ROTA-Radio

What happens when recliners are off the air?

This morning, after getting my wife’s breakfast ready, I grabbed a few minutes on the golf cart. If I head out early, I can usually take a spin before the August heat becomes unbearable. Not so this morning. Even at 81 degrees in the sun, the humidity was probably close to 100%. Unless I keep the cart moving to create a little bit of a breeze, I start sweating and it’s time to head for home.

These short golf cart rides are my sanity valve. They help maintain my sanity in the midst of all the must-do items on my list every day.

The lightning season in the lightning capital of the world is also very frustrating to a ham operator who wants his HF antenna kept up and plugged into the radio all the time. That’s just not possible in the summer.

Years ago, we would have what I called our “normal” afternoon thunderstorms. We could at least plan on them, and the joke was that you could “set your watch by them.” Now, those thunderstorms come at all hours of the day. Sometimes they only last five minutes, but you still have to unplug your antenna when they roll in. The bad news is that I might be in the middle of a long-awaited QSO and have to cut it short or not even begin. That just adds to the fun of hurricane season in Florida.

Two N4FTD Workbenches

Let’s move from my rant against the Southwest Florida weather and switch to “what’s on your workbench?” At my QTH, there are two workbenches. I move constantly between them throughout the days and weeks.

The Radio Workbench

When I’m sitting at my radio workbench, I get to do fun stuff. Lately, I’ve been participating in Jason’s (KM4ACK) 30-Day Solar & Battery Experiment.

In fact, this morning’s golf cart ride was an extension of that challenge. I’ve been tracking my golf cart battery’s SOC (state of charge) while also charging my iPhone using only my Nano100 power station.

Now, that’s the kind of hands-on workbench project I enjoy. Battery power is something I rely on for all of my ham radio projects and activities. When I finally get back into my favorite operating position in the recliner, my batteries will be important because they help keep me on the air.

The Kitchen Table Workbench

For the heavy lifting of life’s necessary duties, my kitchen table is where much of that work gets done. Whether it’s counting out my wife’s weekly medications or opening all the boxes that arrive almost daily from Sue’s Amazon shopping sprees, that kitchen workbench is a necessary, though not always fun, part of my daily living. By now, you can probably guess which workbench I prefer.

At that more mundane workbench, I’ve lately been busy working with lawyers to update our legal documents. That is something I’d rather not do, but it’s necessary. Unfortunately, the next month or two will be very busy just working on that legal stuff, chasing down documents, receipts, statements, and the like. All boring, but I at least know how to do these tasks. All these kitchen table projects have been added to my usual caregiver role where I help my wife Sue with her ADLs (activities of daily living). Radio must take a backseat for a while.

My Silent Recliner

We talk a lot about my seating arrangements here on ROTA-Radio. That’s because I’m on a quest to spend more time in the recliner operating (mostly) digital radio modes. Yet, my kitchen chair or Sue’s wheelchair keeps calling me.

My daily routine lately has been starting a fun project, working with it for a short while, then stopping suddenly so I can devote my time to a not-so-fun project or task—then starting again, stopping, starting, stopping. The recliner sits mostly empty and quiet. It’s a lonely scene for a ROTA-Radio guy. This morning, while chatting with Gemini about how it feels to not be sitting in my recliner operating JS8Call or checking my Winlink messages, I said it feels yucky.

I should add that my personality loves closure. A project needs a beginning, middle, and end. Those endings are what tie the knots for me; loose ends bug me. Start-stop-start-stopping is frustrating, to say the least. My inability to see projects through to completion is very challenging. Yes, I know that life is like that. Lately, though, I’ve had more of that than usual. It’s just the way things are right now.

The last time this happened, I was well into my 17 years in the same Florida classroom as a fifth-grade teacher, and I had created a working environment that kept me busy for many hours past the 8:00 AM–3:00 PM school day. I eventually had to put away my radios for several years just to keep up with the demands of work and a growing family. All good stuff, but I was sad when I had to put not one, but several beloved hobbies “on hold” for more than a decade.

Imposing Order on Chaos

I learned decades ago how to do what Eric Guth (4Z1UG) calls “carving out time” for ham radio. He often asks his QSO Today podcast guests how they find time for their ham radio activities: “Do you put your hobby activities on your calendar?” I’ve heard him ask that many times over the past few years that I’ve been listening to his weekly show.

I do that. Actually, I keep two calendars. One is for those kitchen table projects—my Personal & Family Calendar (color: brown). The other is my N4FTD Calendar (color: blue). I can show both brown and blue entries on one calendar view. Frankly, I would often rather spend all my time “in the blue” zone. Alas, that’s not how real life goes.

Something I try to do all the time—and especially when life’s start-stop-start-stop shakes me to my very foundation—is to make a list. Yesterday, I made a list of all the projects I have on my workbenches. I categorized them by “Ideas,” “Begun Already,” and “Almost Finished.”

Now, I have my marching orders all laid out. The only thing left to do is to prioritize them and get to work. That simple act brings a small measure of order to my overly chaotic and busy life.

Speaking as a ham operator, if I don’t “tune in” to my whole life, then my communications channels with my key partners are doomed to fail. My main person with whom I want to keep in touch and in tune is my wife, Sue. As much as I love this hobby of ours, dear ham buddy, without a clear comms path to my wife, none of the rest matters much.

Being in tune with Sue is like an antenna at resonance. All the power in the world won’t “get out” without that, and when I’m in tune with my #1, any power I have within myself is amplified and spreads out to all the other corners of my world.

I’m Standing By on Life’s Frequencies

So, I’m standing by. I’m not going QRT forever. In fact, I’m often listening even if I’m not transmitting. I spend probably 90% of my radio time listening, even during the best of times when my hobby can take a front seat and N4FTD can sit in the recliner to operate.

While riding around on the golf cart this morning, it suddenly hit me: It’s Friday, and my ROTA-Radio article isn’t started yet. This status report is the result of having my back up against the wall with no radio, computer, or power project to report to you, my reader. That by no means means I haven’t been working hard on projects. They’re just not the ones that you or I would call interesting reading on a ham radio blog.

Then, I realized: this is also part of the hobby—carving out time to do the things you love most about it. If I’m any indicator, even retiring from the “world of work” isn’t a guarantee that you can spend all your free time “playing radio.” You may have heard this before, and it’s true: I’m busier now than when I was working for a living. “How did I ever find time to work?” I always hated when retired folks said that. Now, I get it.

I accept the challenge. It’s the challenge of real life, and it’s worth working for. There’s plenty of fun stuff in the midst of all the yucky “brown” calendar moments during a typical day in the life of a ham radio operator. Here’s to finding those radio nuggets and squeezing them for all they’re worth.

As my friend Tom (KJ7T) likes to say: [Try to] “touch a radio every day!”

73,

Paul, N4FTD