[VHFcontesting] Portable operation for Seniors, not just beginners

[jon jones]

Some of us are now becoming "senior citizens" also enter the Single Operator Portable category. This involves setting up a VHF/UHF station "Field Day" style portable outdoors.  The same issues Wayne discusses such as climbing a step ladder, putting up a portable mast(s), wrestling with antennas and feed lines, setting up radios,  hoisting and loading gear, etc come into play in the portable category as well. Some of Wayne's suggestions may help senior entrants in this category.
For me, having one radio "box" with all the bands I plan to use as opposed to a "rats nest" of connectors between transverter boxes is a real plus. In the QRP Portable category, having separate yagis for  6, 2, 222, 432, 902 and 1296 MHz on a mast, while getting more and more difficult for aging hands to put up, gives a portable station a better, more competitive signal. Simple multi-band antennas such as the "WA5VJB PC-board log periodic Yagi" Wayne mentions that works on five bands (902 MHz through 5.7 GHz) may make portable antenna deployment easier.
Perhaps Wayne or others on this list may have suggestions for senior entrants in the s/o portable category?
 - Jon N0JK
>From N6NB - A roving for seniors, not just beginners

> That's true, but it was designed for the other end of the spectrum:  senior 
> citizens who may have 50+ years experience in amateur radio.  Some of 
> us are now finding it difficult to climb a ladder and then hoist anything 
> bulky onto a car roof.  Climbing a ladder while carrying a "toolbox" 
> station aloft seems much harder than it was just a few years ago.