This article was written for This Week in Amateur Radio by Bill Continelli, W2XOY, who also wrote the Wayback Machine series.

RADIO BIORHYTHMS

For those hams who were around in the 1970's, the word "biorhythm" probably rings a bell. What is a biorhythm? Well, about 30 or so years ago, a concept developed that postulated the theory that certain aspects of your life move in cycles. Each of us has three internal clocks, the Physical, Emotional, and Intellectual, that started ticking on the day of our birth. Each clock started on the positive portion of the cycle, peaked, slowly decayed, and crossed the baseline into the negative part of the cycle. The body then recharged, and the biorhythm then passed back into the positive region. Numerous books and articles were written about BIORHYTHMS, and how to manipulate them for maximum effect.

Many people believed that there was also a fourth biorhythm???the Intuitive. I've taken it a step further; there is a fifth???the Radio Biorhythm.

If you have been a ham for 10 or more years, you know what I'm talking about. Remember that day when you got your first license, and your first radio? If you could have been on the air 24/7, you would have. You celebrated each QSO, you attended every club meeting and every hamfest, and you devoured each issue of QST, 73, CQ, and Popular Communications you could find. Gradually, almost imperceptibly, you cut back. You were on the air less and less, you attended fewer meetings, and subscriptions started to expire. Then one day you realized that the radios were covered in dust, or buried under piles of junk, as you spent your free time hunting, playing with your stamp collection, or on the computer. Maybe you felt a twinge of guilt as you looked at the neglected hamshack. Or maybe you felt irritated that these radios were taking up valuable space. Chances are you came back, either gradually, via a few 2 meter QSO's, or with a vengeance, reappearing on every frequency, in every mode, at all hours of the day and night. For some, the negative part of the cycle was too deep, they never returned.

In my 35 years as a ham, I've had some fairly big positive peaks, and some pretty deep negative swings. But I'm still here. And I've learned to minimize the negative swing. How? By using the two "V"'s, Visibility and Variety.

Visibility???ALWAYS keep the radios handy. Carry a dual band HT where ever you go. Make sure the mobile rig is in good shape. Even if you moved, or are in a temporary location, and the HF rig is packed away, keep a portable shortwave radio, like the Grundig Yacht Boy 400, accessible at all times. Likewise, make sure there's a scanner by your bedside. The idea is NEVER to be more than 20 feet away from a radio. I've developed the questionable habit of keeping almost every radio I've ever owned, so I have plenty of radios spread around the house. My 13 year old Alinco DJ?180 2 meter HT has taken up permanent residence in the master bathroom. It's provided me hours of QSO's while I did my business. The kitchen has a Kenwood TH?235, another Alinco sits in the living room, and one of my two Yaesu FT?50's sits by the computer, tuned to 146.79 or 145.17, as I type. You get the idea.

Variety??? When the hobby gets boring, try something different. Tired of driving around locked onto the same 2 meter repeater? Go HF mobile. Check into ECARS (7255 kHz) or MIDCARS (7258 kHz). Or, drive to a sparsely populated county, get on the county hunters net (14,336 kHz) and become rare DX. Work 10 meters, get a 10?10 number. Play around with 10 meter FM, key up repeaters 1500 miles away. Introduce yourself to 6 meters, and work dozens of stations during a sporadic E opening. Build a simple kit. Buy ancient tube equipment at hamfests or on e?bay, and restore them. Convert a CB radio to 10 meters. Get on 75 meters AM. Build and fly radio controlled airplanes. The possibilities are endless.

On occasions, I've tuned outside the ham bands; either scanning the VHF, UHF and Aircraft bands, or tuning the shortwave spectrum for broadcast and utility stations. It's not really ham radio, but it does keep the biorhythm cycle on the positive side of the baseline.

How long does a radio biorhythm cycle last? Anywhere from a few weeks to 47 years. That's right, 47 years. I was paging through some old CQ magazines, and ran across an article about a ham who became inactive in 1958. Incredibly, he kept renewing his license every time, but wasn't on the air until now, when he bought a full line of HF, VHF & UHF equipment, put up antennas, and got back on the air. I hope he's around another 47 years to enjoy the positive side of his cycle.

This is Bill Continelli, W2XOY, for "This Week in Amateur Radio".