The low band lull pushed lots of Hams to check out FT8. I did that in the summer of 2017 and was early enough in the time line that I actually worked K1JT! Stations were few and far between in the beginning, but now are as “thick as flies at a picnic!”

Late last year I got an MD380 DMR radio and have found the digital mode to be quite intriguing. DMR is a worldwide version of what local two meter repeaters were years ago. Rag chewing with a station in Spain or anywhere else in the world is a really enjoyable part of digital ham radio. Those who think that DMR and the other Digital modes are not “real” ham radio must have not heard how we felt about SSB when it first was introduced.