[CQ-Contest] : Physics of 2 Keyboard SO2R

[ve9aa at nbnet.nb.ca]

Just a follow up.  I bought a bunch of 2x4's last week and made a cradle out of
them and attached them to my desk (underneath) and lifted
the entire thing (loaded) an inch or so off the floor with my big motorcycle
jack and sawed off the bottom of the 5-legs on the beast.
It was a little "tippy-canoe" for a bit, but once I had 4 jack stands underneath
it, all went well with attaching the new feet.(not wheels!)

The old metal/plastic/rubber casters were flat on the bottom (that's what you
get for putting 500+ lbs on something for 17 years) and
so it's no wonder I could never roll the thing anywhere after about the first
year.

The new desk height is roughly 29.6" give/take.  It is a little bit adjustable
and I may go up another 1/2" in the future, but it's a whole procedure to do
that, so I am going to try it at its new height for a few contests and see if I
can adapt.

Just messing around in the CWT's and on VHF and whatnot, I am liking the new
height and hopefully my neck/shoulders will thank me.

The take-away from all this was that I already had a GOOD height picked out when
I built the thing 17 yrs ago and I never should've installed casters at the very
last minute.  A lot of times, last minute changes don't work out so well.

Cheers

Mike VE9AA


 Thanks for your thoughts Dmitri, Frank, Steve, Mark and others.  I remember ~17
yrs ago when I built this huge multi-layered desk (you can see part of it on my
qrz.com page) that I made it so the surface was @ 29.375” and then at the very
last minute, when it was still being built, I (stupidly) put 2.625” tall wheels
on it.  There’s not even any room to move it anywhere in the shack, so there it
sits.  Landlocked with wheels.  So now it’s 32” high.   I read on an old thread
here from 2012 that 29-31” surface height is ideal.

 

  I think that is only part of the problem however as I usually don’t get too
sore in contests looking at my one screen at an optimal height.  It’s doing the
Chubby<Mike>Checker twisting motion doing 2BSIQ that I only ever notice it.
(exacerbated by the desk height of 32” which is too tall for a short guy like
me I think)

 

I can no longer really access the bottom of the legs/posts because the desk
with all equipment probably weighs 300-500lbs, and the bottom of the feet are
only 2.5” off the ground due to the wheels, so what I think I’ll do as a first
step is modify the desk to be jacked up with my Harley motorcycle jack, saw the
bottoms of the legs off (wheels still attached) and then install furniture
leveler (feet) so that I can make it height adjustable from about 28.725” - 30”
in the future .(maybe even 28.5”- 29.75”)

 

I know this won’t 100% solve the problem, but it’s a good first step and is
sure to help.

 

I do have a 2-tiered wooden footstool I made, under the desk I use when
contesting.

 

My mouse is very small (1/2 the size of normal mice) and I endeavour to never
(ok, vy seldom) use it during a contest, but at times I do get bored as the CQ
machine does its thing and will go off and browse email or see where the sun is
near Japan or whatever, or a window will overlap another window in N1MM+, so do
use it a little). I did try putting it on top of the right radio, but I didn’t
notice any difference of having the KB’s 2 or 3” closer and it was always a
pain to reach up for the mouse…. I do have paddles up on top of the right radio
but only use them very seldom.

 

Mark, in a previous life I was a taxi dispatcher and got used to using the #
pad for entering #’s all day long, so would hate to lose this…especially in
serial # contests like CQWPX…..although you do make a good point.

 

Another thing someone suggested privately is learn to type on the left KB with
my left hand and the right with my right.  Hmmm, I hadn’t given that much
thought, but it’s a “maybe” if lowering the desk makes no real difference.

 

VE9AA

 

Mike, Coreen & Corey

Keswick Ridge, NB