An Idle Super-station

We are experiencing a major thaw this week. The snow is deep, it's been cold, I had a bad cold, and my personal life has been very busy. That limited my ability to operate (and contest) or to progress many projects. But with the nice weather I did my first tower climbs of the season today -- aligning masts that slipped during a February wind storm.

There has been slow progress but nothing worth reporting. I am eager to see the snow recede so that it is possible to do more outside. It is time to shrug off the lethargy of the winter blahs and become re-energized for the coming season. The burden of family duties is finally receding and that will free up more of my time.

It seems strange to some hams I speak with how much time my station sits idle. Some days it isn't powered up at all, not even to monitor FT8. So many towers and big antennas idle and silent. Is that wrong? Is it a waste? Why go to the effort of building a big station and not use it every spare moment that I have? I'm retired, there's time enough to operate.

There are a couple of reasons. First, I am not often interested in chatting on the air. I've never been into rag chewing or even longer QSOs since I'm an introvert. Indeed, that was how I got into contesting when I was a new ham -- lots of contacts and DX without having to chat. The second reason, is that building the station has always been the objective, not so much using it myself. For many hams the communications is the objective and all the other stuff -- putting up antennas, figuring out transceivers -- is a necessary obstacle to overcome. For me the operating puts an exclamation point on my building efforts that confirms that I've built well.

I've been asked by a several hams to remote my station so that they and others can use it when I'm not. That is not so easy with a complicated station like mine. It also doesn't satisfy my own interests. The conversion could be accelerated with commercial equipment -- thus lessening the time burden -- but I prefer to home brew my own control systems. I do it because I can and it is what I enjoy. That means no remote capability in the foreseeable future. Guest operators have to travel to my QTH.

Regardless of how many hours I put in, how am I using the station when I decide to operate?

• Contests, either casual or serious: Those are weekend affairs and there may only be one per month in which I make a notable number of contacts. That includes the majors like CQ WW CW & SSB.
• DX chasing: I am not a serious award chaser. Indeed, I've never applied for DXCC even though I've qualified for many categories and endorsements based on LoTW confirmations alone. I will work hard to log the rare ones, while I'll play games with the rest. For example, using 100 watts or less to see how well my skills and big antennas compete in the pile ups
• Practice: I am a good operator, but to stay good I can't just operate during contests. From time to time I'll turn on the amp, aim the stacks at Europe or Japan and generate a small pile up. Although I do it at less than contest speed, paddle time is paramount to remaining fluent at CW. I find that a continuous period of sending text (not just 599 73) is needed to reduce my error rate when it counts. I don't seem to need the receive practice as much. I've tried MorseRunner and similar tools but I find them too boring for serious practice. I prefer to get my practice on the air.
• Propagation: I enjoy exploring propagation and big antennas help with that. Whether it's searching for elusive openings on 160 and 6 meters, unexpected or rare long path openings, aurora and occasionally meteor scatter, it's all very fascinating. CQing into a seemingly dead band can have surprising results. Often when I not operating I'll leave the station monitoring 50.313 MHz or 1840 kHz (depending on time and season) to spot unusual and unexpected DX. 
• Using what I build: I never build and forget. Whether it's an antenna, BPF, rotator controller or other equipment, an important part of the pleasure comes from making use of what I build. That's true whether I design and build from scratch or assemble a kit. I am not a natural designer so there has to be that payback to incentivize me to put in the time and effort. The incentive is seeing an on air benefit, such as higher contest scores.

Is that a long enough list? It is for me. Every ham has their individual motivations to get on the air.

It is likely that my interests will change. When I am less able to climb towers my focus will need to change. In any case, I don't intend to grow the station too far beyond where it is now. Age brings inevitable changes to our lives. Maybe at the next solar maximum around 2035 I'll be more into chatting since I will have less ability to undertake major projects. It is even possible that I'll remote the station and live an easier life elsewhere!

But for now I build. Although I have been sidelined by many things lately, there has been some progress. Technical articles have been lacking lately since few projects have reached completion. Here's a quick rundown of the projects that I'm actively working on. Expect articles when each crosses the finish line.

• The prop pitch motor (rotator) controller is essentially complete. Unfortunately that does not include the interface to the power supply. There is cabling and testing yet to be done. The software is far enough advanced that I can use it as is and improve it after the new controller is installed.
• I have resumed work on the 40 meter reversible Moxon. I am working on the element trusses and the switching system. It'll be a few more weeks before I'm ready to raise it for testing and tuning.
• I am designing and will soon begin construction of a swing gate side mount. The first will be for either the lower 5-element 15 meter yagi or for a new 17/12 meter yagi which I have designed but not yet built. If the swing gate works well I'll build another.
• My small chainsaw died. It has been replaced so I've resumed tree clearing. The snow got so deep and the weather so cold and windy this winter that I cut down far few trees than planned. I need to get it done before the ticks emerge. I also need to clear trees along the Beverage lines since spring will soon be upon us and I won't be able to access the bush again until fall.

While I keep busy with ham and non-ham projects, my station will remain mostly idle. I'm okay with that.