oh dear, you went the 'beard' route. ok, not all of us have facial hair and aged over 80.
Us clean-shaven young-buck radio types use amateur radio for talking, interfacing computers with data-modes, satellite comms, bouncing signals off the moon and back. Recently we're using Arduino and Raspberry Pi in our radio projects.
Still think ham radio is old fashioned?
I think El Reg should produce an article on the current state of Amateur Radio.