Totally Wired

Legendary rock guitarist and singer Joe Walsh is best known as a member of the quintessential Southern California band of the 1970s, the Eagles, now in rehearsal for a European tour. He also racked up several hits as a solo artist and as a member of the James Gang.

But Walsh is perhaps the most accessible of rock stars, at least electronically--he spends a lot of his down time chatting via Webcam on the Internet and on shortwave amateur radio.

Walsh, 53, has homes in Sherman Oaks and San Diego.

DESKTOP: I have a PC in each of my houses because I need them for the Internet stuff I do and to handle music .wav and .mp3 files. But for Web design and a lot of the music programs I use a Mac.

Q. You designed your Web site?

I did some of it, but I have someone who puts it all together. When I am on the road, I take digital pictures and send them to her to put on the site [https://www.joewalsh.com].

When I’m home, I stream video and audio on https://www.hellonetwork.com late at night--you can go there and see me and hear me. I have a whole bunch of people I hang out with there. Many of them have seen us on tour, and I actually ask them what they think about the shows. They end up giving me critiques and suggestions--it helped me put the next tour together. I’m going to bounce some music off of them too, get them to help me with the direction I’m taking on a new album.

It’s a really fun late-night deal. Usually, there are people from at least three different countries on there, all just shooting the breeze.

I haven’t really been able to get the time to look into MP3s or Napster or that other stuff the kids do. I have to watch myself--I get on my computer, and all of a sudden it’s Thursday and I have a beard and I don’t smell so good. I know I have to force myself to turn the thing off to take care of things in the real world.

LAPTOP: I have a Dell that I use until I get sick of Windows; then I go to a Mac PowerBook. I go back and forth because I want to be well versed in both operating systems.

I use the laptops for e-mail on the road and to use Photoshop on pictures I send back. I’ll give myself two noses, fool around like that.

BOOKMARKED SITES: I collect old tube radios. I have broadcast transmitters and receivers. I go to the Collins Collector Assn. site [https://www.collinsradio.org], where there is a lot of information on these radios.

I also go to the site for ARRL, the National Assn. for Amateur Radio [https://www.arrl.org].

Q. When did you first get involved with ham radio?

1962. I got into it, and the technical stuff I learned was very helpful later when I was souping up amplifiers and wiring up guitars. I got away from ham radio after I discovered girls, but later I came back to it as a hobby.

Q. How often do you get on the air?

When I’m home, I get on for the weekly Collins Collector meeting and then sometimes I get on just to talk. In the past three weeks, I talked to hams in Russia, Israel and Japan. I have met people through ham radio I would have never met otherwise.

And you know, whenever there is an earthquake, a hurricane or some other disaster, there are always ham radio operators who help out with communications. We plan for that. It’s something I’m proud of--I got a whole bucket of batteries I keep around.

Q. What kind of equipment do you use now?

I built a computer--a Pentium with a nice motherboard--to run my main unit, which is a Kachina. It’s totally computer controlled--it doesn’t even have any knobs or dials on it. I also have an amateur radio in the car.

Q. Do people ever kid you about being a ham radio operator, about it being geeky?

I guess it is. But I don’t mind. Some of my best friends are nerds.

Actually, there is nothing quite like it. You spend hours hooking stuff up, going up on the roof to get the antenna just right. Then you turn the thing on, send out a message and someone comes back to you--it’s a wonderful thing.

Q. What kind of license do you have?

Amateur extra, the highest grade you can have as an amateur. I’m Morse code fluent.

HOME THEATER/STEREO SETUP: I don’t do the home theater thing at all. If I’m home, I’ll get on the computer or turn on the ham radio.

For music, I have one of those Bose Wave players.

Q. That’s it?

Yeah. I used to have an incredibly elaborate system with huge speakers. It could put out something like 112 decibels of crystal-clear sound.

But when you do music for a living and are rehearsing all the time, you don’t particularly want to listen to music when you get home. I need time to rest my brain.

Q. You don’t have the big system anymore?

No. I decided to get furniture instead.

--As told to DAVID COLKER