KG6TT

The New QTH

I suppose “new” is a fairly relative term – seeing that I have had at least eighteen physical shacks since my very first bedroom radio desk at age thirteen. My current shack is my third since my retirement in 2000 and the second one that I decided to build outside the home itself.

Regardless of how “permanent” I expected any new living arrangement to be, it was always important that I make my hobby space as personal and comfortable as possible. Oftentimes it felt that as soon as I got my ham station near completion – really a process more than an actual goal – life’s circumstances would demand that I dismantle and begin again. This time I’d like to share a short picture essay of my station’s construction. It has been a bit over a year since I actually moved to my Laddell Avenue address. Am I done? Well who knows? Come on back this QRZ.com page periodically and see what’s happening at KG6TT.

No Room at the Inn

We have a three bedroom home so you would think I could maybe convert one of the bedrooms to a hobby room? Not so said my otherwise very supportive XYL. So other arrangements had to be made outside the house proper. Our double-sized city lot already contained our home, garage, driveway, numerous raised garden plots, a ‘new’ green house, a lot of greenery, and an overstuffed tool shed. It became clear that I couldn’t simply build a separate structure, as I had done once in the past, but instead I would have to create space within the garage itself – a very, very full garage.

Clearlake is a small city located on the South-East corner of Clear Lake – in North-West California – about 110 miles North, North-West of San Francisco. Clear Lake is California’s largest fully contained lake and… well simply a beautiful place to live or visit. But was it to be a great place for a ham radio operator? While it certainly has its challenges I like to think of the Clearlake ham experience as an evolving one.

Three Views of Clear Lake, California

It turns out that Lake County’s climate is virtually perfect for wine growing (Lake County is immediately adjacent to upper Napa County). While grapes love growing up here, people can find that it often gets uncomfortably hot in the summer and pretty darn cold and awfully wet in the winter. Just placing a desk or bench in the garage proper just wouldn’t workout. The garage had no insulation, a cold cement floor, drafty windows and doors, and insufficient electrical wiring. On the other hand, there was a partially walled off space at the back of the garage that was unused. The space was long and narrow and just as poorly non-insulated as the garage itself. It also had no windows, no door, one AC outlet, a cement floor that was slanted, uneven and full of large cracks and dark as a crypt. Basically it seemed a perfect prospect for some really creative thinking and doing. Two weeks, several trips to our nearest Home Depot (120 miles round trip), and a lot of YouTube videos later, my new ham shack was born.

A “Man” Cave Is Born

Out with the Old, In with the New: It is always nice to begin with the fun stuff – hammer, sledge and wrecking bar stuff! I stared by ripping out the old sheet rock from the walls and ceiling. Next, I patched and sealed the old cement floor and then installed a level, raised floor on suspended joists. Then it was time to install new 110 and 220 VAC wiring with numerous outlets (there is even an exterior mounted 220 VAC entry jack for my emergency generator).

Let there be Light! It was time to deal with light, air circulation and shack security. I cut in a new window and a separate portal for a small air conditioner. Then I added a fourth wall with a nice solid-core door to create a fully enclosed space.

Time to finish the walls. First, I insulated the walls and ceiling (I insulated and moisture sealed under the new floor earlier). Next, I sheet rocked the walls and ceiling; applied joint tape, sanded, and then applied several coats of paint. Time factor: Exactly two weeks from start of project (pencil sketch plan) to completion.

OK, not totally finished, but close. Here you can see an outside view showing the new window and air conditioner portal. A couple months later I added yet another window about 10 feet to the left of the portal. While the additional window was not actually in the shack it did provide necessary natural light to the physical area where I have my small electrical work shop.

Moving In is So Sweet

Time to move in. Actually this a temporary, first, physical layout. I think I am on version 4.0 now. I began by placing a really heavy desk (my center piece) at the far end of the new room (I had a genuine “fun” time getting this desk into this space due to the shack’s narrow width). Since the shack’s floor space was extremely limited (and that I have gathered a lot or equipment that I like to use) it was necessary that I go vertical with my rigs as much as possible. So I built a heavy duty, four shelf, hutch to sit on the desk. I sort of over-engineered it. Gosh was it heavy. You see, I have this thing about sagging shelves, so to prevent sagging each shelf was a glued and screwed “sandwich” made from two pieces of interior 3/4? plywood. A separate, heavy duty shelve system – seen at the end of the desk – holds my amplifiers and all things “antenna” related. That dark area that you see just above the chair seat is where a 4? PVC pipe goes through the wall to the side yard. Its outside opening bends downward to prevent rain entry.

Keeping It Neat

My Antenna/Solar Battery Closet

Shortly after I finished my shack’s construction I built a small antenna/solar battery closet on the garage’s outside wall just above the PVC pipe’s exit. A 10? ground rod is immediately below. Inside the water proof closet I have three 90 amp hour marine deep cycle batteries, a 400 watt solar charge controller, a remotely controlled coax switch, and a grounded feedline/rotor cable bulkhead. This grounded bulkhead along with five coaxial common mode chokes effectively shunts to Earth much of the RF currents flowing on the outside of my antenna feedlines. Shortly you will see that my antennas are in very close proximity to my equipment. Not an optimum situation and one that currently prevents me from operating much over 500 watts on most bands. Even though my station is capable of operating up to 1500 watts to the antennas, nearly all of my HF and VHF operations are at 100 watts or less.

On to Shack Version 2.0, 3.0…

Time to unpack and stack more of my stored equipment

No matter what rigs I have my Ten-Tec Orion is always front and center. This Orion, which I have owned since 2004, is equipped with the optional high-performance second receiver, eight roofing filters, 10:1 auto antenna tuner, a super crisp blue on white display, pan-adapter, and right and left channel stereo speakers.

Immediately above my Orion I have my Ten-Tec Jupiter and my Omni-VI (option 3). Above those I have my minty Drake 4B line.

Yes, I am very fond of my Ten-Tec equipment. I’ve owned and used most of what Ten-Tec had to offer since they entered the market in….. 1970? Beyond those pictured I have two Pegasus transceivers, a nine-band Scout, a Century 21 setup, and my most recent addition – a Ten-Tec Eagle.

My shack also includes numerous HF receivers specifically aimed at shortwave listening (my other life-long interest). And of course, what grey-haired ham would not have his or her share of genuine boat anchors. Many I originally built from kits. My first radio was a Knight-Kit Ocean Hopper. Later I built my own Knight-Kit R100A receiver and T60 transmitter (the last two I still own and they still work). I think I was 13 at that time. This hobby was so gratifying to me growing up that I eventually obtained my EE with my first job as a senior design engineer at Heathkit (Heath Company), where I got plenty of experience building and fixing all sorts of kits. To this very day I still enjoy building equipment where ever practical as well as doing virtually all my own repairs.

I strongly believe in the adage, “use just as much power as necessary to effectively communicate.” Most of the time that means 100 watts or less. Nevertheless, QRO has its place too. Where 100 watts isn’t enough I have three amplifiers to choose from: my Ten-Tec Centaur and Centurion and my QSK modified ALS-600.

My Kenwood HF station can be seen at the right side of this photo. Above it is my Drake R8 receiver. On the far left you can see my second Yaesu FT-100D.This one is used mostly for 6-meters. Notice my Ten-Tec Scout immediately below the FT-100D. Just below that you’ll find my Yaesu FT-8800. The photo below shows my Honda Accord with my mobile HF/VHF equipment.

I am really not an exclusively Ten-Tec user. I also have that cherry set of Drake twins (shown earlier), two Yaesu FT-100Ds (the first one I purchased in 2004 and has been in my Honda for over 12 years), that Kenwood TS-830s system shown above, a Xeigu X108G for portable work, and a YouKits HB1B for CW QRP (not shown). These rigs and more are not merely shelf “queens” but each one is fully functionable and immediately usable with the throw of a switch (or two… or three).

One of my two Ten-Tec Pegasus transceivers. This one is used almost exclusively for digital mode operations. I store some of my keys and paddles in the drawer. Below that drawer is a scanner and below that is my trusty HP Workgroup Laser Printer.

Earlier I mentioned that I have a Xeigu X108G HF transceiver. I like just about everything there is about this 20 watt SSB, AM, FM, CW transceiver… everything except its completely non-functional Noise Blanker (design fault) and that it only has semi-breakin CW. Its 2017 guys, let’s get on the ball already!

Into the Ether We Go!

Hows that saying go? Its all about location, location, location? Or is it antenna, antenna, antenna? I suppose it is about what you have the most control over. My location is where my home is… “and that’s the fact, Jack!” -Bill Murray from the 80’s motion picture Stripes (just had to include that). So I can’t change my location but perhaps I have some control over my antenna designs.

There are good points and a bunch of not-so-good points concerning my erecting antennas at my QTH. Good point: I am allowed by the City to put up a tower. Hot diggidy! Wait for it…. a not so good point is that the tower can’t go above 35 feet in height. Hey, I’m a pretty short guy so I guess I really don’t need a very tall tower. Good point: I actually have an unassembled 32 foot, free standing, tower ready to go. Fact: In order to put up this tower I need a sizeable cement and rebar filled hole for its base. I don’t think that falls into either a good or a bad point, just another one of those facts, Jack. I’ve always believed in working smart rather than working hard, so I first looked into ordering a already made (dug?) hole from eBay, but it seems the 5? x 5? x 5? box the appropriate hole would be shipped in was just to large for U.P.S. Good point: I own several picks and shovels so I can dig my own hole… and that is exactly what I tried to do. Fact: the top soil here is about 6? deep and beneath that “digable” soil you will find tons and tons of volcanic rock. History lesson: Clear Lake was formed from a volcano’s caldera! So I discovered that hole digging really does fall into the not-so-good category. So only a few days after moving to this QTH I realized that I had to move on to Antenna Project Plan B… at least for now.

My antenna project plan B consisted of a partially erected, 30 foot telescoping mast placed at the center of our garage’s nearly flat roof. Three sets of four 1/2? black double-Dacron ropes would be used to guy the mast. A three-foot reinforced top section would be added to better support a Hygain rotor’s optional mast bracket. A Cushcraft MA5B would be installed a foot or so above the rotor on a 5 foot mast stub (the only length I had on hand). I would place my three-element 6-meter yagi 3 feet above the MA5B (way too close but it works). At the top of the stub I would install my dual band VHF/UHF collinear vertical. Finally, just below the rotor’s mast mount I’d attach the tower mount point for my 160-, 80-, 40-, and 30-meter 1/4 wave horizontal sloper.

Here the antennas mounted to the “still collapsed” mast have been raised vertically with help from my son, Allen, my XYL, Evelyn, a local friend, Jack (not the same Jack), and a  neighborhood handyman. Let it be known that it is a real pain putting up any antenna using non-hams as your only assistance.

And Let the Noise Begin

I’ll write more about this project later. Basically I knew before I moved to this QTH that I would encounter nasty night time noise levels, especially on 160-, 80- and 40-meters. The electrical grid infrastructure has been poorly maintained for years. Add that fact to the knowledge that many of your neighbors have sizeable pot grows – many of which are indoors requiring RF polluting grow lamps.

This is not the first time I have had to deal with RF noise problems, but it is the most difficult RF noise environment I’ve ever experienced. Over the years I have applied numerous band aids seeking what improvements I could manage on my own as well as obtaining necessary assistance from PG&E technical crews and my neighbors. In my current situation, PG&E equipment is the least of my problems as most of what I am experiencing comes from neighborhood solar installations and unapproachable pot farmers. Here is a photo of my current noise level on 40-meters (it is 3am). 80-meters is worse.

My Orion’s noise blanker and my JPS ANC-4 Noise Canceler are a reasonably effective combo for reducing a portion of my electrical noises, however my most effective instrument for nearly all types of electrical noise has proven time and again to be my magnetically shielded receive loop – a DIY design project I originally scratched out in a notebook about 10 years ago.

My current receive loop is the second incarnation of the original project. I have used this same loop at this and my previous two QTHs.

At the end of September, 2017, I reinstalled my GAP Titan vertical. It is a really noisy antenna for reception, but it works really well as a low angle radiator (DX) and a perfect mate to my magnetically shielded receive loop. My XYL’s vision is not what it should be – hence the orange guy ropes… its only fair as the GAP Titan is growing in her garden.

Here Comes the Sun

It was time to harness the sun so I recently added a DIY 400 watt solar array. Combined together with three 90A, 12 VDC deep cycle marine batteries and a MFJ-4416B Super Battery Booster, my solar system has been able to run my Orion all day and half the night without AC backup. (more on this later)

The four 100 watt solar panels are mounted on the pivotable frame. Heavy duty 10 gauge DC “solar” wires and passive combiners group the panels into a parallel design for maximum current capability. The final combined output travels a very short distance to the nearby antenna/solar battery closet.

I received my first license in 1964… now some 54 years later I find today’s Amateur Radio just as captivating.

– Jerry, KG6TT

(Hobby – An activity or interest pursued outside one’s regular occupation and engaged in primarily for pleasure.)