I’m not a New Years Resolutions kind of a guy, but I do keep a running list of goals that I review every month. It’s a habit I got into years ago, and while it’s rather silly, I do it anyway. So as I was thinking about goals and radio, a neat blog post dropped into my inbox from the place I bought my bike. It talks about Stupid Arbitrary Goals (SAGs). I love the concept.
When I think about it in the context of radio, I’m drawn to things like POTA activations and portable operating adventures. To be clear, while I like having something to track, I’m not going to get aggressive with radio because it’s a retreat for me. What does that mean? I think it boils down to picking and choosing what I will chase this year.
First: I will do 10 POTA activations. Since I’ve done 0 to date, that will be a big deal. I’ve got 12 months to do it and I think 10 is a reasonable number. Besides, it’s possible to overshoot a goal!
Second: I will do at least 1 portable operating adventure per month. Sure, that might overlap with a POTA activation, but it also might not. I will probably do a number of activities with the Scouts this year and that always lends itself to radio in the outdoors.
Third: I will build another kit. The Hardrock-50 was so much fun that I can’t resist trying to put together something else. What? I don’t know. Stay tuned.
Fourth: I’m going to learn to operate CW. This one is the most likely to be slow. I’m already working on listening and I’ve been using a number of online resources. I will try to track my progress here, but this one is one that requires maintenance and practice. I don’t always have a lot of time, so this will be the most aggressive goal. If could send and receive at 10 WPM by the end of the year, I’d be pretty excited.
I will do some logging here about this every month and see where I end up.