[CQ-Contest] Do you have A/C in your shack?

[Bill Coleman]

Here in Georgia, A/C is a necessity for survival in the summer.

However, I did operate for nearly four years out of a storage closet off a carport that did not have A/C, although I did manage to heat it using a small space heater. I wrote about it in my blog:
http://boringhamradiopart.blogspot.com/2015/06/farewell-to-micro-shack.html

“The Micro-Shack wasn't always the most inviting place. In the wintertime, it could be quite cold. The digital thermometer would sometimes read about 45 degrees F on the coldest days. However, a small space heater would warm things up in a half-hour or so. Summertime was much tougher. When it is hot in Georgia, it is hot. I could open the door and run a floor fan to cool things down a bit -- but in the height of summer, it would just blow hot air around. I don't know how I operated contests such as Field Day or IARU in the heat of the summer.

The Micro-Shack wasn't convenient, either. Feel the call of nature? Well, you have to go out of the storage room and walk to the house. More than once I was outside operating late at night and my family would lock the door. Perhaps they were trying to tell me something. I told my wife the next place should definitely have a shack where you don't have to walk out of doors to get to the operating position.”

Sometimes, I miss that place. 

> On Jul 27, 2021, at 10:22 AM, ve9aa at nbnet.nb.ca wrote:
> 
> Keep in mind when reading the following, I am from the Maritimes and have lived
> all my life in VO2, VO1, VE1 and VE9....so I don't do the high temps well ;-)
> 
> During the recent IARU contest I think this was the first time I  *ever*  really
> stopped operating due to heat/humidity.  I laid my head down "for a few minutes"
> and woke up 5.5hrs later. Oof !
> 
> My el-cheapo thermometer on the desk next to my keyboard said it was 31.5*C
> (88.8*F)...I don't recall what the humidity was in the house,(probably a bit
> lower than outside)  but outside was up to 94% at 11pm according to Environment
> Canada.
> 
> I QRT'd not long after midnight, shattered from the "heat".
> 
> So....has anyone installed A/C in their shack? How did you like it? Run it every
> contest? Only in the summer?
> 
> Y'day I bought a teeny-tiny window A/C unit ~5000btu (on sale at that) and will
> hopefully once installed, will try it out next contest,  assuming no QRM/RFI. 
> Living way out in the country. I like a quiet RX.
> 
> I think in my mid-late 50's, I am finally getting soft.
> 
> In the winter, I just turn my shack heat off and sometimes even open a window.
> In the summer, I often operate LP or QRP....
> In the IARU, with HP SO2R it was pretty warm and my shack is very very small.
> 
> What has been your experience with heat/humidity while operating? (doesn't have
> to have been in YOUR shack)
> 
> Tnx !
> 
> --
> Mike VE9AA
> 
>  
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Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL        Mail: aa4lr at arrl.net
Web: http://boringhamradiopart.blogspot.com
Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
            -- Wilbur Wright, 1901