Ham radio for me these days is a combination of software and packet radio projects. Contest time finds me on the towers, or prowling through the junk heap to find parts, connectors, the operating bench, etc. When I give up on finding parts for the contest, I retire to the kitchen to check to make sure the chili hasn't damaged the house again somehow.
My operating interests are primarily digital. I operate one of the few IP routing internet/packet gateways in Iowa. (Come on, somebody at one of the universities surely has enough interest in packet to throw another one on the air! Email me.) My idea of a packet station is the ability of the Linux workstation/PC's on my home LAN to reach ampr.org hosts.
I have been running Linux for quite a while now. I have an ethernet LAN at home that connects my various machines. One of these machines has radio interfaces in the form of a Gracilis PackeTen ISA-bus packet controller. I have developed a Linux device driver for this card. This combination of a networked Unix host with a packet-capable I/O controller really works nicely.
In the summer, I can be found bicycle mobile around the Cedar Rapids area, or on RAGBRAI, hanging out with the Megacycles, a group of RAGBRAI riders that carry ham radio to relay emergency traffic and keep track of the rest of the group.
One of my favorite activities is cruising the farm in the M37 "military Power Wagon" 4WD truck with Buster, my canine friend. Occasionally I can be found cruising cross country in a 1980 Dodge passenger van known to the "radio-farmers" (somewhat affectionately) as the "Deathvan".
From the ampr.org packet network, my most reliable email address is ron@jv.kd9kx.ampr.org.