Jerry’s Ham Radio Blog

Hello Everyone…

Yes, “operation ham shack” has been completed.  I’m not sure if I’ve really blogged much about this subject, but I have talked about it on my podcast from time to time.  What am I talking about when I say “operation ham shack”? 

The area that consists of my ham shack is a multi-purpose area in my basement.  In this relatively small space, I have my ham shack, my podcast studio and my home office.  All of this is area less than 6 x 10.  It is truly a small, cramped space that I have grown to hate.  I find it hard to get excited about spending any time in my shack. 

Now I know there are people less fortunate than I am.  I know I’m lucky in the fact that I have a lot of available space.  Part of the issue has been an on-going construction project I’ve been working on.  I started this project over 2 years ago and basically consists of finishing out a portion of my basement (approx. size is 24 x 80).  This area consists of a laundry room and the rest (approx. 24 x 24) was going to be turned into my hamshack, office and just general “man cave”.  I completed the framing in about 3-4 months and I’ve just stalled on doing the drywall.  The fault rests squarely on my shoulders.  Let me repeat….this is ALL MY FAULT!

I haven’t given up on the basement project.  Due to work schedule, my wife and I have decided to have the drywall and drywall finishing done by a contractor.  It’s not that I can’t do the drywall…it’s just the time it would take me versus the time it will take someone else (especially if they have a crew) will be so different.  As I’m sure you know, the drywall process (especially the finishing process) is incredibly messy.  The mess is unavoidable, but due to my available time to work on the project (weekends and evenings) the messy stage could take weeks, perhaps months.  A contractor will come in and do it and be done in a matter of days.   Anyway….the plan is to still have this done.  But we have a few other projects we want to have completed prior to this. 

So what am I doing?  50% of the basement is already finished as we had this done just after we purchased the house in 2004.  The size of this area is approx. 24 x 60 or so.  Most of this consists of storage and if I’m honest about it…it consists of un-organized storage.  The plan is to better organize the “junk” in this space and clear out an area to become the new ham shack. 

I was going to construct a desk/bench, but my wife had a much better idea and her idea saved me many hours of time.  She found on CraigsList someone who was selling two 8 foot folding plastic tables.  These tables retail for over $100 each at places like Costco and Sam’s Club.  Needless to say, I picked my two up for less than 50% of what new would have cost me.   Best of all, they are functional and saved me a lot of time.  I truly do have the best wife.  Thank you, Farah.

I setup the two tables in an “L” and positioned in the corner of the basement.  I was able to get my maps up on the wall and even framed some of the wallpaper I’ve collected over the past couple of years.  My operating position is in the corner of the “L” and within easy reach I have my pride and joy, HF rig the Yaesu FT-950.  This rig is truly amazing.  I’ve worked DX with this radio that I know I would have never been able to work with my FT-897.  But the FT-897 is not collecting dust.  It’s dedicated to the digital modes like PSK31 and RTTY.   While I don’t operate the two rigs simultaneous, it does come in handy to have them separated.   I can have the FT-897 running WSPR on the 6BTV vertical and listen to 20m on the FT-950 from the hamstick dipole.  

In addition to this space serving as my ham shack, it also provides a dedicated space for my podcast recording equipment.  I wanted to have an area free of clutter to setup my audio mixer and Heil PR40 microphone.   This area is perfect for this setup.  I can record an episode of The Practical Amateur Radio Podcast and then swing right over to my computer to edit and upload to the web.  If you haven’t had a chance to listen to my podcast, please check it out.  You may download The Practical Amateur Radio Podcast through iTunes or listen direct from the podcast website by visiting MyAmateurRadio.com. 

Finally, this space also serves as my home office setup.  I work from home a few times per month.  This new area allows me plenty of space to setup my laptop.  I have a land-line telephone and can also direct connect to my home network when I want to use our VoIP based telephone system at work. 

While a ham shack is anywhere you have a spot to setup a ham radio, do yourself a favor and pick an area where you have plenty of room and can spread out.  You’ll enjoy it…I promise.

Until next time,

Jerry

Over the past couple of days I’ve been sick with a cold or flu.  I’m still not 100%.  But it all started last weekend when I was cleaning up the shack to get it ready for the shack makeover project.  At first I thought it was just allergies flaring up.  Colorado is an extremely dry climate and I do suffer from seasonal allergies.  These allergies are kept in check in the Spring, Summer and Fall by medication and I’m typically able to drop the meds in the winter months pending we have adequate snow fall to keep the outside dust conditions in check. 

But since it doesn’t snow in the house (specifically the basement), and I had been crawling around on my hands and knees under my desks, I thought the sneezing and scratchy throat was just a dust bunnies revenge.  I was wrong…or at least partially wrong.  On Sunday I began feeling worn down and woke up on Monday morning with a sore throat and just generally feeling like I had been hit by a train.

I spent most of Monday and all day Tuesday in bed.  Yesterday (Wednesday) I did manage to work a full day from home and today I’m in the office for at least a half day.   Enough about that.  I don’t want this blog post to sound like some of the HF conversations taking place on 75 and 80 meters. 

I did manage to complete the shack move on schedule.  All the rigs have power and are connected to their appropriate antennas.  I will get all the details posted along with pictures of the new shack in the next few days.   I truly love this new shack layout and best of all it really works. 

What do I mean by “best of all it really works”?  Well…I’m not sure I can explain it.  Yes, the other shack layout worked.  Nothing has changed with regards to the radios or the antennas.  But I have more room and the layout is much, much nicer to work with.  I have my Yaesu FT-950 front and center and the FT-897 (which runs digital modes mainly) is also easy to access.  I have more than enough room for a notepad and am finally getting around to hanging up the little bit of wallpaper I’ve collected over the past couple of years.

Again…it’s hard to explain, but I just truly love this new setup.  My main goal will be to keep it operational and not cluttered.  In this same area is my podcast studio and a work area for my home office.  I also have ample room for bench projects.  It’s awesome and I’ll get photos posted soon.

The new setup has already paid off in the form of two DX contacts on the 15 meter band.  While I knew about the 15 meter band, I had really not paid much attention to it until just recently.  Over the past couple of weeks I’ve seen tweets on Twitter talking about various 15m band openings.  Since my Hustler 6BTV provides 15m coverage, I decided to tune around the band some on Sunday morning and boy am I glad I did.  Within just a few minutes I heard an Italian station calling CQ and within 5 minutes I was exchanging signal reports and getting him into my log.   15 meter once again paid off with a DX entry in my log book last night.  I was wrapping up my work day (worked from home) and decided to tune around 15m to see if I could catch some grey line activity.  Watching the DX spotting data in Ham Radio Deluxe I could see information being submitted by US amateurs who were hearing and working several Japanese amateurs on 15 meters.  As the grey line approached my QTH, the signals from the JA’s were becoming stronger and stronger.    I picked the strongest signal which happened to be JR3NZC.  Within 15 minutes or so I had him in my log for a second time (worked him last year on PSK31). 

If you haven’t checked out the 15 meter band (21MHz) lately, you should.  There could be some DX waiting for you out there.

Until next time,

73,

Jerry