Hi,
I have been using Logitech's thumb-driven trackball instead of a mouse for
a couple of years now. Mine is right handed; don't know if it comes left
handed. Initially I got it because I was running out of mouse-movement
real estate on my desk. I position it toward the left side my laptop, resting
my elbow on the desk and my right arm crossed in front of me. I use it
for almost all my computer work, ham radio and otherwise, and have never
experienced any discomfort. With mice I always develop wrist pain before too
long.
I was surprised how adept I became with the trackball. Sometimes if I
have done a lot of physical labor beforehand my thumb doesn't work quite
right. That happened last night when I did some casual late evening operating
in the NAQP. Then I just went to my regular mouse but this morning I'm back
on the trackball.
I'm not proficient on keyboards, so I like to use a mouse or trackball if
possible. Of course, in CW or SSB contests I have to type, so I fumble
through it.
On a different note, I elevated my laptop with a board at the back to tilt
it up toward me and put a small furniture floor protector under the left
front corner. The right corner floats and I can slide papers (like
scribbling paper in contests) partially under the laptop to have effectively
more
room on my desk. All this sits on a desk pad with a nice writing surface.
I like laptops but they chew up a lot of desk space and don't allow much
flexibility in positioning.
The laptop screen is exactly in the right location and distance for my eyes
with variable focus glasses.
My rig, keypad and key paddle are to the right. The front of the rig is
elevated just high enough for my forearm to rest comfortably on the desk
with my hand on the tuning knob. I've never experienced any hand or wrist
problems with this either.
I eventually bought the largest mouse pad I could find, about 14x17, which
sits under the rig and extends out in front almost to the edge of the
desk. Now there is plenty of room to run a mouse if I need to. The optical
mouse doesn't require a pad but it but it looks nice and my key paddle stays
put.
I don't operate much phone and have only a handheld mic kept lying on the
desk to the left side of the laptop. It would be nice to hang it up, but
there is no convenient place to do it.
The coffee cup heater is to my left so I can sip java with my left hand and
tune and operate RTTY with my right.
Across the room is a cardio exercising machine I hop onto periodically to
keep the blood flowing and the limbs limber. There's also a set of
dumbbells to lift and hand squeezing things (don't know what to call them) on
the
desk for keeping my fingers flexible. I have mild arthritis in my fingers
and exercise them relentlessly. There's a bottle of Advil on a shelf if
needed and a Yoga meditation book on my desk to remind me to focus and stay
in the moment.
There's much room for improvement. I need a more comfortable chair and
better lighting. Long contests leave my backside pretty sore and that dark,
gloomy rig front panel really needs some Brail-like controls. My desk
lighting is at the wrong angle to light the panel properly. I use an LED book
light for supplemental lighting if necessary.
All this is really important to me. I'm 68 and constantly need to mind my
maintenance. I just got back in from shoveling out my driveway for the
umpteenth time this winter. Nothing works like it should any more. It takes
a long time to recover from a 48 hour contest even though I take sleep
breaks. My rule of thumb is that recovery time is about the length of the
contest itself.
What would I give to be 20 again? A lot. Especially if I knew what I
know now.
What do the rest of you do? I'm sure there are many folks out there who
have put a lot of thought and action into this.
73,
Kermit, AB1J
In a message dated 2/27/2011 2:55:23 P.M. GMT Standard Time, chen@mac.com
writes:
I had in the last year
or two been using Ergomotion's mouse because standard mice forced my
right hand into a fixed angle -- the mouse appears to work for me, but
even better would be no mouse at all :-).
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