The Big C

[w8khk]

I am joining the group.  I was diagnosed with cancer in September 2014.   I had regular diagnostics all year.  In September 2015 the diags indicated the cancer was agressive, no more waiting and monitoring.  I started Chemo in November, and will get my second dose Jan 4.  I will also undergo radiation therapy for two to three months daily starting in early February.

I have taken steps to move my ham shack and lab to a guest room on the main floor so that i will not have to do the steps to the basement several times a day.  I have made an ugly link coupled tuner to go with the 40M KW rig, but have not yet finished the exciter.    I wish I could have that big rig on the air, especially for the heavy metal rally, but I missed it again this year.  

I will do chemo for at least a year, and radiation for two to three months startingi early February.  When able, I will keep active in amateur radio.  My antennas are in good shape now, as long as the weather does not destroy them.  I have an eighty meter dipole with OWL and an ugly Link couplled tuner, and a fifteen meter home brew yagi on a forty foot tower, so I should be able to be active soon.  I have taken steps to convert the guest room to a lab and hamshack so I do not have to do stairs every day during the radiation therapy.  Hopefully I will be back on the air soon.  It will be great tlo do some actual QSOs instead of only keeping in touch via AMfone forum.  Hopefully I will be in contact with many of the folks here on the forum soon.  In a year or so I should be cured if all goes as the doctors expect.  Thanks for all your support

Rick, W8KHK

[Opcom]

I'm glad the prognosis is good. The fact they have a 1 year plan plan is good.  The uglier the tuner the better some times! I'm glad you will stay active on the radio and moving the stuff to a convenient place is good idea. My brother Scott had chemo for a year after surgery and it was hard physically some times for him to exert energy. If your KW is in the basement, You can remote it to some degree, right? Someone had a CCTV setup to read meters. I treasure all the people on the board in radio range or not.

[flintstone mop]

Rick
Very sorry to read this. Glad to hear that you have moved the shack upstairs knowing that there are going to be down days and how you are configuring the setup ............but if it's not too personal, more about your situation. If you read down further, You'll see my situation. The BIG C SUX.......and I hope your outlook is better than mine. Mine is still cloudy. I do not know the future and the outcome. Many cycles to the hospital and chemo. Good days and bad days.
So Pls tell us more or we can chat about the medical in PM.

FRED KC4MOP ......A really great way to start the year......But you should know WHO is really in charge.

[w4bfs]

so sorry to hear this ... sounds like you have a good oncologist and attitude for the struggle ... prayers are directed your way and best wishes ...John

[N2DTS]

Sorry to hear!
I have a lump in one lung that could get me at any time so I know about the worry.

Radio is a good hobby though, you can even run an sdr or small rig into an amp and have fun.
A Gonset G76 next to the armchair seems cozy...

[W7TFO]

I've lived through it.  You will too.

73DG

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Thoughts and prayers with you, Rick, and best of luck. As has been said many times, attitude plays a big role in the process, and you seem to have a realistic, optimistic approach which is more than half the battle.

Will look for you on 40m with my 100 watt rig.

[w1vtp]

Yes, Rick, trust you will go into full remission. Good planning!  It's very important that we all give a nod to our mortality and make plans for future operation on the radio.  It's really sad when I hear of a ham who had been very active put his ham station up for sale 'cause he can no longer get through it or has moved to an assisted living living situation

GL, Al

[W3GMS]

So sorry Rick to hear the troubles your having.  Looks like your taking steps in keeping active with the things you enjoy doing and that's the way to style your life for sure.   

Looks like the treatment plan is well defined and you know the steps to recovery. 

Best wishes to you and I look forward talking to you when you get on the air. 

73,
Joe-W3GMS 

[Carl WA1KPD]

Rick
Best of luck and patience to you. And good fro you for getting the rig etc all set up. May the year go fast aand the treatments be as successful as the Docs indicate.
Carl
/KPD

[w8khk]

Thanks EVERYONE for the kind words of encouragement and support.  I have  been feeling pretty down and depressed due to the meds, but I am feeling better now.  I was able to spend the New Year holiday with very close friends down in Warner Robins, and I apologize for the delayed acknowledgement.

I have to go for another dose of meds on Monday morning, and I am led to believe that the effects will not be near as severe as the first dose. I have a close friend from high school, a retired doctor, coming to be with me for the first week or so while I adjust to the meds.

I have been trying to keep busy with ham radio projects that keep my mind and body occupied, but I can spend only a small portion of each day on this because I feel tired and drained a lot of the time.  Here is a summary of some of the things in the works.  I hope too be able to share some pictures and narrative on the projects as they progress....

In the upstairs guest room, in addition to the original un-grounded 15 amp receptacle, I have added two 120v 20a circuits, one under the table and one above for convenience.  Also, in case I get ambitious, I have added a 240v 30a circuit.  I have four coax runs, two RG-6 with type F connectors, for cable modem and either dish or cable tv, and two RG-8 terminated in SO-239 feed-thrus with elbow connectors in the wall, connected to the PL-259 on the RG-8 cable; (I really prefer N connectors, but I installed what I had on hand) this allows me to patch into cables to the 15M beam and the 2M/70CM vertical on top of the tower, or the tuner to the 80M OWL dipole.  I have not yet run a rotator control cable.  Next to the top 120v receptacle is a trio of RJ-45 connectors with CAT-5 cable for 10/100 and gigabit LAN to the downstairs router and network switches.

The link coupled balanced tuner with 1/4" copper tubing is finished and tested, I will share pictures later. 

The 75/40 exciter has all the metal work completed and all large components and sockets mounted, ready for wiring.  I found a chassis that just fits in an old Heath SB-400 cabinet, and I cut a 3/16" thick panel and punched it for meters and all controls.  The fun part is the wiring and testing.  Will include pics of that later too. 

In the meantime I have been occupying my time learning to work with the Arduino MicroController.  I have not worked with C or C++ since I retired, almost ten years ago.  It is coming back to me, and my brother-in-law has given me a crash course to get me started.  I have a working power line monitor that reports issues and outages via both email and SMS text messages via WIFI using the Arduino compatible ESP-8266-7 chip; this is now functional.  I have also on breadboard a functional DDS VFO using the AD-9850 and the Arduino Nano processor.  I am working on the software to add convenience features so that I can use it as both the transmitter VFO and receiver local oscillator, making it easy to zero-beat on the net frequency. 

If I get really ambitious, I have been thinking about putting stepper motors on the ugly link coupled tuner and using an arduino to remotely drive the steppers with rotary encoders, and maybe eventually make it work in auto-tune mode.

So I have lots to keep me occupied and hope to be on the air with the Viking II and 75A3 in the near future. 

Thanks again for all the support, Lots of wonderful folks on this forum!

[Steve - K4HX]

Good luck with your treatment. Your attitude is inspiring!