My Laid-Back Ham Shack
Dick Hankinson, NØBV

Blame it on the deer. This story is about tangling and untangling so I might as well blame it on somebody or something and the deer will do just fine. I operate from a cabin in the woods on a lake fairly close to my home and boy, do we have deer. One night I forgot to disconnect my temporary antenna lead from my temporary antenna. A deer really must have tangled with it because I awakened to find a jumble of coax in the front yard and the other end was darn near pulled through the front door. I’m glad I had remembered to detach it from the radio or… well, let’s not even think about that.

The main part of this story started that spring when, as a fairly new ham, I was trying to get by on the cheap. Now, I suppose I could probably blame this whole mess on my friend Dennis O’Brien, KA0DOS, instead of on the deer because he was the one who kept after me to get my license and, even worse, he was the one who had given me my first wire dipole to string between two of my many, many trees and that’s why I needed the antenna lead running out the front door, across the porch and into the yard.

I figured if I was having fun with one 10-meter antenna, I could have even more fun with three so I added a 15-meter and a 20. I probably would have added one for 17 except that my vintage Kenwood TS 520 wouldn’t handle 17. My antenna feed line had alligator clips to attach it to the antenna. All the antennas were attached to different trees using an arrangement of bungee cords so I could pull each one down with a boat hook and undo the alligator clips to change the feed line from one antenna to the next. Just to keep it interesting I had both an RG-58 coax feed and a ladder line feed, with alligator clips, of course, so I could experiment.

The crazy thing was that it worked. I worked a lot of stations, both domestic and foreign, with the old 520 and that crazy tangle of feedlines and antennas.

The problem was that it didn’t look any better inside the cabin than it did outside and that was becoming a major problem. I’d gotten used to operating from the cabin. I’ve been an international station DXer for decades and the cabin was a perfect place to operate. The radio frequency electrical interference was just about zip. And Marilyn (XYL of 43 years) had gotten used to it because I had this nice little setup with a table for my communications receiver next to my recliner in the corner. A nice fat RG8U feedline ran up the wall behind a cabinet, through the attic and out the end of the cabin to my international band sloper antenna, which Marilyn had learned to tolerate. Not love but tolerate with the patience of an XYL who has lived through British sports cars, boat building, model railroading, model airplanes and who knows what else during all those years.

But this new passion was pushing her. I’d woven a Charlotte’s Web of copper wire through the trees and was trapping deer in the front yard. Well, only one and he got away. Worse, every time we walked in the cabin she was reminded that the tangle was not just outside in the trees. Like the fog on little cat feet it had crept into the cabin. When you walked through the front door, you used to see a carefully refinished, antique bamboo table with matching chairs. It was a nice piece that we’ve had for years but had vanished beneath the old Kenwood 520, antenna tuner, head set, and keyer. The matching chairs were becoming submerged beneath logbooks, manuals and paper. The legs were obscured behind the two coils of antenna lead which I should have put away but didn’t. It not only looked bad but it was bad.

Even worse, the chairs that matched the table were uncomfortable for a long day of operating. It’s bad enough to be ugly and cluttered but to also be uncomfortable is more than any ham should have to tolerate.

It began to dawn on me that I had a problem. No, I had a lot of problems.

I had an old radio that needed more patience to operate than I had left. Even if dipping the plate current is a question on the Extra Class Exam, I was tired of doing it. I wanted to be able to turn on, tune in and go.

My back was getting stiff after a long period of sitting in one of the antique chairs around the table and that was silly because my recliner was only a few feet away. There was that nice fat hunk of RG-8U coax terminating at my recliner and here I was running out the front door to rearrange RG 58 and I sure didn’t want to do that in the winter time, not in Iowa. Besides, what if that unhappy deer was still looking for me. He’d be growing antlers right about then.

Well, it had all been amusing but I was falling in love with amateur radio and it was time for a creative, bright guy to get to work and untangle this mess, relieve my sore back and, oh yes, save me from the deer.

The 520 went. It was replaced with a shiny, new Kenwood 570. The tangle of wires came out of the trees and they, along with the boat hook and the two coils of feed line complete with alligator clips, moved to the shed. The antenna tuner took up residence in the closet and a GAP Eagle vertical took root in the one location next to the cabin where it wouldn’t tangle in the trees that I love too much to cut or even trim. And the RG-8U that was already installed was able to tie the whole thing together in one complete package. Well, almost complete. In order to operate I still sat at the table just inside the front door where the clutter was the first thing you saw when you opened the cabin door and the chairs were still uncomfortable. But it was a start.

Now, how to finish it up and tie it together and have it stay that way. I sat back in my recliner with a yard stick. Remember them? Modern people use tape measures but a yard stick works better when you’re semi-reclined with your feet in the air and still trying to be accurate. It was time for some good old fashioned Imagineering. Some daydreaming, measuring, sketching and some time in the shop and the simple piece of furniture in the picture rolled out. Literally rolled. Everything fit just the way I wanted it. It all works the way I imagined and I think my CW has even improved by relaxing.

Marilyn has her table back and the clutter just inside the front door is gone. My back doesn’t hurt when I stand up after a few hours and I’m just about as happy as I can be. So the next time you hear “CQ CQ N0BV” and the guy really sounds laid back and relaxed, that’s because it’s me in my recliner. Try it yourself! Give your body a break because, believe me, it works.