Any Other Pipe Smoking Amateur Radio Operators Here?

[shikano53]

I'm just wondering if you smoke your pipe around all your equipment.

VE6ENR

 

[mso489]

Not a ham radio operator. I was really interested as a high school student, and visited Healthkit in Chicago on a field trip. Never took the Technician or General test. The Navy trained me as a Radioman, which was a job rating (category) for many decades but is now defunct because of the merging of radio technology with computer technology and satellite technology. I went to Basic Electricity Electronics School, Radioman A School, and Morse Code School (I was not gifted, but passed, possibly on a social promotion). Got all of the radio experience I wanted standing the watch midnight to 8 a.m. (24:00 to 08:00) in the South China Sea and Gulf of Tonkin, and across the Mid-Pacific. The second half of my Navy hitch I was permitted to use my university degree in journalism doing a "newspaper" and TV news on "metropolitan" Midway Island, part of the Hawaiian chain, but as far from Honolulu as New York City is from Omaha. A senior enlisted corpsman there used a citizens band radio to bounce a signal off cloud formations and talk to people in the continental U.S.

 

[shikano53]

You have been to a lot of places that is for sure.

I have an old Heathkit station sitting on my pipe table.

 

[joshb]

ki4mxo here. The only radios i have set up in the home QTH at the moment is my little Kenwood 2m rig and my Hammarlund HQ 129-X. Everything else is put away due to space. I try not to smoke around them too much. My mobile station is a different story though. 73 all

 

[mso489]

When I stayed up all night aboard ship, mostly alone with a compartment full of radio gear and teletypes (that dates me) the radio frequencies came to have personalities. I would have to shift from one broadcast station to another to keep clear signals -- Guam, Kodiak, San Diego. If you dropped the signals completely, you had nothing coming in until you found a good signal. Three or more times a night (depending on messages) I made the trek on the weather decks to the bridge with the message boards and a flashlight.

 

[mayfair70]

I'm not a radio operator, but I do have tube equipment which is now filthy from me smoking around it. Waiting for them to catch on fire. An electrical engineer I know said to never smoke around electronics as it causes short-circuits. I'm not a good listener.

 

[shikano53]

MSO, I would enjoy sitting down with you and enjoying a bowl together while you shared some of your sea stories.
KI4MXO, I no longer have any mobile or 2m equipment. My HF equipment is an old tube style Kenwood TS-830S. I've had a lot of solid state gear but always seem to come back to my old boat anchors. Have run a lot of digital modes, RTTY, AMTOR.
Mayfair70, you nailed it alright. That is what I was wondering.

I'm thinking that there are a lot of pipe smoker's who have a lot of electronic equipment in one form or another who smoke around their equipment.

73

VE6ENR

 

[pylorns]

KF5DMM checking in - don't have any equipment except a handitalky right now... when PAD and TAD leave me alone I'm going to setup a nice base station in my workshop.

 

[pylorns]

Also speaking of old tube radios.. this is mine:

 

[radio807]

I smoke in the room where my equipment is located, but I don't smoke while sitting at the operating position. I smoke on the opposite side of the room right under a window where my exhaust fan is located. The smoke goes right out the window and it never gets near the equipment.
73,

Jim

WA2MER

 

[shikano53]

pylorns, nice antique piece of radio.
Jim, I would like to be able to install a vent fan in my radio/smoke room. I have been thinking about it and looking for fans. How many cfm is yours and does it remove all of the fumes?
73

Chris

VE6ENR

 

[radio807]

Hi Chris:
Here's a photo of my smoking area. The fan is simply an inexpensive window fan that does the job quite well I have no idea of its CFM spec. Given the strength of the fan and my relatively close proximity to it while smoking, there's no residual odor in the room. I leave the fan run for about 10 minutes after I'm done smoking in order to clear everything out. My operating desk sits about 10 feet from the fan, on the opposite wall. Hope this helps.

 

[fetidbog]

KE5QMV here. Haven't been active on the air in a couple of years. Don't smoke around equipment since I don't smoke inside.

There are a couple of HAM operators that post on YouTube that are pipe smokers as well.

73!

 

[oldtxbeardedguy]

KC4QNW here.

Elecraft K2 (QRP).

Only smoke on the porch or patio. Have seen some electronics that were exposed to extreme tobacco smoke. Not a pretty sight at all.

 

[htmn246]

Back in the 70's I was WN7LPD however finances and divorce put an end to that hobby but I'm getting ready to try again. I smoked at my station all the time.