Space — Compromise — Works — Good enough

They Always Arrive the Same Way

Not with a model. Not with a sweep. Not with a plot that could survive daylight.

They arrive at dusk, in the alley behind 7.100 MHz, where myths go when they don’t want to be measured, and where the air smells like warm coax and burnt ferrite.

DO NOT MEASURE WHAT YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW.

That’s where the Cult holds service. Not in a shack, not in a club… but in the comment sections, where the signal is weak and the certainty is strong.

They worship four words like protective runes:

• Space.
• Compromise.
• Works.
• Good enough.

Say them in the right order and physics stops knocking.

The Alley Behind 7.100 MHz

A shadow steps out first: Brother “GüdNuff” Glenn.

He wears an SWR meter like a crucifix. The needle never moves — because the meter is never in line. He speaks in absolutes, but only in the present tense.

“Don’t overthink it… it works.”

You ask: “Works how? On what band? Into what noise floor? How repeatable? What’s the return path doing?”

Glenn smiles the smile of a man who has never lost an argument… because he has never allowed one to begin.

“I made a QSO. Works.”

Somewhere behind him, an ATU clicks like teeth.

The Cult of Space

Then you meet Lady “No-Room” Nora, wrapped in the black cloak of Convenience, forever haunted by a yard that is always too small… even when it isn’t.

She doesn’t measure space in meters.

She measures it in effort.

“I chose an end-fed because I don’t have the space for a dipole.”

You show her wire-length comparisons.

She does not look.

“Space isn’t just length.”

And here’s the nasty part: sometimes she’s right… but never for the reason she thinks.

Because “space” in the alley rarely means wire footprint. It usually means:

• “I want the feedpoint near my shack.”
• “I only want one support.”
• “I don’t want to route a second leg through the neighbor’s emotional boundary.”
• “I want installation to feel like it happened to me, not because of me.”

Space didn’t change.

Only the story did.

The Off-Center Relic

One night, someone drags a new idol into the alley: the End Fed Off-Center Fed — the EFOC.

For a moment, you think the Cult might evolve.

Because EFOC is actually a more honest kind of practical:

• feedpoint convenience without pretending the coax is benevolent,
• a defined return path,
• a place to choke and say “here… not wherever the shack wiring feels like radiating today.”

Then EFOC Evan steps forward, hood up, holding a tape measure like a relic.

“It’s always shorter.”

The congregation exhales in relief.

Sometimes it is shorter. Sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes it’s the same wire, rearranged to fit a different geometry.

But the Cult doesn’t want geometry.

They want moral victory.

Because admitting the truth would mean saying:

“It’s not about wire length… it’s about feedpoint and support convenience.”

And that would invite dangerous ideas: return paths matter, common-mode isn’t folklore, and “my tuner matched it” is not a performance report.

The Compromise Priest

The fog thickens. Father “Kompro-Mike” glides out, carrying no antenna — only a phrasebook.

“All antennas are a compromise.”

You ask: “Between what and what? What did you trade? What did you gain?”

Silence.

In the alley, compromise isn’t engineering.

It’s anesthesia.

The Ritual of “Good Enough”

At the far end stands the Keeper, known only as K7E-Nuff.

You explain current distribution, return paths, choke placement, ground coupling, noise pickup, pattern control.

“Good enough.”

Not good enough for what.

Just… good enough.

It doesn’t mean “meets the requirement.”

It means: I am done being reachable by evidence.

The Curse of “Works”

A thing can “work” while:

• the coax does half the radiating,
• the tuner hides the mismatch,
• the ground quietly eats power,
• the pattern is a coin toss,
• and the noise floor is a landfill.

“It works” isn’t a result.

It’s a vibe with a callsign.

The Exit

You step back into daylight and say the sentence the Cult fears most:

“Define the requirement… then we can talk about whether it’s good.”

Somewhere behind you, the ATU clicks.

Not as an answer.

As laughter.

Interested in more satirical RF heresy?
https://listmonk.rf.guru/subscription/form

Questions or experiences to share? Feel free to contact RF.Guru.