Whatever is more difficult: Do that!

Doing it the hard way is usually not a good idea. Sometimes, though, the hard way is the best way. When the hard way is the only way to accomplish conflicting goals, try the hard way. My home QTH is in a shed. I share my radio shed-shack with our second fridge, shelves of paper supplies we buy in bulk at Sams Club, a water heater, all my tools, and pretty much everything else that doesn't fit inside our very small house. My radio shed-shack is crowded. I have a large desktop measuring 2.5 x 5 feet that triples as a work bench for radio and similar projects, a work desk when I was still working full- or part-time, a place to pay the bills or do the taxes, and a radio operating position. I built it so it functions as a sit-stand desk. When I'm sitting, I have a fairly comfortable office chair. However, I enjoy operating my radios from different locations, especially during the summer when it gets hot, and during the winter when it's finally cool enough to operate outside. During summer months here in Florida the portable air conditioner has a hard time keeping up when outside temps are in the high 90s or low 100s. So, I seek other places to set up my shack and operate portable. Everything I do in my radio hobby is portable in one way or another because we live and work in a shared space. When it's just my wife and me, or when the grandkids come over to spend the night or the day, I have to carve out a place and some time to "play radio". That's not a complaint. Most all amateur radio operators have the same story.

I own an RV that I call the Radio Van. The radio setup inside the van is even more crowded than my home shed-shack. You can see pictures on my QRZ page. I have RV-the-Radio-Van set up with an IC-7300. It's a great radio! I can quickly put up a roof-mounted or ground-mounted vertical antenna or run a wire from the van to a tree and be on the air from pretty much anywhere. RV-the-Radio-Van takes me to places away from home. I've written about some of those journeys elsewhere in this blog. There's nothing more fun than operating at the side of a lake, in the middle of the woods, or on top of a mountain. I've even operated from a Cracker Barrel parking lot. Operating from the RV or even at home is not always very comfortable on my behind, my legs, or my shoulders. That's why I purchased a small portable radio, a Xiegu G90, that I can fit in a backpack. My backpack portable radio setup encourages me to get out of the shed-shack at home, out of the van, and into the outdoors as a portable radio operator. I enjoy POTA—Parks on the Air—a radio activity which usually brings many responses when I call CQ POTA looking for other radio operators to "hunt" me and, if they can hear me, to give me a call. For 30-60 minutes I'm on the end of a pileup—a gathering of other radio operators who want to talk to me. That's exciting! I often pair POTA activities with a nice, long hike in the woods right where I've been operating the radio. Sometimes, I even spend the night there and extend my radio and hiking time beyond just a couple of hours. I also like to operate radio from my recliner because it's my favorite position no matter what I'm doing, from watching TV to reading to talking on the radio. When I operate radio from the recliner I'm supporting a brand new program called ROTA—Recliners on the Air. To set up for regular ROTA operating, however, required a new radio setup. That would not have been in the cards for this amateur radio operator without a windfall—a bunch of money that was not already in the budget. Fortunately, my part-time job came through when I least expected it.

I was a couple of weeks away from wrapping up a 4-year stint, post-retirement, at a part-time job working for my former full-time employer. My boss asked me to work an extra 2 months this summer before finally retiring "for good" from a part time tech support job. I said yes, partly because the summer project I would manage was the culmination of 4 years of prep work on my part. The other reason, which became apparent a couple of days after I agreed to manage the extra project, was because these extra 2 months of income suddenly became "found money" for me to spend on something unexpected. I negotiated with my wife as I always do when a lot of money is involved. We agreed that all of this extra money would go into a radio spending spree. When you get a chance to enjoy Christmas in July and still keep your relationship with your significant other intact, you do it! The only problem I had to face was: what will I buy with a pile of money devoted to my Christmas in July? Technically, the unexpected work was done in July. The spending took place in August. While the money pile grew during July's project work I spent all my free time creating a radio budget. The income was a moving target, and the radio budget kept growing as well. Seems like a good problem, right? It was! Still, it was a challenge. Never in my 50 years as an amateur radio operator did I have a pile of money to spend on radio gear. Not without selling something old before buying something new. This time was different. The money was not unlimited, but it was enough to buy a nice radio, some accessories, some wire, and even a new ladder to install the new antenna system I would build to pair with my new radio. I began the decision-making process by listing what I wanted to do with yet another radio. I'll save the rest of that decision-making story for another post. Now, I want to focus on what I ended up with, and why. 

IC-705 on Swivel Desktop

I could have purchased a single, full-power (100 watt) radio that can still be turned down to 1 watt for QRP—low power—operations. A radio with an internal antenna tuner that can be moved from one operating position to another fairly easily. In other words, one radio that does almost everything I want to do. The tradeoff would be that I would need to dismantle my radio shack each time I wanted to change positions. One of my goals was to get away from the hassle of a take down, set up, take down, set up routine. Everything I do in a deed restricted neighborhood is done with portable and/or stealth antennas. All can be taken down or put back up within 5-15 minutes in the case of a complaining neighbor or a thunderstorm or hurricane blowing through. Portable antennas will be a necessity for as long as I live in this neighborhood, and I plan to stay here until they take me out in a pine box. But, the radios and other accessories are a different matter. Instead of using a single radio that "does it all", I bought an Icom 705 QRP radio with an RM Italy MLA-100 amplifier, a Chameleon URT-1 remote tuner, and an MFJ digital SWR/Power meter. I also bought a roll of 18 gauge wire for my new "random" length wire connected to the remote tuner. The remote tuner idea is another story for another time. The "random" wire connected to the remote tuner ended up at 84 feet long, enough to also get on the 80 meter band which I've not visited for decades. 

84' Wire, Tree to Pole, Inverted L

If you're following along you might wonder why I didn't just use my IC-7300, the single radio I already own that "does it all"? Simple. I would need to move it back and forth between the RV and my new operating position next to a new-to-me recliner in the corner of our spare bedroom. This decision-making process was truly a cart-before-the-horse situation. Before I knew I needed a new radio, I found some money to buy one. All the pieces just came together. This isn't likely to ever happen again, not like it did this summer. When I first saw the IC-705 I wanted one. I didn't really have a need for it, especially given the fact that it was lacking full power at 100 watts and an antenna tuner. I bought the G90 as a kind of consolation prize. It runs a respectable 20 watts, has an internal tuner that tunes most anything, and it's small for portable ops from a backpack. The other features of the IC-705, however, give me some benefits I wouldn't have any other way. When we coincidentally decided as a separate matter to buy my wife a new "lift" recliner so she can get out of the chair with bad knees, I was able to move her old recliner to the bedroom next to a window and operate ROTA from there instead of the living room where my recliner is located.

I found a special recliner table with a swivel top that can be moved over the right-hand arm of the recliner. From the recliner I can use a lap desk to operate CW, digital modes, and SSB voice modes if I'm so inclined. The swivel surface holds the IC-705 and accessories while putting the radio right where I need it while I'm on the air. If I'm operating a digital mode like PSK-31 or JS8 and want to move to my living room recliner, I can. The IC-705 and my laptop communicate over WiFi with no wires between them. That was one of the main benefits I wanted from the 705 from the first time I saw it online. The 705 is a small QRP rig out of the box that fits in the backpack where my G90 used to be. My G90 will likely become a dedicated JS8 station doing double-duty on WSPR to gather real-time propagation reports from my home QTH. The RM Italy amp paired with the IC-705 gives me a QRP portable rig for POTA activations plus up to 100 watts for my ROTA operating. The 7300 stays in RV-the-Radio-Van for times when I want to get away but stay in an air-conditioned van with a kitchen and bedroom. At home I have Recliner #1 (in the LR) and Recliner #2 (in the BR), and I can operate digital from either one with a single laptop. Previously, I needed 2 computers and had to tie up the IC-7300 while operating from the driveway where the van is plugged in and parked.

Now, I can operate CW from Recliner #2 with my feet up and look out the window at the clouds while I'm head copying the other operator's transmissions. Yes, all the wires and patch cables that fill roughly 2 square feet of swiveling table surface next to my recliner indicates that I did this the hard way. Guilty as charged. It's kind of like going fishing and catching dinner instead of just making a quick trip to the grocery store and picking up something already cooked from the deli. But, doing it the hard way—the opportunity cost—gave me several benefits I would not have enjoyed had I used my previously owned IC-7300 or bought a new IC-7100 with just as many wires required—AKA, the easy way. The 7100's remote head would still leave me with 2 pieces of gear compared to the 705-plus-amp. Both involve 2 pieces of gear connected by wires. The IC-7100 is greyscale and it has no waterfall. The IC-705 is color, has a waterfall, and has a WiFi card and Bluetooth inside. Besides, what ham radio operator doesn't love a bunch of wires in the shack no matter where the chair is located? I've criticized people who seem to follow the "whatever's harder" path. Sometimes, the hard way is the better way when it ticks all the boxes and opens up new options you would have missed out on if you took the easy way. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

View from the Recliner