I haven't been out to do any portable operations for some time, primarily because I haven't had to do any work trips for a while. For me, the two things usually coincide.  I just had another work trip to do that took me to our New York City office, which meant I also had the opportunity to do another activation!  I'll warn you now - this post gets a touch sentimental at the end, but ham radio does that to me...

​I used my normal bag of tricks when deciding which park to activate on this trip.  I've written in the past about my methodology for choosing a park to activate, so if you're into that kind of thing you can read about it here.  For some of my recent activations I have stayed inside of state parks, but for this trip I was staying at one of the standard chain hotels and driving in and out of the park in the evenings.

Since I wasn't going to be able to do one of my preferred portable setups, I did a little fiddling with my antennas.  I wanted to use something a little more than just the hamsticks that I use while mobile, but I was going to be limited with what I could do because of time and space constraints associated with driving in and out of the park.  The solution I ended up going with was to use parts of my Buddipole as a vertical antenna, in the ball mount on my car.  I've touched on this before when I wrote about how I love the standards (specifically, the fact that most of our antenna bits use 3/8-24 connectors!)  This time, I kept notes when I was fiddling around, in case someone wants to replicate it:

20 Meters:  2 antenna arms, 1 coil, tapped 13 windings down, and 1 of the standard telescoping whip sections (extended just short of 5 full sections)
40 Meters (voice portion of band): 2 antenna arms, 1 coil (not tapped), 1 of the standard telescoping whip sections (extended 4 sections), and 1 additional detail - verticals on cars at this frequency often need some assistance making a match.  In my case I have an MFJ-907 unun installed the car (I talked about that here.) I also needed use that on it's "J" setting to match the antenna to the feed-line.

So how did the activation go?  Awesome! The first evening I made 50 or so contacts, with a couple DX highlights: Portugal, and a Mobile in England.  

Let's pause for a minute to reflect on this.  As a contrast, I was walking the streets of NYC earlier the same day, which is one of the most diverse places in the US.  Even in that diversity however, there isn't much goodwill happening.  People are in a hurry, they push, they shove, we crammed onto subway cars, and the friendliest thing I heard anyone say was "Get out of my way!"  With all the opportunity for interaction face to face, we often miss that chance.  But here, on ham radio, someone I don't know, from another culture, who probably speaks a language I don't know much of (Ich spreche ein bischen deutsch, aber es ist nicht so gut...) treated me with patience, kindness and encouragement.  Via ham radio, we are participating in international goodwill in a way that exceeds domestic goodwill.  I love that I participate in a hobby where this is an every day occurrence!  I can't say any more than that, so for now 73!

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I have another update to share on the progress in my shack! The operating position received the treatment that will make up the "wall" behind the desk. My little helper wanted to demonstrate what it would look like when someone was sitting in the chair, so use your imagination and pretend she is sitting on a comfortable office chair, with a desktop/work surface around her, along with the dim glow from all the radio equipment:

Here are a couple more pictures, and then I'll describe my slightly unorthodox method to hang this, what I used, and what the plan is:

While this might not look like much at the moment, it actually represents something that I put a bit of forethought into. I like a clean look, so I knew that for my operating position, I wanted the equipment recessed into the wall, so that from the desk you would just see the faces of the equipment through purposefully sized cutouts. What you see here is actually 3/4 inch maple plywood, that will be stained, since that is in keeping with the look I'm after for the room.  The wood wall will give me the look I'm after, while giving me the ability to mount the equipment they way I want.

The framing that this plywood is on was framed with studs 24 inches on center instead of the standard 16 inches, so that there would be room for equipment to slide in between the studs. This also gives me plenty of space between studs to use some rack mount hardware, or potentially even put racks behind, with the faces flush with the wall. I have also mentioned previously, but now you can better see, that I framed the wall about 4 feet from the back of the room.  This gives me a utility space that I can walk into, which will give me access to the back of all the equipment, and a place to put the "non-glamorous" components, like back-up batteries, etc.

I hung these plywood panels in a non-traditional way. Since these panels will be stained, and will be the visible "wall", I didn't want to see screw heads.  To make this happen I borrowed a tool from my YL (I'm pretty sure I've used it more than she has...)

​For those that don't know, this thing is called a Kreg Jig. It lets you create perfect holes for pocket screws, which is a pretty slick way to hide fasteners. The most common application is probably for making the face frames for cabinetry, since they are an easy and fast way to join material that is butted together. In my case, when combined with some construction adhesive between the stud and plywood, it was a perfect way to screw my panels from the rear, while being sure that the tips of the screws wouldn't poke through the face!

The way the height works out, once I build the desktop, the desktop and splash guard will hide the seam between the top panel and the one below. The end result will be a seamless wall the I can mount equipment in, that is strong enough to hold anything that I might reasonably hang on it (TV / PC monitors) that gives me a finished look, while at the same time giving me very easy access to the rear of the equipment!

I'm pleased with how it's coming along! If you were doing a similar project, what features would you build in while you had the chance?

P.S.  I found a use for the cutoff ends of this plywood, to build something that my YL has wanted for a while, that has a bit of a ham radio tie-in.  I'll share that soon!

I think details are important. I prefer neatly wrapped cables. I like straight lines. I abhor piles, but if a stack is required, it MUST go from largest on the bottom to smallest at the top. I'm picky about how the dishwasher should be loaded (to the point where my family makes me do all the dishes...) Need I go on?

Now that you have some insight into my neurosis, I'll fill you in on why I shared. The empty concrete cube that I've been turning into my ham shack had some conduit and a decent size junction box for my home fire alarm system running through it (that's right - I said fire alarm system, not smoke detectors. I am fortunate enough to have a commercial fire alarm system in my house.) The junction box was too deep for the ceiling treatment I did, so after the main ceiling was up, I needed to build up a little something to cover it, and to mount the smoke sensor onto, so that my sense of order in the universe would not be shattered. Here's how I did it:

    That's That!  The most important piece of equipment in my ham shack is already in place and operating.  Hopefully though, I'll never need it! 

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If you go back in time a couple years, to the beginnings of my blog, you might recall that one of the reasons I started it was to share my ongoing shack builds. It's been a while, but as I promised last week, I finally have an update on the home shack.  This is a good time to also point out, that if you don't follow me on twitter or instagram, please Check out the links in the right side bar and do so!  My followers there got several sneak peaks at this while it was in progress...

The last time I shared, I only had framing done. Since then, the rough electrical for the non-radio stuff (outlets & lights) has been nearly finished. Because of low headroom, I decided to do exposed conduit for part of the main run to the shack's sub panel. This means I had to get the ceiling treatment done before I could finish my rough electrical.

Since I wanted something that looked old and weathered, I knew that I needed boards that were a little rough. They do make flooring that "looks" old, but it still seemed too modern.  To get the look I was after, I ended up buying 1/2" exterior sheating. This is plywood that has imperfections, knots, dings, you name it. In other words, with a bit of stain, it would be perfect!

Before I got too carried away, I put up furring strips and foam insulation board. I also painted the face of the insulation board gray, so that if there were any gaps in my rustic ceiling you wouldn't see green or pink foam showing through.

With my fancy boards ready to go, I started the process that took a couple weeks worth of spare evenings. I would stain as many boards as I had room to lay out, and then the next available evening I would screw them up, and then stain the next round. Repeat until finished.

I'm thrilled with the way it came out! I know the look isn't for everyone, but I love it, and will enjoy it every time I lean back in operating chair for a stretch between contacts!

.     It feels like everyone is headed to Hamvention!  As much as I'd like to go, it just isn't in the cards in my current situation.  Basically, as a young father that travels for work, the vacation time I get is a carefully guarded commodity that is saved exclusively for spending time with my family.  Even thought I'm sure they'd go with me to Hamvention if I asked, I'd rather them enjoy themselves as well during our vacations - looking at radio stuff just doesn't do it for them the way it does for me!
     Just because I'm not there, doesn't mean I'm not doing radio!  I have several irons in the fire.  If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram (check out the links in the sidebar!) you saw the pictures of my progress on the shack.  It now has a ceiling, and a good portion of it's electrical:

     I'll get into details of how I made the ceiling, in another post specifically about the shack, but I'm please with how it turned out.  I'm going for the whole "Old English Pub meets Mad Scientist Lair" look for my shack, and I love the way this turned out!
     I also have another very tall "iron" (hint hint) in the fire but I don't want to get into that too much, because if it works out I don't want to jinx it - just do me a favor and put your good vibes out into the universe for me!

     Are you at Hamvention?  If so, what are you up to?  If you're not, what are doing to keep busy?  Leave a comment and let me know!

P.S.  The next round of info that I'll need input for on the Crowd-Sourced project will be coming soon!