By commercialism, I’m aiming at a mix of spending a lot and sifting through bloated business models (e.g. this or that accessory/equipment, microtransactions, etc.). Feel like many can relate to this sort of commercial fatigue, and yet it creeps even into hobbies where one tries to unwind.
Lately I’ve picked up reading more again, as thanks to libraries I’m able to do just that, but I’m wondering what some other, less obvious options* might be.
*
This is mainly for the going outside, walking folks. I enjoy a good walk from time to time, but I’m interested in activities that are a little less obvious.
Many hobbies have some sort of cost associated, I would hope materials to do the hobby aren’t necessarily seen as negatives.
People have been doing HAM radio (and learning it), electronics tinkering, woodworking, fishing, etc for ages. There are upfront costs to get equipment, although used stuff abounds, ongoing costs are materials or components that one wants. For some things once you get it working you don’t necessarily have ongoing costs.
I see commercialism as exploitive, just purchasing things not so much.
Yeah, to elaborate a little, the question’s more aimed at finding activities that aren’t actively trying to rope you into buying more and more to keep up. A couple classic examples of what I had in mind to avoid would probably be like a trading card game or some tabletop game with collectible(?) miniatures (not sure what those games are called), whereas with crafting hobbies it’s simply a necessity upon exhausting craft materials.
The amount of consumer pressure within ham radio can be larger than you think. HF rigs can go for thousands of dollars, with VHF/UHF gear up there too.
Yes there are a lot of far less expensive ways to enjoy amateur radio. And I really should get my too-long unused cheap rig out of storage and do some of them, like digital modes on a computer over HF or satellite with a homebrew antenna and my old analog HTs.
P.S. It’s ham not HAM. It has never been an acronym so it should never be capitalized. Ham radio at the beginning of a sentence just follows normal English language capitalization rules.
73 from now actually old and apparently grumpy OM