So, I have finally made some forward movement on my home shack build!  As I get rolling on this project I'd love to hear feedback from everyone on what you would do if you had the opportunity to build your shack "from scratch" because that's exactly what I'm doing!  A while back I attached furring strips to the ceiling for the eventual ceiling treatment, and today I finally started framing some walls.

     Before I get too far, I'll explain a couple things in this picture - 1st, the door that looks partially obstructed by the framing is partially obstructed!  That was the original door into the room, and it is actually getting a pocket door framed up inside/in front of it.  Once the pocket door is in place, I'll remove this door from the other side.  This will help keep the dust out of the finished part of the basement while I work (and also keep the cats out...)
     You might also notice the wires hanging down in the boxed out area.  These are for computer network and TV distribution, and run up into the new addition - I put them in back when everything was torn apart, because that was the easiest time to do it!  In this same spot I have three 2" conduits running from this room clean up to the attic, to allow for whatever needs to get up there (like maybe some coax...)
     Lastly, if you are extra observant, you might notice that a couple of the wall sections are framed with the studs 2' on center instead of the standard 16".  This is because part of the strength of these walls will come from the eventual treatment that they get (I'm deciding between two options right now), so these studs are really just there to attach that treatment too, and not to provide strength like is needed for a standard drywall finish.
     The framed wall at the back of the picture is the wall that the operating desk will eventually be against.  If you look closely, you can see that this wall is actually some distance  from the foundation wall.  Here's another shot to help demonstrate this:

     The design I have bouncing around in my head allows for access to the back of the radio / computer / other equipment from this space, so that all of the wiring and everything else can be back here behind the walls, so that you don't see it from the room, but will also be very accessible by just walking back into this little "service" area that I am building in.
     What do you think?  What would you do with a similar space if you were turning it into your radio shack?  Leave a comment and let me know!

     Look what I got!....

     A few 2x4's might not mean much to most folks, but to me, it means that I'll finally make a little more progress on the shack at home, which, if you'll recall, looks like this at the moment:
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     The YL that servers as the project manager around here has given the nod to start making some additional progress in the basement project, which included getting this room framed out.  Before you know it, it might start to look like a proper shack!  Stay tuned - with any luck I'll have some progress pictures to share before the weekend is out.

Happy Hamming!

,     My work took me up to the Boston area again this past week - I wasn't sure what the timing was going to be like, but I was able to head out to do another park activation!  I've been making it a goal to go to as many different parks as I can, since my work travel's get me all over the northeast.  I hadn't been up to Lowell National Historic Park yet, so that's where I pointed my Ford Fusion.  By the way, for anyone who remembers my car saga - the garage seems to have figured it out - I did the entire round trip from Lancaster to Boston and back again, with no troubles.  Thank goodness! (P.S. the car seems to make less RFI now than it did before the repair, and part of the problem was supposedly electrical issues with the throttle body....related maybe??) 
     I didn't have a lot of time, because Lowell was actually about an hour north of where I was staying.  Thinking back to my attempt at a quick activation before (remember my complete bust at Delaware Water Gap?), I wasn't sure if this was going to be worth the trip or not.  In the end - I'm glad I went!
     My first contact after getting parked was at 6:31pm.  My last contact was at 7:21pm.  I actually called it a night at that point, because part of my routine when I travel is to do a video chat with my little future operators back home and read them their bedtime stories.  I love ham radio, but I love them more!  Anyway, for those doing the math, that's 50 minutes.  I also took a break for about 5 minutes during that, because one of the contacts I made was with ham who was local to the area, so I told him to stop by and say hello.  It was awesome meeting someone in person that I made a contact with, while the radio was still warm from the contact!  All in all, that was about 45 minutes of actual operating time, during which I made 54 contacts!  Thats 1.2 contacts a minutes!  I know the big contesters easily double that, but I've never gone through that many, that fast.  Ever.  Wam, bam,  thank you ham!
     After I packed up and was waiting to start my evening call back home, another local ham that I contacted stopped by, and we talked about how he does his setup at the same park when he activates - there's a nice area at the back of the lot that has a couple trees, spaced just right for his dipole - awesome!
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     So even though this activation was short and unplanned, I consider it a complete success!  It was enough to motivate me to start planning a more challenging activation.  I'll likely have a couple more activation's like this one during the month of July, but for August I'm planning something special.  I'd tell you what it is, but I'm keeping it close to the chest because it's something that I think may be a first/record of some type, at least for NPOTA!  (Remember - I claim to be the first to have done a NPOTA activation using PSK31 while in motion - no one has disputed that yet as far as I know!)  
     Because of the success, I felt I deserved a reward....yum!

With this activation in the bag, I'm now tied with 32 other people for 171st out of 900 activators so far this year - go me!  

​Have a great 4th!