So does anyone else have family that doesn't support their Hobby?

I remember growing up listen to my dad on his radio and always wanted to get certified myself and this year I passed my general exam. I plan to eventually get the amateur extra so I can help with certifying other individuals I really want to give back to the community.

It always seems like my wife and kids try to be as obnoxious as possible when I want to ever do anything on the radio.

There are lots of things I could go on and on about but it would just make this really long so I'll just leave it as it is for now.

Not sure what to say.  If it's important to you, it seems like it would be important to them, too.

Not to worry, though.....you can be a part of the Arfcom amateur radio family.  

My wife has her stuff, and I have mine. Unless she or they show interest  I don't get them involved.

My wife hates my radio hobby. She wants me to do "something normal" that she wants to do.

I got my ham ticket about  10 years ago- have accumulated a  collection of modern ham radio gear, a ton of boat anchors- Collins, National Radio, Johnson , Hallicrafters, many antique radios from the 1920's- 1930's and 1940's. Atwater-Kent , Zenith and Westinghouse-I am 57 years old and never had a electronics background but when I was a kid was always fascinated with radios and propagation at night. Still fascinated and love playing with my radios.

Talking to someone from Cincinnati to Italy on 10 watts with a cheap dipole 50 feet up in the trees still amazes me !!

The wife has no interest in my hobby but does not complain about my purchases--
The rest of the family really has no interest either- once in awhile I will take the  grandchildren down in the shack and spin the dials and hope it rubs off and generates some interest in technical subjects.

Does not seem like the modern generation cares about how things work- fixing and playing around with old gear- learning how things work and how to fix them. Troubleshooting and learning new technical subjects.
It fascinates me that things that were made  50 years ago can be fixed and keep on working. Today things are built cheap and are throw away items - like many things in our society.

Just picked up an old Collins 310B-1 transmitter manufactured in 1948 and going to figure out how to fix it, learn how to use it and make it as good as new.

Always look forward in learning something new- searching the Internet for knowledge and information on how to keep these old radios working.

The older I get the less I want to watch brain numbing TV and doing something the keeps my brain sharp and learning.

Sometimes I will go down in the shack- sit in my chair , drink a beer and look at all my cool old radios and feel happy.

Guess I am getting to be old-- but I love it.

My ex-wife (20 years ago) thought the hobby was kind of hokey.

My last LTR didn't get it, but was happy when I got my Extra because it was something I wanted.

Current GF is a keeper -- she sat down and wrote out all the envelopes when I sent out the ARFCOM
patches to everyone that had checked into the digital net the last couple years, and when she's here
during the net, brings in a chair and watches. She just brought up getting her license a couple days ago,
she's fascinated by how HF works.

My wife came into my ham shack... really, a metal building in the back yard (insulated, heated/air conditioned)... where
one corner of my workshop is my ham shack.

I was making something on the lathe, heard her behind me, but she just stood there inside the door.  She waited until
I finished a cut, turned off the lathe and turned around.

"Whatcha need, Sweetie?"  I asked.

"All this radio gear you have," waving her hand over toward the corner where my "shack" is, "In an emergency, phones
and everything is out like after the last hurricane, can you call over to (county seat) with that?"

"I can talk out of the county, to the whole state, the whole country, all over the Caribbean, Central and South America,
Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland, all over Europe.  Why?"

"Just wondering," she said, with a thoughtful look on her face.

I turned back to the lathe and started another cut.

A few minutes later she came back in, didn't say a word, but left a fresh cup of coffee and a saucer with a slice of her
great home made cheesecake on the workbench.

And left.

A few years ago she said, "I want to get you something for Christmas.  I know there has to be some piece of ham radio
gear you want."

She bought me a new amp.

She gets it.  

And she's never said another word about a penny I've spent on radio gear.

My wife is a ham....no issues for me.

My wife didn't like them at first. We are 911 dispatchers, and she could not figure out why I would want to play radio on my days off.

Now she gets it, and I have zero issues.

If I want to buy a new toy... I tell her, and she has it at the door in the next few days.

Wife calls it "Stupid Ham Radio", but she is the first one to ask for a HT when the storms roll in.  She likes to listen to the skywarn.  She is just giving me a hard time, which doesn't bother me.  One of the first hobbies I have had which I do not have to leave the house to enjoy.  I have heard from several people say "Many a ham radio operators have been killed by a YL that said no to an antenna"..    

Prosise

I was a general class when I hooked up with the GF 7 yrs ago.
At one point I was teaching a tech class and was studying for my extra.

I was reading thru the tech book wondering what questions the students would be coming up with but was called away to help a friend..

I came back an hour or so later & find the GF head down in the book and then she starts asking questions..

So I convinced her to come to the class.. it's free so she did..

The test session at the end was where I got my extra and she picked up her tech.

Since that time she has passed the general and extra. Now we are both ARRL VE's & I'm the liaison person for the eastern half of the county.

So yes we both have a hand in it and the only bitchin' is to clean up the shack... It's a definite mess...

My wife supports all my hobbies, she isn't interested in most of them, but she knows they make me happy, and she encourages me to do them and be happy.

Guns
Shooting
Reloading
HAM radio
Metal Detecting
Fishing
Drinking
kayaking
etc.

it's my hobby not theirs, so no concern from either party unless the hobby begins encroaching on the family life/responsibilities which are my primary concern over any hobby or anything else beyond.

My wife does ATC, she has absolutely no interest in talking on the radio outside of work. That said, all of the kids think the HTs are cool, and I'm trying to convince the older two to study for the tech. But they're more interested in just playing with the FRS talk-abouts and playing minecraft.

Edit: But the wife has seen the value during the snowstorms and severe thunderstorms when we can get the reports of hail coming soon, and move the cars to cover.

I'm just getting back into ham stuff after about a 9 year hiatus.  Got my novice back in the 80s and the wife got hers also.  She never talked or did anything on the radio.  I guess she got her license because I did.  No problems.   I am a general but don't know if I want to progress further.   I'm just getting my shack back on the air on 20, 40, and 17.  Lots of qrm but I am getting out.  Also a dual band two meter rig.  Main radio is an Icom 735 that works well, the two meter job is a Yaesu 8800.  Just  getting back and meeting the local hams two of which have helped me immensely getting my stuff back on line.  We put up three new  dipoles yesterday.  We'll see how it goes from here.

-.-/.-/...--/..-/../..-.

My wife doesn't race cars, scuba dive, fly planes, race quads, shoot guns, or enjoy HAM stuff.


Her loss. I enjoy my life as it is. She can join along, or sit around and bitch. Guess what she chooses?


She really pissed that nobody will give me life insurance for less than 10k a year.

My GF is cool with my interest in radio, we come from a prepping background so she knows why I do it and is studying for her tech right now.  For me it's a means to an end that I enjoy enough to get good with it, she just wants to be able to talk to the people we need to get ahold of.

I just remind my wife and kids that every material thing they have or want comes from me.  ...and that if they don't like it they can GTFO.  Problem solved.  Don't be a pussy.

Wife is also licensed and supports my hobbies 100%. She never showed much interest to get licensed. I bought a Gordon West's Technician study manual and left it on the coffee table. Her curiosity took over and one day she was sitting in a chair, reading the study manual. I told her that there was a test coming up in about a week. She passed the test.

Kids grow up fast, radios will always be there, kids wont.

My Wife has no issue with the hobby, and she has her Tech  license.
None of the rest of the family is licensed.

She will not use the repeaters, and frankly has no interest in talking to anyone except me, especially since we live in a remote area.
She has shown some interest in DMR simplex as she can call me whenever she wants and find me, usually.

Ham radio has been an integral part of my life for over 35 years as I was in the first responder line of work before I retired in 2016.

Being a cop as long as I was I used the radio all day, or night, and either carried a ham handheld or had a mobile mounted in my patrol vehicle.
I had accidents reported to me, used them to stay in touch with friends while on duty, etc.

The family used to make fun of it, just a little, but not really anymore.
As long as it does not interfere with the TV I am good, and since the radio station is in a 2nd level sub-basement it can't even be heard up on the main levels.

My wife doesn't like the expenditures. I am not allowed to participate in the local nets because that means she has to put the kids to bed. Same for club meetings.

She doesn't appreciate that sort of thing until we need it. The generator was a big one. It was too much money, it was going to take up space. Then we had no power for a week due to Sandy so now she reminds me to get it serviced. She'd support radio if we really needed it in an emergency.

I promised my son (and his cub scout den) that if they got a tech license, I'd buy them all radios. They're not interested because learning sucks.

That's a great idea.  When I was a kid I would have jumped all over it.  Are cub scout-aged boys old enough to read and understand the material?  I'm asking because my oldest daughter is 8.

They were fifth graders, Arrows of Light. They could do it if they wanted to. I'd probably de-emphasize the technical aspects (circuits, propagation, modulation) and emphasize the rules, operation and safety. They want to play with the good walkie-talkies. If they want to do something more, I'll gladly help them go there. I volunteered to be a merit badge councilor for his troop.