ROTA-Radio

I realized recently that my ROTA-Radio focus has shifted a bit. ROTA, or Recliners on the Air, is one of my favorite ways of playing with radio. Literally, sitting in my recliner while also functioning as the Control Operator of a remote radio in my shack. However, I now find myself needing some disclaimers to explain why I’ve wandered off into solar+battery backup power, lamenting the distractions that threaten my radio playtime, and documenting fun times operating my radios from a golf cart! What happened to the recliner? Earlier, I even confessed that one of my favorite operating positions in a past life was “poolside portable”, operating an Echolink node with an HT from my pool with a can of beer in the other hand! Someone once told me that writing for an audience works best if you find something you’re passionate about and stick to it. So, what am I really passionate about?

I’m Passionate About Radio

First and foremost, I really love playing with radios. And, in recent years (since 1986!), a close second for me has been computers. When I was teaching fifth graders, one of my favorite subjects was science. When we were learning together about the electromagnetic spectrum, I was frankly shocked to learn how small a slice “radio” takes up when seen in the context of the full electromagnetic spectrum. To quote Google AI Mode from a recent search on this topic: “If the entire electromagnetic spectrum were represented by a line stretched across the United States from New York to San Francisco (about 2,500 miles), the entire Radio spectrum wouldn’t even be the thickness of a single sheet of paper at the starting line. It would be a microscopic sliver measuring roughly 0.00000000001 inches. The rest of the 2,500 miles would belong entirely to high-energy radiation like X-rays and Gamma rays.” That means this graphic is very inaccurate and nowhere near a scale drawing.

Yet, this paper-thin slice that we know as “radio”, when seen against the backdrop of all the electrical and magnetic waves moving through space, still allows nerds like me and you who play with radio waves as amateurs—folks who do this for the love of radio—to enjoy a “hobby of 1000 hobbies”. It’s amazing how many sub-hobbies fit in such a small slice of spectrum. Or, as Eric Guth 4Z1UG of the QSO Today podcast likes to say, it’s a “three-ring circus with a midway and hundreds of tents,” where you can spend your entire life in just one tent without ever exploring the rest. He uses this metaphor to highlight the vast diversity of specialized sub-hobbies within ham radio, showing that enthusiasts can happily focus on a single niche—such as contesting, building equipment, or digital modes—for a lifetime. Well, I for one am not going to spend my life in only one tent, much less a recliner, as much as I love my recliner!

I’m Passionate About Communication

Me? I actually enjoy communicating with a radio as part of the mix. I especially love an old-fashioned ragchew QSO. Many say our hobby is losing young people to smart phones, texting, and social media. That may be true. Yet, if you think about it, a smart phone in every pocket all around the globe is a radio + a computer in every pocket! I’m sure my three grandkids—who always bring their smartphones when they come to visit—aren’t aware that they, too, love radios and computers just like their grandpa! I’m positive they love what those radio-computer devices allow them to do more than anything.

What do they do with those little devices? They communicate with their friends! Just like grandpa. We may talk about different things when we connect with our friends, but apart from the content of our “messages”, we’re all just communicating with our friends and family, even making new friends with our devices.

It’s true. I like to be comfortable when I’m playing with my devices and communicating with my friends. So, let’s do it in a recliner. Yet, when I’ve sat in my recliner for a while I get antsy. I need to get up and move. So, with my device still in hand, I take a walk around the 1-mile loop that forms the perimeter of my neighborhood. Or, a ride on my golf cart. Or, a swim in the pool. Or, a hike in the woods. You get the idea.

One of the things I’m currently dreaming about is a folding recliner designed for outdoor use, with a sun shade or umbrella I can toss in the golf cart or my SUV and take to the park or lake where I can enjoy the scenery and the sunshine while also communicating with my friends and making new friends, too—all while using my radio and/or computer device(s) to send radio waves through space, bouncing them off the ionosphere, and seeing where they land.

It still gives me a thrill, seeing where my signal lands. Hopefully, they land where my friends are. My radio nerd friends with whom I have something in common. Friends with whom I don’t need to explain why I’m talking into a microphone, “pounding brass”, or typing on a keyboard instead of tapping on my smartphone. Snicker, snicker. YOU are also “talking on the radio”, my friend, when you talk on (or text with) your smartphone!

So, What IS a ROTA-Radio Operator?

From the very beginning of this ROTA-Radio project I said my mission is “dedicated to the ‘Architecture of Presence.’ It’s about the technical and metaphorical journey of moving a world-class amateur radio station out of the isolated ‘shack’ and into the heart of the home.” I later explained that “while I enjoy Parallel Play with my wife from the recliner. It’s about being ‘Present’ on the airwaves without being ‘Absent’ from the house where all the family action takes place.” My wife is my 24/7 priority. She needs me nearby because she depends on me for the basics of her life. Yet, sometimes, the caregiver needs to take care of himself to make this whole thing sustainable. So, how do I take care of myself?

I get out of the shack, out of the house, and I go outside to play for a while. Just what my mom told me to do when I spent too much time in my room, hammering out CW on a straight key for hours at a time. That explains how we got on the golf cart and started riding around the neighborhood. That justifies sitting behind the clubhouse while staring at Lake Arrowhead. While I sit there sipping coffee or, sometimes, a cool brew, I daydream. Often, I think about times past, trips my wife and I took together. Our favorites—cruises to Alaska and up the St. Lawrence Seaway, or “City Trips” to Boston, Philadelphia, and Bar Harbor—left both of us with memories that last a lifetime. 

Other times, I’m dreaming of a new way to communicate with my radio friends. That means new devices, new methods, new and nerdy things to do with radio to get the message across reliably or efficiently, and then receiving a message back so we can call it a complete, 2-way exchange (QSO).

Often, my daydreaming gets real practical when I think about ways to make our neighborhood CERT team communications more effective or reliable so that during an actual emergency we can keep track of one another—situational awareness—while helping our neighbors. That’s the stuff of my imaginary journeys—trips I take in my mind while walking around my neighborhood during a short break from my caregiver routine.

To say that I “get it”—when I hear an elderly ham who lives in an Assisted Living Facility (ALF) talking about his life in the ALF over an HT connected to an Allstar node back in his room—is an understatement. One day, that may be me! My connection to the outside world—being able to communicate with my nerdy radio friends—might be the lifeline I need at that stage of life to extend the quality of my life right up to the very end.

Funny! I just remembered my 93 year old mom who spent her last days in an ALF. She was the ONLY resident who walked around with an iPhone in her hand. She texted me on that device roughly every hour, checking on me, reaching out to see if I could come to visit her later. If she wasn’t on her iPhone, she was on her Mac that I set up on a desk in her room. Her Mac could “text” too. Guess who she communicated with? Huh! It must run in the family.

My mom was never a ham, but she sure was a communicator. She used radio-devices to do it during her last years of life until dementia kept her from remembering to charge her phone; and, later, until she forgot where she left her phone, or her Mac charger…. Oh, the memories of caregiving for my loved ones.

Whether you’re operating from a custom shack, a folding recliner by the lake, or just tapping out a text on your pocket radio-computer, I hope you’re finding ways to stay connected today. If you are, you’re a ROTA-Radio operator at heart.

How about you? How has your operating style evolved over the years? Drop a comment below or send me an email and let’s ragchew a bit!