Hams, how many hours a week you spend on average in front of the transceiver? And tinkering with the soldering iron? Do you do field day type of set ups? DXpeditions?
I'm including this as a core activity in my retirement but I'm afraid I'll get burned out .
I think that you should do it as often or as infrequently as you like. If you feel yourself losing interest, then give it a break. The wonderful thing about a hobby is that (unlike work) you get to do it on your own terms.
When I stopped work, it was a chance for me to build some gear. I knew I was capable, as I'd done it when I was first licensed, over 30 years ago, but it had been a long time. First off, I built a few mono-band QRP CW transceivers, starting with the Norcal 2N2/40 and was pleasantly surprised to find that a kit I built myself could have such a good receiver. Then I built a Fort Tuthill 80 - an 80M transceiver with a direct conversion receiver, and used it to work the T32C DXpedition team on Christmas Island - that was a thrill! I also built a pre-production version of a 2 watt transceiver for 20M (which should be coming out as a kit later this year.)
Then came the kit I had been building myself up to - the Elecraft K2, which has been everything I had hoped it would be. If you're a CW person (which I am) and even though the design is well over 10 years old, it is still a cracking rig. I knew I was capable of building one, but it felt really good to finally do it - that's the beauty of having time on your hands to do whatever you like.
To answer your question, my K2 goes on when I wake up, and goes off when I go to sleep, so except for when I'm out of the house and when the SO comes over, it's on about 16-17 hours a day. Much of the day it sits listening to the QRP CW calling frequencies - 14060 in the day - and higher bands if they're open, and 7030 in the evening. I do go down to the bottom of the bands when I want to chase DX, but those frequencies are my mainstays.
In my case, if it weren't for CW, I would most likely have lost interest in the hobby by now. Since stopping work, I told myself I wanted to become proficient in code. I learned it at the ago of 14 to get my first ticket, but never used it on the air, with the exception of a handful of QSO's. I'm a bit of a slow learner, but in the last 3 years have gotten to the point where I am comfortable at about 18-20 wpm, though I still can't copy comfortably in my head - that's the next barrier to break through.
Propagation adds a bit of extra mystery to the whole bag too. There was a solar storm yesterday, which wiped out the bands somewhat, though they came back later in the day. I QSO'ed with a station in NM (I'm in CA) and it was a wonder to hear his signals go from 599 to the noise level in about a minute, and then back again.
My activity consists of homebrewing, operating, and blogging about it. I don't participate in any group activities with other hams, such as field day, and I'm not a member of a local club. I'm just way too introverted for that
I did have a couple of ham friends some years ago and it would be nice to have one or two again - perhaps that will happen, but it takes me a very long time to find other people, though I do like to "high-five" 'em on the air (i.e. QSO'ing with them.)
So, I've been hamming it up a lot since stopping work, and for me, CW has been the thing that has held my interest. If I feel myself burning out, or the interest waning though, I'll switch the radio off and go do other things.
