Equipment Bay

By July I was running our of room.  I had rearranged the shack to try to consolidate some items and arrange cords to reduce the rat's nest that was growing under my desk.  So, I brought inside a smaller bay to use as my primary operating position and rearranged the equipment to provide a more ergonomic and useful operational configuration.  At the same time I routed wires and cleaned up everything.

The arrangement now appears as shown below:

Audio Patching

The next phase of my expanding shack was to deal with the various audio connections and try to get something under control so I did not have to adjust all the radios and connections.  So I looked and purchased a 19" patch panel to fit the equipment bay that I had.  Once I had that in place I began routing the various audio outputs and audio inputs in an attempt to get my primary audio down into one speaker with no more than two volume controls. I also wanted to switch my digital from one radio to another.

Well after a quick trial and error I found that for whatever reason my RIgblaster did not appreciate being routed patched audio back to the panel then to the computer and patched to the RB.  So I ended up patching the audio from the radio to the RB then cords from teh RB to the computer and back, then routing the monitor audio to the panel for use.

After it was over I was able to patch the audio from the VHF and HF radios into the Behringer 802 mixer and to a dedicated single speaker for each (two speakers, one for VHF/one for HF).  While this seems like a standard one radio one speaker set up - what it does provide me is the ability to control volumes from one location.   By putting one radio on the left channel and one on the right I can control the volume of each to either hear them both for monitoring or turn one down to hear the other.

Exceeding the past ....

Within a month or so of work I had recreated, for the most part, where I was previously in terms of capabilities.  I had a working, reliable HF station.  Good VHF in the shack and the vehicle and mobile APRS for digital tracking (so the wife can figure out where I am - no more smartphone apps).  I also reinstalled my 6 meter dipole for when the band decided to open up.But in keeping with time honored tradition - it was time to move forward.  So I started to expand some.

Battery Backup

 One capability that I had always wanted, but never gotten to was emergency power.  With my ARES and MARS influences in full march I decided to add a battery powered backup for the HF station.  This was done and I also added a  PowerGate and Rigrunner to handle the power transfer and routing jobs.  At this stage I had and auto-switch to battery backup for HF and VHF transceivers.

That still exists but I also now have a meter to monitor battery voltage overall, amperage draw when on battery power, and a UPS to support the computer, audio mixer and digital operations.  Current load gives me just over 15 minutes to cover quick drops.  It also prevents me from losing a contact or communication mid-word.  If it looks prolonged I can shut down the computer to conserve power as well as consider setting up the generator to cover for extended time frames.  On the planning dock is a solar charging addition that will help keep the battery up and running as needed.

BEAM!

Six meter beam that is.  I had always wanted a VHF beam.  Have one up for 2/440 but never had one for 6.  So after working the VHF spring contest and doing OK, I purchased a Cushcraft 3 element beam. Use a Radio Shack TV rotator to spin it.  Works like a champ.

Getting the word out

Another addition I had wanted was a boom microphone.  The looks of the arm reaching out and holding the microphone just so - also fit the the ability to type while transmitting without too much hassle.  So I purchased a Heil boom and microphone holder. The holder fit my Kenwood MC60A microphone and I added a foot switch I already had.

By this point my shack looked like this:

Volunteering and Emergency Communications

Being back in the hobby was fun, but it's better with others.  Since I'm not much of a rag chewer sort of guy and I do prefer to volunteer for a reason.  I investigated, and ultimately joined, the local ARES group (http://clayares.org/).  Turn out to be a wonderful bunch of guys.  Some of the equipment decisions being made are to support being able to interact and support ARES emergency operations.

I also rejoined Navy MARS.  I had originally become a member of Navy MARS back in 1987 in Puerto Rick and maintained pretty much continuous membership up until the 2006 timeframe.  At that point, work and family made it nearly impossible to meet my obligations so I let the membership slide.

Several of the Clay ARES group were members of MARS and it made me re-examine where I was.  I determined that i had the time and space so I re-volunteered and became a member of MARS again.  That is also driving a LOT of my equipment/operating decisions since the April 2014 time frame.  It's sort of like coming home after being away for a long time.  It's familiar and you know the neighborhood, but there have been some changes that need to be dealt with.

 This time around there is a very large emphasis on digital communications that was not in my earlier MARS experiences.  Then RTTY was a pretty exotic thing for members, now RTTY seems to be a dinosaur.  It's all about learning new skills.

Blowing off the dust .....

With the decision to get back on the air came the inevitable scrambling to figure out what I still had.  Some things, such as my TS-2000, had never been far from my desk.  Others, like my outside HF antenna, were pretty much non-existent.  So I looked around and determined that what I needed was a way to transmit in order to get back on the air.  Since I was sure the rig was good that meant an antenna.  So I looked in the box and found an HF dipole that I had made - measured it and strung it up.  Hooked up the new 50' run of RG-8 came inside to test and first contact was on 17 meters to upstate New York with 5-9 reports.  Its working.

Within a month or so of string up the dipole we had a pretty large gust of wind come through the backyard.  The only casualty was a termite ridden tree trunk - unfortunately this tree ate my HF antenna!  It feel into a leg of it and wrapped it up so bad the antenna was essentially unrecoverable.

So, instead of working to get a new balun and cut more wire, I took the easy way out and purchased a new G5RV.  I had used one when I first moved down here in 2004 to very good succcess and didn't want to end up with another antenna that I had to tune round one way and back another.  So why mess with something that worked.  Got it up and again, good reports all around.  And the tuning was pretty much good across the bands.  The internal tuner on the TS-2000 does a good job of tuning to match.  I'm sure its not perfect, but it works.

Meanwhile ....

At the same time I was re-constructing my VHF capability.  I had a Kenwood TM-261 but it had a dead speaker for whatever reason.  Seemed to work - but no sound unless you had an external speaker connected.  Minor inconvenience.  Got my D700 up and running for APRS, ending up buying a GPS from Baycom to work with the APRS side of the radio.  So I had voice and digital in the truck.

Ended up buying a new TM-281 for the shack so I could have digital uploading of frequencies.  The TM-261 is nice but a pain to load manually.

Packet .... what packet?

I also worked out getting my RigBlaster Pro up and functioning for HF digital signals.  When I got out of the hobby in 2004 PSK31 was the new rage.  Now it seemed to be the standby for HF digital. APRS was also the new kid on the block (well toddler actually) and Packet was still king of VHF.  Now, nearly a decade later you can't consistently find a packet signal that is not APRS.  Lots of changes to contend with and learn.