I agree it is largely boring, particularly on the local bands where it's basically a local discord of people talking about traffic.
But if you get your General license you can play with HF and get geeky with antennas, try to make contact with people on low power (qrp) on protocols like JS8.
I was able to make contacts from Texas to South America and Canada, and even Europe I think, on 10w with a crummy EFHW antenna, a wire slung over a tree at 45 degrees.
As far as more geeky protocol hacking, I haven't gotten into it.
I've played with a cheap Chinese clone sdr receiver and LNA and filter and have received FT8 calls from Indonesia and Australia on a length of scrap wire I hung up in my loft here in London UK. Calls from all over Europe and from USA are pretty trivial to pick up.
I would be interested in getting licensed to TX, but then to apply that practically I'd need to invest also in 100s - 1000s of £££ of gear rather than a mere 10s. And then once I've done that ... I think the novelty would be mostly gone if I'm honest. I don't think the practical expense seems worth it.
But if you get your General license you can play with HF and get geeky with antennas, try to make contact with people on low power (qrp) on protocols like JS8.
I was able to make contacts from Texas to South America and Canada, and even Europe I think, on 10w with a crummy EFHW antenna, a wire slung over a tree at 45 degrees.
As far as more geeky protocol hacking, I haven't gotten into it.