A new resource such as Passport was always an incentive to turn on a radio.
Do You Need a Break from Radio?
by Bob Colegrove
A couple months ago I became one of the last 10 people east of the Mississippi River to acquire a smart phone. It was a great improvement for someone who had been trying to navigate through modern life for several years using a flip phone. The transition came at a cost, however. It required an investment of time learning the basic features and functionality. Having a long-standing familiarity with computers and tablets, there was a degree of experience I could draw from. Still, it was different, plus it included new features I found to be amazing and demanding of my attention.
Not long after this I was informed by Microsoft that I would soon be needing a new computer to remain safe and functional. Having logged on to a mainframe for the first time in September 1976, I had been around the block too many times to be greatly alarmed by such warnings. Nevertheless, having not purchased a new computer since 2014, I decided to use this information as leverage to do just that and treat myself to a new laptop. The basic features and functionality remained similar; however, the transition still required time to find where they had been relocated. An operating system upgrade is kind of like buying a new car and finding the steering wheel in the trunk and the spare tire in the front seat.
These new technological acquisitions demanded my undivided attention for a period of several weeks – time which had to be carved out of life’s normal activities. Admittedly, being retired helped. Still activity tends to progressively slow with age. The transitions were completed relatively painlessly; I would even say with a good level of discovery and enjoyment.
I told you all of that in order to tell you this: While all this transpired, not a radio functioned for several weeks. Neither a knob was turned nor a button pressed. Notwithstanding the newly enhanced forces of 5G and Wi-Fi, the world could have stood still. Not once, but many times during this period I would look over at the radio table and see them all silently looking back like so many forelorn puppies in want of a scratch behind their ears. Coldly and cruelly, I would turn my back and set up another email account.
I was on what is simply called a “break.” Not my first. I am hard-pressed to say how many breaks I’ve been on over the years; nor can I tell you how long each one lasted. I am reassured by my fellow radiofiles that I am not alone. I occasionally read comments or blogs from folks who have returned after a break, sometimes after several years.
In the old days tinkering could reignite flagging interest.
Breaks may be caused by many things, the increased burdens of life being the most obvious. Maybe there is illness. Seasonal changes can initiate a break; it’s just good to be outside when the air is fresh and warm. It might be an increased level of boredom where one simply neglects to turn the radio on. In my case, it was an irresistible distraction like a new gadget. I have never consciously told myself I needed a break and turned the radio off for a planned length of time. It has never ever become a matter of work to operate a radio. Perhaps that’s how you know you’ve been irrevocably hooked.
We all come back – eventually. It’s in our DNA. Are breaks bad? No. Every human endeavor requires a break now and then. Sportspersons hang up their spikes or sneakers for six months at a time every year. The idea is they come back refreshed and renewed ready again to conquer the mountain. While success may be illusive, it is the break that provides the incentive to go on. So it is with radio.
I could spend hours to the point of ignoring meals attentively getting a dial cord to run smoothly.
Source : The National NC109 Communications Receiver.
Eventually you turn the radio on with renewed enthusiasm. Perhaps you recall a previous discovery, an untried band, a different time of day, a new tuning technique, a suggestion of something you read or heard. Maybe it’s a new radio, or one you haven’t used for a long time. Maybe it’s just the attraction of the dial and buttons that draws you back. These are some of the sparks that reignite your interest.
Eventually, the initial flash of enthusiasm for the new phone and computer subsided. Sound again emanates from the headsets. What was old is new again. Regardless of why you went away or how long you’ve been gone; you’ve got that old feeling and you’re back.
Do radio designers try to attract us with appearance?
I found an example from the workd of particle physics:
https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2025/05/on-importance-of-taking-break.html
73 Bill N2CQR
There is a real danger in NOT taking a break: Dean KK4DAS and I have both had nightmares about trying (obstinately) to fix a rig or a circuit. In the nightmare we just keep at it… until we find ourselves with a completely bare copper-clad board and a large pile of de-soldered parts. Take a break! 73 Bill N2CQR
Sort of a corrollary of this would be the break that you take when you want to fix something but can’t quite ID the problem. Before you get terribly frustrated, you should put the thing on a shelf, take walk, read a book, watch a movie, or something like that. Leave it on the shelf for a day or so. Often, the solution will come to you during this “break.” Then you can go back and fix the problem. This sounds silly, but there is actually a lot of evidence that shows this kind of break really helps.
73 Bill N2CQR
Exactly!! This worked for me countless times. Gets you into the right frame of mind.
Recommend reading something not related to the problem.
Bill, Michael,
You make a very valid point. I have had the opportunity to apply it a few times. About six months ago I tried to replace the encoder in my highly valued Tecsun PL-660. After working at it for some time, try as I might, it just would not work. I reassembled everything and put it high on the shelf in the workshop. There it sat for about three or four months. I would occasionally look at it and wonder if I would ever get it working. At one point I even thought of scrapping it. Then one day an unexplained wave of enthusiasm and determination overcame me, and I decided to give it another go. I took several deep cleansing breaths, opened the case, and quickly discovered what appeared to be a simple solder bridge between two encoder leads. After a quick, delicate touch of the iron, I had a fully functional radio. An old friend has been brought back from a near-death experience.
Bill, the situation you describe is really a thing.
It happens to me when I am frustrated that a repair project is not going on well. Then I have to leave the thing behind and clear my head (and my desk) off off it.
Else I get crazy and perhaps I do some damage.
But after leaving the project for a while the solution often comes just by itself and I am lucky not to depend financially on those repairs so the result can take it’s time.
Breaks are importand to do something else and to jog or refresh the mindset. There is much more fun in many tasks after a solid break 🙂
73 de Stefan DL1AV
Taking a walk as a deliberate step to “un-stick” your thinking on a problem has an extensive history.
Einstein did not stand in front of a chalk board while pondering “Relativity” he went on long hikes through the Swiss Alps with a friend more gifted in “Rieman Geometry” than he was.
Charles Darwin would take circular walks through his garden moving pebbles to tally each completed circle (and his impish children would remove some pebbles)
Thomas Jefferson believed in taking daily walks no matter how bad the weather.
In particular to radios, having a working example “twin” to sit side by side is vastly helpful and consider buying such a twin off eBay and then re-selling it if all other options of a free one seem blocked.
I wonder if you instruct A.I. to examine an schematic, can it then advise you what component would cause a symptom of improper operation?
Bob,
It saddens me that you have departed from the True Faith: the Sacred Retrocrank Brotherhood of the Flip Phone.
I would give you a call, but my steam-powered, coal-fired flip phone tells me there is not enough pressure in the boiler yet.
Your comments on operating system changes — “An operating system upgrade is kind of like buying a new car and finding the steering wheel in the trunk and the spare tire in the front seat.” (You observe well, sir) — cracked me up so hard that I had to read them aloud to my wife.
After Passport ceased publication, I had a break of roughly a decade from AM, FM, and SWL listening (except in the car, of course), while I continued running the Commuter Assistance Net on ham radio. Now the siren call of listening has captured me again.
Thanks for your excellent observations.
Cheers, Jock
Jock,
I have not had the opportunity to comment on your most recent posts. You always garner lots of interest from the group. Your homespun humor and warm-hearted attitude shine through. Keep ‘em coming.