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Author Topic: Anyone standing to operate?  (Read 624 times)

NEVBEN

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Anyone standing to operate?
« on: February 09, 2021, 04:45:26 PM »

I was just reading the "table or desk" thread and wanted to bring up standing, but it's more than 60 days ripe so I was prompted to start a new thread.

It's been said that "sitting is the new smoking."  This comes from correlation rather than causation.  Essentially, sitting is associated with sedentary lifestyle and sedentary lifestyle is associated with a truckload of morbidity.  There's an avalanche of studies that shows the correlation between sitting and disease.  I suspect, however, that just standing still instead of sitting still won't help much.  The people that represent the better outcomes in the studies are doing more than not sitting.  They're active.

Even so, standing can help overcome the inertia of sitting.  If I'm already standing, it's easy to step away and do something else because I don't even have to get up.  If I'm already sitting, it's easier to remain sitting.

Standing desks aren't that radical anymore.  They've been pretty trendy for about 10 years now.  I remember back around the Y2K era there was a lot of stuff going around about repetitive stress disorders and carpal tunnel syndrome.  I was pretty young at the time and not too sympathetic.  I saw most of it as a bunch of worker's comp and disability fraud, but I remember the army of ergonomic consultants that came up and started prescribing low work surfaces, reams of paper under the monitor stand, expensive chairs and butterfly keyboards.  I started WFH about 2013, so I missed the second wave of consultants that came around and told the companies to buy standing desks and the workers to get off their asses.  I was just sitting at the kitchen table with my laptop.

My workstation has evolved over the years.  I'm not in the kitchen any more.  The first thing to go was actually the desk.  I realized it served only to hold the monitors and clutter and it didn't even hold the monitors high enough (remember the reams of paper?).  So I built a monitor stand and equipment rack instead of a table or desk.  The monitors are hung on VESA mounts instead of stands and there's no horizontal surfaces except what support the keyboard and trackball.  I use a headset or boom for the mic.

I think this applies to amateur radio.  It almost seems like the radios these days are just another computer peripheral.  Even without the PC, it can work well to have the operator stand.  I use 2m HT, mobile, and base more than anything.  My 2m base is a stand-up station in the kitchen.  For a shack with an HF rig, whether it's got an array of 30" screens for waterfall, fldigi, Smart SDR, e-logging and qrz, or it's just boat anchor with needles and dials, I would put the equipment in a rack that brings controls and displays up to standing height.

Besides the potential health benefits, I found that getting rid of chairs freed up a lot of floor space.  Desk space unused by equipment can also be reclaimed as floor space.  I also hauled my couch to the tip.  Got a lot of floor space out of that move, but my wife claimed it for her things.
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K1VSK

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Re: Anyone standing to operate?
« Reply #1 on: February 09, 2021, 05:58:30 PM »

I didn't see a question there so I cant help ask if your point is simply to try to convince others?

I'll sit comfortably awaiting your response.
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NEVBEN

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Re: Anyone standing to operate?
« Reply #2 on: February 09, 2021, 06:13:39 PM »

Question was,  "Anyone standing to operate?"

If you're not, feel free to consider my proposition.
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K1VSK

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Re: Anyone standing to operate?
« Reply #3 on: February 09, 2021, 06:30:21 PM »

Question was,  "Anyone standing to operate?"

If you're not, feel free to consider my proposition.
If you've ever seen the typical ham at a hamfest, you are singing to the wrong choir.
Parenthetically, no question ever appears in the body of your posting
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NEVBEN

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Re: Anyone standing to operate?
« Reply #4 on: February 09, 2021, 06:54:40 PM »

I have to imagine that you're suggesting that the average ham has seen days when they were healthier because my experience has been that they're often not jumping jacks.  That leads me to believe that my proposition is well-aimed.  Even so, I'm not trying to generalize about typical hams nor am I  trying to coax anyone out of the sedentary last days of their life.  Like I wrote, I saw the thread about "Table or Desk?" and wanted to offer my answer, "none of the above."  Take it as you will.  As for me, I'm not taking it sitting down.
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W9FIB

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Re: Anyone standing to operate?
« Reply #5 on: February 10, 2021, 03:39:14 AM »

The last place I worked, there was a trend among the younger generation to modify their cubes to either stand or sit. I am sure this trend will spill over into other places like HR stations. But as like the office setting, it was more the exception then the rule.
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73, Stan
Travelling the world one signal at a time.

K7JQ

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Re: Anyone standing to operate?
« Reply #6 on: February 10, 2021, 09:04:39 AM »

Any benefits of standing vs sitting for a few hours a day at a work or ham radio desk is a moot point if you're a total couch potato in the first place. By that I mean not doing any other daily (or at least 5 days a week) cardio or strength training exercises, and maintaining a reasonable healthy diet.

If you've accumulated "Dunlaps Disease" (your stomach Dunlaps over your belt) through the years, you're fooling yourself if you think standing at your desk is a suitable substitute over the exercises and diet described above. Obesity can only be overcome by "physical" (not sedentary) work. Four words describe maintaining a healthy weight and physical condition...Move More, Eat Less.

Bob K7JQ
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K6AER

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Re: Anyone standing to operate?
« Reply #7 on: February 21, 2021, 09:19:13 AM »

I am 71 years old. I ride my mountain bike from 10-15 miles every day. I sit when operation the ham station. Standing without leg movement will give you back pain in no time.
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KF5LJW

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Re: Anyone standing to operate?
« Reply #8 on: February 21, 2021, 12:09:59 PM »

Now this is some funny stuff, I do not care who you are. Ever go to a ham fest and look around? You would think it is the common area in a retirement home having wheel chair races using O2 bottles for pylons.
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W9FIB

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Re: Anyone standing to operate?
« Reply #9 on: February 21, 2021, 07:31:36 PM »

Now this is some funny stuff, I do not care who you are. Ever go to a ham fest and look around? You would think it is the common area in a retirement home having wheel chair races using O2 bottles for pylons.

Those that are handicapped appreciated your remark of compassion.
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73, Stan
Travelling the world one signal at a time.

RADIOPHONE

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Re: Anyone standing to operate?
« Reply #10 on: February 22, 2021, 02:42:29 AM »

Young Stanley should take up bicycling or walking...or else he will need "compassion" in the not so distant future.
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W9FIB

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Re: Anyone standing to operate?
« Reply #11 on: February 22, 2021, 04:29:53 AM »

Young Stanley should take up bicycling or walking...or else he will need "compassion" in the not so distant future.

Too late. I am bound to a wheel chair for some time now.

Next...
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73, Stan
Travelling the world one signal at a time.

RADIOPHONE

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Re: Anyone standing to operate?
« Reply #12 on: February 22, 2021, 04:53:27 AM »

Does it have a ground lug?
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K7JQ

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Re: Anyone standing to operate?
« Reply #13 on: February 22, 2021, 07:20:08 AM »

Does it have a ground lug?

Man, that's callous. I think the theme here is obesity, not denigrating the handicapped. Someone is owed an apology.
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RADIOPHONE

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Re: Anyone standing to operate?
« Reply #14 on: February 22, 2021, 08:22:15 AM »

Nothing "callous" about it.

The other day, young Stanley said he operates a snow-plow.

Nothing to boo-hoo about here.
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