Radios are cool. Not too long ago, I found out about the Meshtastic[1] project, which is an encrypted meshnet over LoRa. For those who don't know what that means, it's like really long range secret wireless connections. I went ahead and got myself a RAK Wisblock, poked a bunch of holes in an Altoids tin, and ziptied the Wisblock to the tin. It even has enough room for a battery if I ever get around to adding one of those.
=> [1] Meshtastic
I booted it up and... there was no one. At least, not from where I currently stood. (Laid, in my bed.) According to my internet search results, LoRa needs a direct line of sight in order to communicate. So, I was planning to take this transciever to a very large hill near my house where I may get a better reception, but I haven't actually done that yet because it is cold.
However! I have taken a radio up that hill before, along with my partner and a family sized order of cheese curds from Culver's. It was a UV-5R+, and we sat at the peak eating cheese curds and listening to the old guys on the local repeater just talk about random stuff. It was a very tranquil experience and I think everyone should try it sometime. Only thing is, I wish I was able to speak back to them! I still don't have my technicians license even though I believe it's been a year since I even got into amateur radio. There's SO MUCH that needs to be memorized, and I don't have the patience for it. A lot of the questions are really silly things (imo) like memorizing unit conversions. It's like they're trying to prepare you for being stranded on Petrichor V and you have to make your own radio or you get rained on.
I think that the FCC is necessary in our society to keep people from filling the air with noise, but at the same time, I think that I alone should receive special treatment and be allowed to do whatever I want, including broadcasting over other FM radio stations with my "unique" taste in music.