My father and I enjoyed QSOs almost weekly until his death in September 1998, not too long after we returned from a visit with our newborn daughter.
That really took the wind out of my sails in terms of ham radio. I pretty much gave up on the low band stuff and casual QSOs, and concentrated on Satellite modes. I purchased a Kenwood TS-790A to have a decent VHF/UHF radio shortly before my father died, in anticipation of the launch of the new Phase 3D satellite that would briefly become AO-40.
My family moved into our current home in North Kingstown in November of 1998. I installed egg-beater antennas for 144 and 430 MHz in the spring of 1999 as well as antenna mounted pre-amps from SSB Electronics.
Kenwood TS-790A
SSB-Electronics pole mounted preamp
AO-40 finally launched in December of 2000, but suffered major issues that essentially left the satellite useless. It was a huge disappointment for many folks. (If I recall correctly someone forgot to remove a brightly colored lock-out tag that was marked “Remove before launch”, which lead to a cascade of failures once the motor was fired to boost it into higher orbit.) Had AO-40 survived, I probably would have remained active in radio, but when it suffered a failure of almost all systems, I really lost interest. With no satellite, and no weekly
M2 Eggbeater
schedules with my father to keep me going, I made my last contact during January of 2001 on FO-29.
A set of circular polarized antennas for 144/430 plus a az-el rotor, intended for use on AO-40, sit unopened in their boxes to this day.
After that I packed up my low band and satellite gear and stuck mostly to VHF/UHF FM, but I wasn’t very active. I did try some high speed packet around 2003, but nothing held my interest for very long. My attention focused to raising my kids and work. It would be a decade before I would return to ham radio, and I doubt I had more than a dozen contacts in that 10 year stretch between 2001 and 2011.
