Posts Tagged ‘Personal’
Ham Radio and Fitness
April 11th, 2014 | 
Author: There are notable exceptions, within the hobby, that will get you out. Expeditioning, fox hunting (outside), Summits on the Air and I'm sure there are a few others. In fact, and I may be a little biased, I think that the SOTA Goat award is one of the toughest awards in amateur radio. The SOTA Goat is an activator award, you must earn 1,000 activator points with the highest value summit worth 10 points. There are some bonus points available during extreme weather conditions, but suffice it to say you will have to summit at least 100 peaks and operate to earn the award. Normally it takes several years to earn this award and you have to do it on your feet.
However, if you aren't into Summits or other outdoor forms of radio there is device that you can wear on your wrist to motivate you to get up and around. These devices count your steps in a day and depending on the device will nudge you to get up when you have been sitting too long. All of these devices have accompanying apps that will sync with the device to give you statistics on your day including steps and the quality of your sleep. I currently use a device made by Jawbone and although I have a somewhat regular exercise regimen, it reminds and motivates me to keep it up. An extra walk around the block or around the office, if done regularly can make a difference in your overall fitness.
I blogged here several months back about the backpacker mentality of saving ounces in our packs while we were carrying extra pounds on our bodies. Since that blog I have lost ten pounds and signficantly improved my stamina. The higher fitness level we can achieve improves our odds to live long enough to achieve some of our sedentary goals.
Nancy, WZ8C/SK – It’s a sad sad day
Msg from Dennis, K6DF follows:
To All FISTS Members: Early this afternoon I received a phone call from Tim, Nancy’s husband. I am very sad to report that Nancy WZ8C, is now a silent key. Nancy passed away last night and will be missed very much by all FISTS members worldwide.
If you wish to send condolences to her family, please send them to the following address:
Tim Lange and Family
P.O. Box 47
Hadley, MI, 48440.
Please send this notice to any and all FISTS groups and members to disseminate this information as much as possible.
I sadly send 73, God’s Speed Nancy, 88’s . . . Dennis Franklin K6DF FISTS Awards Mgr /Webmaster
End MSG
Nancy was only 58 according to her obituary. Way too young to pass. She will be missed by all FISTS members.
73, Nancy de Larry W2LJ
FISTS #1469- dit dit
When you least expect it – expect it!
As the old joke goes …….
First, a little background. We have put up a baby gate in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room since Harold, our Beagle, came to live with us. Even though he has passed the one year mark, he still has a lot of puppy in him. By that, I mean to say that he chews ….. a lot! He has the run of the back yard, the family room and the kitchen. The living room and the rest of the house will become available to him as he grows older and becomes less of a chewer. In Jesse’s case, that came around about his second birthday, so I am expecting that Harold will become calmer as October 2014 approaches.
Anyway, earlier this week, I was taking dinner plates from the kitchen to the dining room, and I snagged my right leg on the baby gate. I mildly twisted it, but really didn’t feel anything at the time. The next day it was fine. Two days later? Whoa, Baby! My knee was sore, then that got better, then my hamstring was sore and that got better, and now my calf is the sore spot. I sure don’t heal like I used to when I was younger! I gave in and bought a heating pad on Thursday on my way home from work. That has helped a lot and today has been the first day since Christmas Eve that I have been walking without a noticeable limp.
I had planned to spend today on my fanny and not do much of anything – just rest the muscles in my right leg and apply some heat on and off throughout the day. Then this afternoon, my little eye spied out the rec room window and I saw the wire from my 88 foot EDZ was all kinds of droopy. What the hey?!?
I went outside to discover that the Dacron antenna rope holding up the center insulator had broken. The antenna was still in the tree, but had dropped about 10 feet. Not a good thing, especially as I am scheduled for 40 Meter QRP Fox duty this coming Tuesday night – New Year’s Eve. It seems you can always expect trouble when you least expect it.
The weather was nice here today – sunny and in the low 50’s (about 11C), so I began looking for my antenna stuff. I found the pneumatic launcher, and the mason’s twine that I use to pull up rope – but where’s my Dacron antenna rope? I searched the shack high and low for almost a half hour and couldn’t locate it. I know it’s hiding somewhere here in plain sight – but I still can’t find it. All I was able to locate was some Nylon rope that I use for tying various things. This rope is not ideal for antennas as it stretches over time, but with daylight starting to wane, it’s any port in a storm.
After one or two failed attempts, I got my line through the tree. The pneumatic launcher worked like a charm. One time I forgot to open the bale on the fishing reel, so the projectile launched just fine, but the fishing line broke and stayed put, while the little projectile soared like an eagle. Once I remembered all the steps, I got the line up and through how I wanted it.
At this point, I have to give big kudos to my son, Joey. He gave me a hand with this project today, and if it weren’t for him, this repair job would definitely have taken longer, and perhaps have not been accomplished at all. Thanks, Joey – I owe you a big one!
So my 88′ EDZ is now back in the air, with temporary rope support, a few feet higher than it was. I will have to purchase some bonafide Dacron antenna rope (if I can’t find what I thought I had) and re-do this some weekend in the near future. Of course, all the weekends from here on out until April with probably be sub-freezing and snowy!
I did get on the air tonight to hand out points to the Stew Perry contesters on 160 Meters. The W3EDP loads just fine on 160 Meters and with 5 Watts, I have been working up and down the East Coast and out towards Ohio and Michigan. Not bad for 5 Watts and about what I expected from last year’s contest.
But I think I’ll head upstairs now and apply some more heat to this old, aching calf muscle. And to think how I used to chuckle when my Mom used to tell me, “Don’t get old!”
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
Holiday Thoughts
Ham radio has been used in every country in the world, covering all the worlds religions, languages, cultures and governments. And we are always able to find common ground, joy, happiness and satisfaction in a hobby so basic as communication. Maybe the world leaders could take a lesson or two from us about how to get along. We have good friends around the world who we would not have known, except for ham radio.
So my wish for the holiday season is that ham radio continue to grow, prosper and add satisfaction to our lives. I wish not for new equipment, but the time to use what I have. I wish for the continued freedom that we enjoy that allows our conversations to cross borders. I wish to make new friendships with people different than me so that I can learn more about the world I live in. I also wish that, just like the magic of Santa Claus, the magic of ham radio never disappears.
So however you say it or however you mean it I wish you Happy Holidays. The way I say it is Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Random Thoughts and a Missed QSO
As I have mentioned before, I am a guitarist for The No Refund Band, www.norefundband.com, and we had a great show on Saturday night. It was one of my better performances, landing all the notes and licks in front of a nice crowd, very satisfying. Check us out on iTunes, Amazon or most any digital outlet.
That brings me to radio. I guess I've been spoiled with the last few expeditions as I have documented here, getting nice band counters from S21 and XZ on the high bands. With higher sunspot numbers long path to Asia has been fantastic here in Texas, with loud signals and relatively easy QSO's. With the VU7AG expedition I expected nothing less than to make contacts on 10m and 12m. However, this chase was very different. Texas and VU7 just don't have the same path as the aforementioned countries. I listened and listened and listened. The long path was working to the US east coast, but stopped somewhere in the mid west. Kudos to the operators who tried to make this path work, but it just wasn't, until Sunday morning. I was in front of the radio, antenna turned to long path, nothing but static. Then I see some spots from W5 stations, still nothing, what gives? I turned my antenna to short path and there he was, a decent signal with a touch of artic flutter, but otherwise a great signal for short path 10m at 8:30 am from India to Texas. Unashamedly, I cranked up the amp, found the station he was working and started calling, expecting a QSO at any minute. After all, I am destined to salvage this expedition on 10m, aren't I? I called for 30 minutes when the signal began to fade and soon there was no signal and no QSO. The expedition is now QRT. Unlike the hunt and the gig, not very satifying.
However, as I said, I am spoiled. I did manage two new bands, 17m and 30m and a new mode, RTTY. As satisfying as those QSO's were, the lack of success on 10m seems to have dulled the accomplishment. But I'm over it. I still have some excitement waiting for me in the future. If we don't have hope, what do we have?
A Little Prevention and a Pound of Cure
Recently, a very active SOTA activator who had probably 80 or 90 summits to his credit suffered a heart attack while on a climb. These events are always a little sobering because we aren't so different in age. It isn't intuitive that an active individual would be a heart attack candidate. The fact is he had 100% blockage in one of his arteries. My son is an MD and explained that the body will build it's own bypass system over time, so 100% blockage means that the main artery was blocked, but there were several smaller bypass blood vessels that were at least transporting some blood, but obviously in the case, not enough.
There were two lessons to learn from this incident. The first in the preventive part. After say, age 50, we should have a full blown physical at least every other year, complete with an EKG that will check you heart capacity and function. If you have to borrow money to pay for the physical, you should do it. A physical is not an expense, but an investment that will yield a nice return in the form of additional years to enjoy all the things you have worked for in your life. We should do some exercise at least 4 times a week, even if it's just walking for 30 minutes. If you aren't currently exercising, get the physical first and if you are exercising don't assume that you don't have issues. The example above should be enough evidence to convince you of that. One health issue associated with ham radio is that we can do it sitting down which isn't necessarily good from a health perspective.
The second lesson from this is the pound of cure. If you are involved in outdoor activities, hiking, biking, etc.. carry a small first aid kit and include aspirin in the kit. This will help to temporarily mitagate heart attack symptoms until help can arrive. Get a book on outdoor first aid and understand what you can do when you are miles away from help and have a medical emergency. There are even several apps available for your smart phone that give solid first aid advice.
The outcome of the incident above was a good as you could hope. His hiking buddy was calm and solicited help from other hikers, one of which had some aspirin in his pack. They had cell service and could call 911 and the victim was flown to a hospital where a stent was put in. (If no phone service, have a 2m rig with the local repeaters in the memory) He is much better and should be able to get back to climbing soon. His recovery is due, in no small part, to the alert reactions of those around him.
So go make that appointment.
Health, Diet and Exercise Content
Hello fellow hams,
Based on the amount of emails I’ve received with both questions and encouragement, I know many have been inspired by my blog updates on my own progress to better health. Since my amateur radio blog is picked up by a few different blog sites I don’t want to post material which is off-topic to amateur radio. If you are interested in learning more about my quest for better health through diet and exercise, please follow my personal blog. You can subscribe to the RSS feed via this link.
Now I return you to your normal amateur radio blog content already in progress.
73 de KDØBIK (Jerry)
