Comment on Foundations of Amateur Radio: Weaving radio into your life.
667@lemmy.radio 2 months ago
I like your perspective, and hope to offer a new facet.
I travel a lot for work, and as a result, we gave up a fixed QTH about four or five years ago. My life is /M or /P. I also noticed in retrospect that I had nearly stopped going to any kind of park or outdoor space; this intensified during the pandemic whilst living in a country which took the lockdowns quite seriously.
When I recognized that my spouse and children were not getting to enjoy the outdoors as much as they should, and I not as much as in my youth, I decided to make portable and mobile ops my radio life. Sure, it won’t always be that way, but I needed to start somewhere. Without a fixed QTH, this leaves portable and mobile ops. My shack is a pelican case and a larger military style backpack. No idea where the soldering iron I just picked up will go.
But I’m happy for it, my spouse seems supportive, and my kids get to touch grass (or sand, as I recently tried to activate White Sands Nat’l Park), and I get to play radio for a portion of that outing.
In short, you’re right, the ops I enjoy are the ones I’ve incorporated into my life, this necessarily includes my spouse and kids. For me, it’s the only way I get to be on air, though sometimes I am a little envious of having a fixed QTH radio shack.
vk6flab@lemmy.radio 2 months ago
For most of my first decade as an amateur my shack was the family car. I had a radio in my office to access the local repeater, but HF was strictly QRP potable.
Having a “fixed” shack means that it’s theoretically always ready, but I have rarely been on HF for several years. One of the reasons is that my voice carries throughout the house, so being on-air is a disturbance when I’m not home alone.
I’ve been working on alternatives, but I’m not there yet.
So, envious as you might be, it’s a double edged sword :)
henfredemars@infosec.pub 2 months ago
I like this open-minded view of what contitutes a ham shack. I feel that ham radio would be in a much better place with this kind of acceptance. My ham shack is two side-by-side folding TV trays, a hacked-up CB radio made to work on ham bands, and a used mag loop because that’s all that works under my physical home restrictions. I sit on on old step stool.
But do I make QSOs? You bet I do!