Is Patience a Virtue?

Patience is the ability to endure difficult circumstances.

You've probably heard stories like the following. A ham operating with a small station in a small yard in a suburban neighbourhood has, after 50 years of effort, reached 300 DXCC countries on 160 meters. It doesn't have to be exactly this milestone but something similarly difficult like 9BDXCC, top of the DXCC honour roll, or a major award with QRP and a low dipole.

The common factor is the time required to get there. An achievement of this magnitude with one or more operating handicaps requires long years of patient effort. Each QSO is difficult, the propagation is seldom favourable, work and family obligations limit operating time and there may be only the occasional DXpedition for many of the target areas.

Are you impressed? Are these laudable pursuits? Consider that a ham with a big station can often do the same in 5 years or less. Is there virtue in spending a large fraction of your life with a minimal station to accomplish what another ham could do in a a fraction of the time and with less effort? 

There are some in the latter category who are dismissive of the long haulers and will gladly spout derogatory slogans such as "life is too short for QRP" or "work 'em fast and move on the next one". Big is the way to go for them. Is there an objective way to decide which category of ham is more correct or virtuous? Is the question ever asked in good faith, or is it only voiced with smug certainty? 

I know those in the former category, and they do not get upset when these views are expressed to their faces. Instead they just smile, smug in their belief that they understand something that others do not. Both would be wise to note what I said in an earlier article:

Never mistake a personal preference for a universal truth.

A pleasant homily, it would seem. Perhaps all I'm doing is drawing attention to my own biases! That said, let's pursue the matter further.

I enjoy operating QRP with small antennas. It can be tremendous fun to see what how much can be done with very little. I also enjoy heating the atmosphere with a kilowatt driving huge antennas and working the hordes during contests. What I don't enjoy is exclusively doing one or the other. I like variety.

So, no, I am not really impressed by stories like the ones I mentioned at the start of this article. Sitting there year after year, scouring the bands and waiting for the rare circumstances when I can put another check mark on my awards progress. That would make me feel like the fictional Casey immortalized in a famous poem standing at the plate and waiting for the perfect pitch. 

Expect to strike out more often than not. Self confidence can easily become or seen by others as smugness.

Of course no major award should be easy -- there's no challenge in that! But neither should the pursuit of operating objectives become drudgery or (if that term is offensive) a pursuit of some kind of Zen enlightenment. Which of the following strategies do you feel is more virtuous:

1. Wait for the perfect pitch: dependence on external circumstances, such as propagation, to be favourable.
2. Hasten success: reliance on one's own ingenuity and effort, such as by building a better station, and thereby decrease dependence on outside forces.
   

Challenge, yes, but one I can meet with a combination of circumstance and my own ingenuity. I feel good when I get through a DX pile-up with the aid of operating skills I've spent years learning and using towers and antennas I've designed and built myself.

I do not feel as happy when I'm simply lucky working the rare DX. I would also feel no accomplishment by paying to rent a super-station via internet remote. Others feel differently and that's okay. We all have our preferences.

Patience may be a virtue but, to lean on another homily, practice it in moderation. There is no shame in the ambition to improve your station to more speedily reach your objectives and, indeed, to reach previously unachievable objectives. That said, I commend those limited to small stations, whether by taste or means, who hone their skills and exploit technology (e.g. digital modes) and other aids to accelerate progress towards their goals. 

Patience may be a virtue but it can become complacency: an excuse to justify the avoidance of learning and building. If you're patient it may be time to push yourself out of your comfort zone and try something different. There is much to be gained. Good things rarely come to those who are merely content to wait.