Good Morning!

It’s January 1st, 2025, and I’d like to wish you a very Happy New Year!

I mentioned on Patreon yesterday that, in a sense, I’m happy to see 2024 in the rear-view mirror.

Frankly, it was a tough year for our family in many ways, but even amidst the challenges, there were moments of celebration and joy.

Our biggest takeaway from 2024 was experiencing the overwhelming love, kindness, and support from our community after my mother’s passing, my father and father-in-law’s (multiple) hospitalizations, and, especially, the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

This community pulled us through, and for that, we are deeply grateful. Thank you!

Looking Ahead to 2025

As we move into the new year, I’m committed to keeping an optimistic outlook. On the radio front, I hope to activate new parks and summits and attend events like Hamvention, Four Days in May, and possibly another QRP convention. I’ve a couple of radio kits I’d also like to get on the bench when things calm down.

We also hope to fit in a bit of travel this summer and restart our vacation rental after storm repairs have been completed.

A Fresh Start with Correspondence

If you know me, you know I take great pride in responding to every email I receive. I value the time and effort people take to reach out.

But even in the best of times, keeping up with correspondence can be challenging. I typically receive 12–24 personal messages daily—some days more, some days less—and that’s in addition to routine emails from our family business, organizations, charities, etc. It takes me a few minutes to respond to each, so time-wise, it really adds up.

After Hurricane Helene, I was overwhelmed by the outpouring of kind messages and support from readers. It was humbling. Between storm recovery, family commitments, and running QRPer.com, however, my ability to respond to emails virtually disappeared.

I’ve read every message, but replying takes time, and recent hand soreness from storm cleanup and chainsawing has made typing for extended periods difficult. Compounding the issue, my SPAM filter has been overly aggressive, likely deleting 30%+ of messages from new senders.

Despite my best efforts, my backlog has remained at over 350 individual messages, and I know some messages have been permanently lost.

Moving Forward

After discussing this with a friend (who is a public figure and struggles with this much more than I do), I’ve decided to implement a correspondence moratorium for 2025.

This means I’ll archive my current 2024 email backlog and start fresh.

If you’ve written to me with a field report or QRPer.com submission and haven’t heard back, please re-send it—I’ll prioritize those and get them in the pipeline.

For those who sent notes of encouragement: please know I’ve read and deeply appreciated every word, even if I couldn’t reply.

Thank you for understanding.

Looking to the Future

We’ll still be tackling storm restoration projects well into the summer, but I’m hopeful for more balance as my daughters start their university journeys this fall (we’re so proud of them). In the meantime, my family and I are incredibly grateful for your kindness and support.

Here’s wishing you and yours a 2025 filled with joy, peace, and plenty of QRP!

Best & 72,
Thomas (K4SWL)