After some careful reflection… I decided to drastically scale back my involvement in the ham radio hobby. I literally got rid of every piece of equipment except for my Kenwood TH-D75A, an Allstar node, and an openSPOT 4 Pro.
I sold some of the bigger pieces of gear (at great discounts). Then, after zero interest was shown regarding the roughly $2,600 of gear I had left… I figured I’d just take it all down to Goodwill. So I loaded it all in my trunk. But at the last minute I reconsidered. I work with a guy who has shown interest in becoming a ham. So I had him back his car up to mine and we transferred all the gear from my trunk to his. That should be a nice start for him when he gets his license. He got some good stuff. Of course now he’ll have to figure out what all of it is and how to use it.
With my Kenwood HT, my Allstar node, and my single openSPOT4 Pro… I can still talk around the world. And… I can talk on three local repeater systems that have Allstar hookups. So I haven’t completely disappeared.