Welcome
I obtained my Technician Plus licensed in 1996. I attempted to learn Morse to upgrade to General, however I failed miserably due to learning at a higher speed than the 5WPM test and got discouraged. I operated on VHF for many years, was rather involved in the Western District Net in the National Traffic System, and enjoyed jumping through the packet system in Western New York. This system lead me to what I studied in college and a career afterwards.
During college I was inactive, and did not return until around 2010-2011. Using a general test study podcast, I forget the name but I think there was a Rich on it, I passed my General test in 2011. I also started watching Ham Nation around the same time, which helped rekindle the passion for the hobby, and I upgraded to Extra in 2016.
In 2017 I was able to attend my first Hamvention, aka Dayton. While there I stumbled into the AMSAT booth and ended up walking away with what would turn out be a book that lead me to some of the most enjoyment I have ever had in Amateur radio. I read through the entire AMSAT book the night after purchasing it. In the morning I purchased an Arrow antenna and a TH-D74a so I would be ready to start listening to satellite passes. I made my first confirmed FM satellite contact on August 2nd 2017 at 0110 on AO-85. Since then I have logged thousands of satellite contacts, worked over 500 grids, and activated (roved) to 28 grids. It has been the most enjoyment I have ever had on the air. Here is my GridMaster Award tracking map:
I have been on a rather long subatical from satellites for the past few years. The horrible operating of some operators, and a very disappointing experience while trying to activate the Dry Tourgua's National Park took the wind out of me to operate on the birds. Recently I have been focusing on studying Morse Code, building my first home VHF and HF station, operating in VHF contests, and participating in Parks On The Air (POTA).