Overview
August 10rd, 2023 Update
My work space is an odd 10 x 15 space with 4 doors, steps, and a closet to work around. We have been here over six years and the shoffice has been in several configurations. It is always going through changes in setup, equipment shifts, and the usual changes you might expect in an area that has to meet the rather fluid needs of someone with diverse interests and little space to explore them.
The radio station portion of the shop has been affected most by my current needs. Packet, AREDN, and 3 Raspberry Pi along with my Icom IC-4100 make up my “shack” station which is all mounted in the hamging 16U network rack in the shoffice. At the moment I dont have an HF radio up and running, though I do have an EMCOMMII antenna in place. This also includes my PBX and VoIP projects that are running.
For the last few years a majority of my operating has been emcomm related, no DX or contesting. The requirements of life are dictating my operations for the forseeable future. Radio is taking a back seat for now. This is not a permanent break, just break in the action.
The Shack
The test equipment collection takes time to build, in the collection now are O-scopes, freq counters, signal generator, several DVMs, an L/C meter, ESR meter, RF sensors, SWR meters, antenna analyzer, spectrum analizer, RF power meters, power supplies, and all-band all-mode transceivers and is a mix of old and new gear, mostely old.
The junk drawer has had a recent purging due to space constraints and the pile of donor bits that has transitioned to e-waste is large.
I am still planning to build an AllStar node which use Asterisk, a PBX software package, as it’s foundation which will ultimately allow us to link radios over the mesh network and/or over the internet and eventually link radio nodes, repeaters, the PBX, and independent VoIP phones. I have made some progress down this path and will continue at a later date.
Another shack upgrade that has had progress and setbacks is the power system. I currently do not have a battery back up system or a tied in solar system. I do have many of the components, but time and commitments have conspired against me. This will likely be one of the first “back to it” projects .
Ham Radios
- Yaesu FT-817ND All-band all-mode primary HF
- Icom ID-4100 VHF FM/D-Star primary VHF base voice
- Alinco DR-135 Mk II VHF FM primary VHF base packet
- Alinco DR-435 Mk II UHF FM
- Alinco DR-06 VHF FM
- Baofeng UV-5R VHF/UHF FM 2m and 70cm HT
- Baofeng UV-5RE+ VHF/UHF FM 2m and 70cm HT
- Sawdust 40 meter RX SSB/CW (Breadboard Radios kit)
- Splinter II 40 meter CW RX/TX, SSB RX (Breadboard Radios kit)
- RX40.1 homebrew 40-meter SSB/CW RX EMRFD Direct Conversion RX
- Beach 40 Homebrew DSB 40m Transceiver variant scratch built (In progress. I hope to get back to this radio once the shoffice is back in order)
- BitX 20 meter SSB Transceiver kit (on the back burner for a while)
Other Radio Services
- Vertex Standard ProV VHF AM Aviation Band handheld
- Cobra FRS120 UHF FM FRS handheld
- Garmin Rino120 UHF FM FRS/GMRS handheld
- NooElec R820T SDR VHF/UHF RX-only 30MHz – 1.8GHz
- Uniden BEARCAT 980SSB Single Sideband CB mobile
- Midland MXT400 GMRS mobile
Antennas
- Diamond X-50A (2) primary VHF/UHF primary for voice & data radios
- 80-meter center-fed dipole
- 2-meter twin-lead J-Pole roll-up configuration in the FT-817 go-kit
- 6-meter wire dipole in a go-kit
- 10-meter wire dipole in a go-kit
- 20-meter wire dipole in a go-kit
- MFJ-1982LP EndFed 1/2 Wave 30W 80M-10M in the FT-817 go-kit
- EMCOMMII EndFed primary HF
- Miscellaneous magnetic multi-band mobile whips
- Miscellaneous aftermarket rubber-ducks for HTs
TNCs
- Kantronics KPC-3
- Kantronics KPC-3+ USB
- Kantronics KAM+ XL
- Raspberry Pi / Raspbian / Direwolf
- And a few old ones I haven’t checked out yet
For those closely scrutinizing the photo of the shoffice (shop/office) I was a theology student working on B.S. at the time the photo was taken. My “desk” is in the same place but it now looks completly different. If you were wondering about the white ribbon like stuff outlining the monitors, this is a 12V LED tape for front lighting with video conferencing. It has been relocated to the ceiling, Not visible is the chroma green screen background I have draped behind me for conference calls. Where the radios and power suppies are is now a 3-D printer and the tech books, of which there are many more, have moved to the upper middle two shelves. Always in motion. 😉
Updated 10 August, 2023