late 2007. Drone flying has caught my interest, as a tool for photography and video, but also the act of flying itself.

And of course, BBSing was a big hobby for me in the 1990s, and it's now back, as you can see by my activity on here over the last few years. ;)

But these days, what has dominated my free time has been sport. My sporting career didn't start too well, because I have some very significant coordination issues. As a kid, I was guaranteed to come last in the 100 metres. That changed when I was 13 and played (well, attempted to play ;) ) AFL style football. I'm still crap at football, and most ball sports, but the hard training brought out my natural speed. A few years later I found myself doing gymnastics, because of my younger syster, which really helped with the coordination stuff.

Since my mid 30s (2003), I got back into sport after 10+ years of doing nothing more than walking, starting with orienteering and distance running, and working my way up to a parathon in 2008, but when I moved out of the big city in 2010, my focus shifted to sprint based sports, which I'm more naturally suited to. And 4 years ago, in a quest for more speed for my other sports, I took up track and field, where I've been able to become a fairly decent sprinter. So far, I've managed to win medals at state Masters meets, and made the finals of the Australian Masters 60 and 200m events earlier this year. Now I'm working on levelling up. For me, speed is addictive. :)

The other sport I alluded to is fire brigade competitions, which are a unique sport that requires skill, speed, strength and power. At 51, I'm the oldest in the team, but also one of the fastest. I tend to catch any new guys off guard in pre season training - guys half my age are surprised when they can't keep up in a sprint. :)

Anyway, that's my lot.


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Re: Hobbies...
By: Vk3jed to All on Wed Jun 12 2019 04:12 pm

Well, in response to Nightfox and general chatter here, here's my hobby list.

Firstly, there's Amateur Radio. Been licensed for 30 years, held the same callsign since day 1 (check my handle ;) ), though I picked up an additional callsign, VK3IRL, at the request of another ham on his death

And of course, BBSing was a big hobby for me in the 1990s, and it's now

later I found myself doing gymnastics, because of my younger syster, which for my other sports, I took up track and field, where I've been able to

Wow that's some bio you have there VK3. You must be a busy guy. I remember you telling me about Fire brigade tournaments you participate in. I used
to watch tournaments on TV years ago.
Back in the day I was volunteer fire fighter. We would competete against local departments in tournaments. Each department built their own "carts" to race with. Fun to watch. I was pretty good in Track in High School. Went undefeated in the 120 yard hurdles. It's good to see you're not letting "age" get in your way. You're not just getting older. You're getting better. ;-)


HusTler
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Re: Hobbies...
By: Vk3jed to All on Wed Jun 12 2019 04:12 pm

Firstly, there's Amateur Radio. Been licensed for 30 years, held the same callsign since day 1 (check my handle ;) ), though I picked up an

I've thought about getting into HAM radio for a long time, I just haven't yet..

bed in 2008. Over the years, I've dabbled in photography and video editing, and done a bit of announcing/DJ on community radio. I also chased

That's another thing I forgot to mention, in the past several years I've gotten into photography a bit. Sometimes I enjoy trying to get a nice photo.. I bought my first DSLR in 2015 and enjoy taking photos with it sometimes.

2007. Drone flying has caught my interest, as a tool for photography and video, but also the act of flying itself.

Yeah, I think it would be interesting to get some photos with a drone.

And of course, BBSing was a big hobby for me in the 1990s, and it's now back, as you can see by my activity on here over the last few years. ;)

I was a little surprised how many BBSes there were online when I got back into BBSing in 2007. I thought BBSes were pretty much dead when I took mine down in 2000. And now I've been running my current BBS longer than I ran my original BBS in the 90s.. About twice as long now, actually. I ran my original BBS for 6 years (1994-2000), and I've been running my current BBS for 12 years.

But these days, what has dominated my free time has been sport. My sporting career didn't start too well, because I have some very significant coordination issues. As a kid, I was guaranteed to come last in the 100 metres. That changed when I was 13 and played (well, attempted to play ;) ) AFL style football. I'm still crap at football, and most ball sports, but the hard training brought out my natural speed. A few years later I found myself doing gymnastics, because of my younger syster, which really helped with the coordination stuff.

I've always heard it's healthy to have a good amount of physical activity.. I enjoy playing sports sometimes, but it's not something I've ever done regularly.

Nightfox

... Sometimes I feel like I never finish anyth

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On 06-12-19 10:29, HusTler wrote to Vk3jed <=-

Wow that's some bio you have there VK3. You must be a busy guy. I

Yeah, keeps me out of trouble. :) But I certainly enjoy what I do.

remember you telling me about Fire brigade tournaments you participate
in. I used to watch tournaments on TV years ago.
Back in the day I was volunteer fire fighter. We would competete
against local departments in tournaments. Each department built their
own "carts" to race with. Fun to watch. I was pretty good in Track in

Our carts are specially manufactured, and we get them up to some serious speeds. I'll have to send some links to videos, as our style of competition appears to be unique to (now) 2 states here in Oz. :)

High School. Went undefeated in the 120 yard hurdles. It's good to see you're not letting "age" get in your way. You're not just getting
older. You're getting better. ;-)

Yep, improving with age, as I work on those coordination issues. And I have a slight addiction to speed... of the track variety. Has my first full on speed session in several weeks (since it's the middle of the off season) today and loved it. :D


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On 06-12-19 09:16, Nightfox wrote to Vk3jed <=-

I've thought about getting into HAM radio for a long time, I just
haven't yet..

I know a few people like that, and it's never too late. :)

bed in 2008. Over the years, I've dabbled in photography and video editing, and done a bit of announcing/DJ on community radio. I also chased

That's another thing I forgot to mention, in the past several years
I've gotten into photography a bit. Sometimes I enjoy trying to get a nice photo.. I bought my first DSLR in 2015 and enjoy taking photos
with it sometimes.

I've never had the luxury of a DSLR, maybe one day. :)

2007. Drone flying has caught my interest, as a tool for photography and video, but also the act of flying itself.

Yeah, I think it would be interesting to get some photos with a drone.

Yep, and video. I'll experiment with drones in the coming months. :)

And of course, BBSing was a big hobby for me in the 1990s, and it's now back, as you can see by my activity on here over the last few years. ;)

I was a little surprised how many BBSes there were online when I got
back into BBSing in 2007. I thought BBSes were pretty much dead when I took mine down in 2000. And now I've been running my current BBS
longer than I ran my original BBS in the 90s.. About twice as long
now, actually. I ran my original BBS for 6 years (1994-2000), and I've been running my current BBS for 12 years.

Yes, I was pleasently surprised when I finally hooked Syndhronet up a few years ago. It's good to be back! Our original BBS ran several years. I'm unsure of the exact date we closed. I know my point survived a bit longer, killed off only by the advent of cable broadband in late 2001.

I've always heard it's healthy to have a good amount of physical activity.. I enjoy playing sports sometimes, but it's not something
I've ever done regularly.

Oh, it does wonders for me, both physically and mentally. I remember in my teens that I wanted to run track, but I lived in a small town, and the nearest competition was an hour away. Took me 30 years later to realise that dream. But now I'm enjoying the training, competition and the challenge of getting a bit more speed out of myself. :)


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Re: Re: Hobbies...
By: Vk3jed to Nightfox on Thu Jun 13 2019 08:41 pm

That's another thing I forgot to mention, in the past several years
I've gotten into photography a bit. Sometimes I enjoy trying to get
a nice photo.. I bought my first DSLR in 2015 and enjoy taking
photos
with it sometimes.

I've never had the luxury of a DSLR, maybe one day. :)

They can be expensive.. Sometimes I've thought of buying another lens for getting different types of shots, and after seeing how expensive the lens is, I change my mind. :P The cameras themselves can be expensive too, especially full-frame DSLRs. It seems a bit crazy, but after reading up on the manufacturing process, I can understand.

Nightfox

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Re: Hobbies...
By: HusTler to Vk3jed on Wed Jun 12 2019 10:29 am

to watch tournaments on TV years ago.
Back in the day I was volunteer fire fighter. We would competete against local departments in tournaments. Each department built their own "carts" to race with. Fun to watch. I was pretty good in Track in High School. Went undefeated in the 120 yard hurdles. It's good to see you're not letting "age" get in your way. You're not just getting older. You're getting better.

i must have missed all that. all i did was manage chemical spills and put out small fires.
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On 06-13-19 09:22, Nightfox wrote to Vk3jed <=-

I've never had the luxury of a DSLR, maybe one day. :)

They can be expensive.. Sometimes I've thought of buying another lens
for getting different types of shots, and after seeing how expensive
the lens is, I change my mind. :P The cameras themselves can be
expensive too, especially full-frame DSLRs. It seems a bit crazy, but after reading up on the manufacturing process, I can understand.

Yeah, and that's why they take awesome photos, even when using long telephoto lenses and other sophisticated lenses - the manufacturing quality is very high, and you get what you pay for.

I'd also love to connect a DSLR to my telescope for some deep sky photography, but then would also need the tracking motor for the telescope, because any exposures longer than a few seconds will show the rotation of Earth.


And moving back to sport for a second, here's a video of me in action on both track and fire brigade competition. It's a few years old, and my performances have improved since then. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVhw3YnKJhM&t=306s

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