In my Amateur Radio hobby, I encounter aspects of discomfort with certain tasks. These often leave me to contemplation at great lengths on how to make that uncomfortable feeling relieved to a much more comfortable way of toleration. In this living document, I would like to entertain all of my readers with certain ways of dealing with scenarios of uncommon considerations.
Having Two of most Critical Things
One day I was operating with my automatic tuner when it died. I always have a manual tuner handy, and I pulled that out and began to tune my antenna. I was up, back online in a mere few minutes. I didn’t bother do diagnose anything right there because I had a QSO in progress and also, did not want to take away from my experience that day. Had I not had that manual tuner handy, I would have had to miss my QSO. Ever since that day, my automatic tuner just sits in a box now and my manual tuner gets used much more. I feel comfortable with a manual tuner and a list of configurations to use for all of my antennas.
Having 2 or more Computers Available and one of them is a Linux Kernel
Computer systems can fail, especially when we all least expect them to. A majority of those times, it is due to human stupidity making changes to a computer system causing failure. When failure occurs, have an extra computer handy to replace that one causing issues. For me, I always include my Linux Kernel in Debian flavor as a primary operating asset for ham radio. Everything just works as it should without any issues. There are no drivers to install, Time synchronization services that are needed (like windows) for WSJTX software suite and most importantly with WineTools or Crossover installation of Windows software is a breeze to use. Pick up a Walmart computer with over 4 GB of ram and a pretty good processor and have some fun learning a Linux Kernel!
Incremental Changes to a Amateur Radio Shack
When you leave your shack exactly as it was on day one, A warm goodness of comfort sets in. This can be a good thing in some cases. However, comfort breeds complacency. When humans become complacent, then they become lazy. Often then forgetfulness can set in and a mess of panic ensues when things go south. Having small incremental changes to an Amateur Radio Shack allows for very minor levels of discomfort to allow for overall situational awareness, but enough not to cause any overall stress. This makes it easier to overcome change in an instant!
Different Operating Locations
Many hams operate from their Primary QTH and often are familiar with those surroundings. Once you take them out of their norm, they must adapt to their new surroundings. Not having situational awareness over a new operating location causes stress even with your familiar rig, antenna, coax etc used everyday. Point here is having multiple different operating locations. Pick a few locations that are unfamiliar. Take for instance a kitchen table, garage, boat moored to a dock, Picnic bench or even your favorite park bench. Practice new locations often will help refine kit content and situational awareness to hopefully relieve any future operating stressors.
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