so ive been licensed since 98 and lately ive just been noticing things feel different, not bad necessarily just... different. like back then you'd get on 75m in the evening and there'd be 40 guys just ragchewing about whatever, fishing, cars, work stuff. now i get on and its mostly digital modes running unattended and the occasional dx pile. dont get me wrong FT8 has been a godsend for my antenna situation but sometimes i just miss the actual conversation you know?

not trying to sound like an old man yelling at clouds here just curious if others feel the same or if im just tuning to the wrong frequencies or whatever

yeah i get what your saying. i only got my general like 2 years ago so i dont have the same history but even in that short time the nets ive tried to join have thinned out. found a local 2m net that meets tuesday nights and thats honestly the most actual human conversation ive had on the air in months. tried 40m a few times and it just felt like shouting into a room where everyone has headphones on

its cyclical man, propagation has a lot to do with it too. when the bands are dead people migrate to digital just to feel like theyre doing something. cycle 25 is heating up though so hopefully we get some life back on 10 and 15. i remember when 10m was just wall to wall signals on a saturday morning, that will come back. the ragchew crowd never fully went away they just moved around, try 7.255 on a weekend morning if you want to hear some old timers go at it for two hours about absolutely nothing in particular