ROTA-Radio

Another busy and productive week is in the Log at N4FTD. The good news: my ongoing work in support of my newly-hired elder law attorney produced several items for his checklist. I love checklists. They’re like my marching orders, and checking items off the list gives me a feeling of accomplishment. The bad news for a person who’s supposed to be retired with time to play? I didn’t “touch a radio every day” this past week. I stared at my IC-7300 many times, though, while waiting for a financial or legal document to download. I did think about my hobby a lot, even when I wasn’t actually “playing radio”. Those thoughts prompted me to reassess my commitment to the hobby. Hang in there, and I’ll tell you all about it.

Situation Report

It’s Saturday morning, 0554 local time. I’m sitting in my shack recliner with the M5 Macbook Air in my lap and nothing in the hopper for my weekly 0700 rota-radio.com publication. The pressure is real. It woke me up and literally drove me into the shack. For a guy who has always wanted to write about something, this passion project has been a creative outlet that I really enjoy. Seeing a new subscriber or getting a comment is just icing on the cake. Except this morning. I’m letting myself down. I realize I’m not going to meet my self-imposed publication deadline. Then I realize, this fits right into my theme of the week, the hobby thoughts that have been rattling around my head when I wasn’t gathering documentation for the lawyer.

This Hobby of Ours

This hobby, amateur radio, is supposed to be fun. An amateur is a person who does an activity for fun instead of money, or someone who is new and not yet skilled at a task. The second part doesn’t really fit here. I’m not new at this. I’ve been playing with radios and chatting with other hobbyist radio operators since 1970. I’ve developed quite a set of skills during more than 50 years in this business. The first part of the definition fits. I surround myself with wires, gadgets, and radios because I enjoy all of it. When I turn on a radio to listen, my mind wanders into the shack of the person speaking, and my imagination is tickled. One thing leads to another, and soon I’m working on a project of my own while I “read the mail”, listening to QSO buddies chatting about the projects on their workbenches. Most of my radio time involves listening in on others’ conversations. The self-imposed pressure I felt this morning when I rolled out of bed and plopped myself in front of a blank word processor page was not fun. It caused me to pause and think: Why?

During the week during the few moments I allowed for myself, I read several articles and listened to some podcasts that followed a theme, at least for me. The first one was Onno’s article/podcast titled Radio…For the Fun of It. In it, he essentially said that we “play radio” because we love it. It’s as simple as that. Oh, boy! If I could just keep it that simple. I look at the Part 97 mandate that encourages me to participate in public service, EMCOMM, to join ARES, learn the NTS format of communication, and my head swims with more items for the to-do list. More classes to take, certificates to earn, and the beat goes on. Oh, wait, gotta get back to Ted’s list (Ted’s my lawyer). I listened to Onno’s podcast and just shook my head, smiling, while I enjoyed my walk around the neighborhood early this past week. Gotta keep up my exercise routine, too!! Go, go, go. Whew! Walk faster, get back home to make Sue’s breakfast…..

Then, I read an update on an investigation into cheating on a ham radio contest. I’m not really a contest person, so I’m not sure why I read about this. In WRTC 2026 Rescored: The Judging Committee’s Full Report I learned that, apparently, there was some cheating that skewed the results. The judging committee booted the offending participants from the contest, and the final results were turned upside down. The whole thing sounded quite serious. Maybe that’s why I’m not a contestant. I’m more of a “compete against myself” kinda guy. If I made 10 CW contacts during last year’s New Year’s Eve Straight Key Night, then this year I’ll try to make 15 or 20. For the fun of it. Reading this report just made me shake my head. Then, Onno’s “for the fun of it” popped into my head, and I wondered why anyone would consider winning at any cost an enjoyable aspect of our wonderful hobby.

The third input was also a podcast, HRWB 243: Building Go Kits. Vince and the others shared their take on go kits for POTA and SOTA. I thought about mine, sitting right next to me as I sit here in the recliner. My IC-705 and a Bioenno battery are in my fancy and affordable Windcamp bag, and I’ve used it (once) on my golf cart. One day, I’ll use it again. For now, it just sits on the floor between my stairway and the recliner, making me feel warm, fuzzy feelings. I can even imagine sitting by the lake hunting POTA activators in the cool, Fall, temps after the worry about hurricane season is behind us for another year. Then, I snap back to reality and realize I had better keep writing or my tardy post on the fun of radio is gonna be even later than it already is: It’s 0701, so I’m now officially late!

Seriously, the Ham Radio Workbench podcast on building go kits was wonderful. It’s always great fun to listen to those guys. Yet, I wondered as I listened: how many radios does one ham operator need? I’ve always tried to follow a simple rule. I suppose I enacted this rule when Sue, my wife of 49 years and counting, said to me: “I would get much more attention from you if I were a wire!” That one hit me hard. So, my rule for the past couple of decades has been this: If I want a new radio, I have to sell one first. If Icom improves the original IC-7300 and brings out the Mk2, then I must sell my original (Mk1) to buy the Mk2. In fact, during a decade and a half of radio inactivity when N4FTD was mostly “off the air”, I collected several non-working Yaesu radios on a shelf in my garage where they waited patiently for my return. Back then, it was my fifth grade classroom and my growing family duties that kept me away.  

When my friend Doug KA0GYF taught me how to sell radios on eBay, I promptly boxed up two FT-857Ds and one FT-101EE rig that didn’t work properly and sold them to hams who loved to make old Yaesu radios work again. Then, when I had time for radio again, I bought my first new rig in decades: the original IC-7300. That formula has kept me out of trouble on the home front. Combined with several “rightsizing” moves that took us from 1800 down to 950 square feet in just 3 short years, the “less is more” movement has really served me well at my N4FTD QTH. The 72 square feet in my shed-shack has literally “no room in the inn” for another radio or computer. I’m happy to have only three HF/VHF/UHF rigs. Heck. I barely have time to use them all. Disclaimer: that doesn’t count the HTs that seem to procreate like rabbits, and they’re cheap, too. Again: how many radios does one ham operator need? How many QSOs can I have at one time, anyway?

Time Check

I’m looking at the clock, hoping nobody will notice I’m a bit late with this post. So, I’ll try to keep this moving along…. It’s already 0713. Hopefully, my six readers are all sleeping in…

The Tree-Hugger’s Blindness

I’ve always loved the “I can’t see the forest for the trees” metaphor. It seems to fit in this context. A tree-hugger grabs hold of the trunk, presses a cheek right up against the bark, and suddenly can’t see anything beyond that single chunk of bark. The Lesson? Laser-focus and mission-mindedness are great for solving technical problems, but the downside is losing sight of the vast forest around you. Release your grip on that single tree, step back, and enjoy the surprise and delight of the whole forest around you. That’s been my lesson this week.

Stripping It Back to Two Words

Allow me a few more thoughts, then I’ll hit PUBLISH.

With 1,000 sub-hobbies and endless online elmering, social media advice, and competing opinions, who should I listen to? I’m grateful for all the online help and online elmers. Those who manage to make a living doing something they love? I think they deserve it. Yet, sometimes it’s overwhelming. I have to remind myself regularly that this isn’t a competition. I don’t need to buy more radios, batteries, or backpacks to keep up with my ham radio mentors. I am literally paying for this stuff with my own time and money, and neither grows on trees [harkens back to the forest & trees metaphor].

I can just keep it simple. I think that’s what this week has taught me. A few timely words from fellow online hobbyists hit home for me. In the midst of a too-busy week—one that was truly productive, but not much fun—a still, small voice kept calling me. Two words: Amateur. Radio. Doing fun stuff with radios—for the sheer love of it—without turning the workbench into an office or the shack into a corporate board meeting. 

Easing Up on the Throttle

I feel compelled to acknowledge that missing my self-imposed 0700 deadline this morning didn’t break the world. The legal folders will get handled, the paperwork will get filed, and the radios will be waiting in the shack without demanding a timesheet to account for all the dust that has accumulated since the last time I turned them on.

This is my gentle challenge to readers and myself to step back from the bark, look at the forest, and touch a radio today purely for the love of it. If you can’t quite get to a radio today because other duties are keeping you out of the shack, give yourself permission to do your duty. The radios will be waiting when you get back to the shack. That’s MY story, and I’m sticking to it.

73, Paul | N4FTD

0822: time to publish!