I loved ham radio back in the day, I could not afford a black box so had to modify or build, that was the fun, them eureka moments when you got it working; I was lucky and had a couple of good mentors local to me.
Nowadays I don't get on much but do still have a station, I like old equipment and am currently rebuilding a KW Electronics 2000B model, they have history and were only based 7 miles from my house.
I still repair a lot of radios for people though, so it is still fairly strong as a hobby, for me its nostalgia now, not as much fun as it was, very rare you find people who are running built or modified equipment.
G7MNZ !