WE1U's Hamshack Page

 

My hamshack is in my father's old saw sharpening shop, and is approximately 16 by 20 feet. We poured a concrete floor, and installed the drop-hang ceiling for him, and it works well for my purposes. I have a lot of room, and use it all. The concrete floor, while not being the warmest thing, is great for cleaning up solder splashes, or anything else I might drop on it. I have run cable TV, telephone, and CAT 5 cable out, so I have the world at my fingertips.

Here's a shot looking in from the door:

 I have several antennas as well as most of my model rockets hanging from the ceiling grid, which makes good use of space. Duck your head if you're taller than about 6 foot 2 though! On the left is my solder/desolder bench, with Weller station, and an APE desoldering station. Just beyond that is a Celestron C-8 telescope tricked out for Astrophotography work (another of my hobbies) In the middle of the room is my modeling bench. for assembly of model rockets, boats or what have you. In the far right corner is my alignment and test bench with an HP 8921 service monitor, and various other pieces of test equipment.

Here's a wide angle shot of my ham equipment:

I wanted to have a vintage setup (left) and a high tech setup (right).

Here's a closeup of my high tech side of the shack:

Left to right, Elecraft K2 loaded, Kenwood TS-2000X, Icom R-75, and an old McKay Dymek DR-33 for backup shortwave listening use. Top shelf includes a Yaesu G-5400B rotor control, and Radio Shack scanner, as well as the usual power/SWR meters. Microphone is a Heil Gold Line (of course). All the radios with the exception of the McKay are serially controlled by the computer, and the rotors are controlled by a Uni_Trac 2000 which is not shown. This handy little gadget hooks to my parallel port and simultaneously controls my TS-2000 and the rotor during satellite passes. Also not shown is a homebrew rig-to-computer interface for the digital modes. The computer is a dual Pentium II processor running at 433 MHz and the OS is Windows 2000 to take advantage of the dual processors.

I am running the following software:

Here's the vintage side of the shack:

Bottom shelf includes a Drake RV-7 remote VFO, Drake TR-7 transceiver, and (relatively rare) Drake UV-3 triband V/UHF FM rig, with 2 meters, 220 MHz, and 440 MHz modules installed. Middle shelf includes a Hammarlund HQ-110A receiver, and my old novice rig, a Heathkit DX-60A. Top shelf includes the companion speaker for the Hammarlund, and a recently restored Kenwood TS-120S. The vintage shack changes from time to time as I rotate various pieces of my vintage ham radio collection.

In the air, or on the tower (not shown) I have the following:

The VHF/UHF stuff is fed with Andrews 1/2 inch superflex hardline, with the exception of the 1269 MHZ yagi which will be fed with Andrews 7/8 inch hardline.

Dogs make the shack complete:

 

I hope you found this virtual tour informative. Please stop back often for a visit.

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