Foundations of Amateur Radio

When people think about and discuss my chosen hobby, amateur radio, there's often a perception that it's old men sitting behind a radio tapping on a Morse key, making beeping noises surrounded by all manner of imposing equipment, stacked thick and high in a tiny room that soon becomes too stifling to spend much time in.

While such scenes might exist, often reinforced by old photos and messy radio shacks, any self respecting amateur will tell you that plenty of time is spent outside the shack dealing with antennas, coax and earthing systems, combined with pouring concrete, building, erecting and climbing towers and a myriad of other physical activity.

My experience has shown that my own inertia bending acts often involve things like camping, portable operation in ever changing environments, throwing ropes into trees and recovering those later, erecting verticals, tying down squid-poles and other muscular movements like building temporary rotators lashed to the nearest utility vehicle to take advantage of a multi-band yagi that someone brought along to play with during a field day.

The first time I really discovered just how lacking my stamina is, was in early 2014 when the FT5ZM DXpedition team to Amsterdam Island was in town. I had the pleasure of spending a day with a couple of team members showing off the sights of my QTH, Perth in Western Australia. In the middle of the city is Kings Park. To give you a sense of scale, at over 400 hectares, Perth's Kings Park is larger than New York's Central Park and London's Hyde Park. One of the attractions is the dual spiral staircase DNA tower. At 15m height, it's the highest viewing point in Kings Park offering 360 degree views of the park and the city surrounding it. Commissioned in 1966, the tower has 101 steps and has recently been refurbished. It derives its name from the DNA Double Helix molecule, which is how the staircases are arranged.

One of my companions on the climb to the top was a sprightly amateur who's been licensed a decade longer than I've been alive. I marvelled when Arnie N6HC essentially ran up the tower when all I was able to achieve was puff my way up in his wake.

Since then I've discovered that doing 24 hour contests, camping and other fun stuff now absolutely kicks the stuffing out of me, often requiring that I spend a day in a small dark room recovering with a blanket over my head. While my body shape and my callsign have things in common and my doctor continues to encourage me to lose weight, I can say that my recent visit to hospital, unexpected as it was, reminded me in no uncertain terms that I should look after myself, if only so I can actually participate in the next contest or camp-out.

I'm not going to tell you what my fitness plan is, nor am I going to tell you to embark on one of your own, other than to ask, have you considered just how much of this wonderful hobby goes beyond keying a microphone or tapping a keyboard and consider just how safe you really are when you next climb up a ladder, tower or other height to fix an antenna?

Speaking of health, I've been absolutely blown away by the incoming messages, offers of help, shared gallbladder emergency and post-operative experiences and more, from people whom I've known for years through to amateurs who took a chance to introduce themselves and wish me well. It wasn't until this week that I really understood that this community is rich in personal lived history, going well beyond the experiences I've had outside the hobby. I'm ever so grateful for your encouragement and intend to keep fighting to get well. It's going to take some time, but I'm looking forward to when I can next camp-out and not regret my life choices.

So, get off your sedentary and go do something will ya?

I'm Onno VK6FLAB