Tag Archives: ham shack/office (house)

2015/07/10 (F) Eye of the Beholder

I was up at 7 AM and made coffee.  This usually wakes Linda up, but not this morning.  After waiting a reasonable amount of time I went ahead and started drinking.  If someone tells you that 7:30 is too early in the morning to be drinking don’t believe it, and if someone tells you that you should never drink alone don’t believe that either.

Linda eventually got up but looked really tired.  Unbeknownst to me she had awoken in the middle of the night and not been able to get back to sleep.  Neither of us were hungry after the large meals we had last night for dinner so we just had a little juice to wash down our little pills (vitamins and an allergy pill for me).

I’ve been looking for a system to wall-mount multiple flat-panel LCD monitors above/behind the desks in the ham radio shack portion of the downstairs office.  Linda was helping search for products and found AFC Industries in New York.  Their website had a large variety of very serious looking products.  The ones that caught my eye were a 72″ wall mount track with four articulated monitor mounts and a 48″ track with three mounts.  They had an 800 number and the website said to call for pricing.  That’s usually a bad sign but they appeared to have exactly what I needed so I decided to call them later.

I had planned to work on the custom desk design all day but Linda had other ideas.  She had become frustrated with the clutter in the library and the inability to really clean that room and decided that today was the day to do something about it.  Point acknowledged.  Some of the clutter (but not all) is artwork and she thought the place for us to start was to get some of it hung on the walls.  Again, point well taken and agreed.  Doing this correctly is a slow process, however, so I knew my plans for the whole day had just changed.  Sometimes you have go along to get along.

We have artwork that is not currently displayed which ranges in size from 8″ x 10″ to 2′ x 5′.  Some of it is framed and ready for hanging and some of it is not.  It is mostly paintings but there is some photography, a few poster prints, and some textile pieces.  We went through every piece looking primarily for oil paintings that we liked and that would fit the spaces we had available to hang them.  Before we were finished with this project for the day we had hung eight paintings.  We also found four paintings that we liked but lacked frames, or ways to hang them, and set them aside for now.  Most of the paintings were done by Ann Metzger, my late great Aunt, but one was done by my late mother.  We had also moved a few items out of the library into the driveway to be donated to the Salvation Army.  I tend to use drywall screws with large fender washers as hangers as they are strong and very secure.  We ran out of stainless steel fender washers so that created a natural stopping point for our task.

For a change of pace I decided to climb the tower to measure the center sleeve inside diameter so I could determine what outside diameter mast to get.  I got out Mike’s climbing harness, set up the step ladder, put on the harness, climbed up onto the roof, connected the waist strap around the tower, and started climbing.  I alternately attached and detached the two safety cables and made good progress until I got to the DB8e OTA TV antenna.  To go higher I would have to move from the west face to the northeast face and then undo the waist strap and reconnect it above the mounting point for the OTA TV antenna.  I did not feel like doing that today.  I was, however, able to reach the bottom of the sleeve by extending my tape measure.  The tip of the tape fit inside the bottom of the sleeve with what appeared to be about a quarter inch to spare.  I then climbed down and got off the roof, got out of the climbing harness, and put it away.

Back in the house the tip of the tape measured approximately 1-1/8″ across thus it appears that the sleeve is sized for a 1-3/8″ outside diameter mast.  I checked Universal Towers website, since they are located in S. E. Michigan, but their selection of aluminum masts did not include this O.D.  OnlineMetals.com has 1-3/8″ O.D. 6061-T6 aluminum tube in five different wall thicknesses and a large variety of lengths so that may be the easiest way to get one.  But first I will check the usual ham radio places.

Next I called AFC Industries and was routed to Ewa who was very curious what I was going to use the multiple monitors for since I was not a company.  I tried to explain why I would need at least three monitors in an amateur (ham) radio shack but she had never heard of ham radio and I don’t think I did a very good job of explaining it.  She was paying attention to what I was describing, however, about where I wanted to position the monitors.  She could not give me pricing on the phone so I gave her my e-mail address to send a quote.  Ewa was prompt in the sending the quote but I did not see it until later as we had the leftover seitan stroganoff for lunch and then left to run errands.

Linda had loaded our donation items in the back of my car while I was on the phone.  I brought seven paintings to the car and we left.  Our first stop was the Salvation Army donation center between Brighton and Howell.  We then went to the Howell Art and Framing Center, a frame shop on the east end of downtown Howell.  The proprietor, Rick, worked with us quite a while as we selected frames for four of the seven pieces and played with his Jack Russell terrier, Rudy.  These four pieces will go in the library when they are done in about three weeks.  Our final stop was Meijer’s where we picked up fender washers, salad greens, and coffee filters.

Back at the house I went to my office to check e-mail and work on the desk design.  The quote was there from Ewa and she had already made a follow up phone call so I opened the e-mail and looked at the quote.  It was almost double what I expected which was already double what I wanted to spend.  I e-mailed her back and asked for a simpler configuration but politely explained that her numbers were way out of my price range.  The interesting thing about such experiences is that the Ziotek products I’ve been looking at on the CyberGuys website suddenly do not seem so expensive.  It’s funny how that works.

While I was working I got a TXT message from Chuck following up on the refrigerator installation.  I texted back that I had not yet checked whether we can open the fixed glass window frame but would do so immediately and call him back.  I moved the 7′ step ladder next to the bus and climbed up to inspect the stop blocks as Linda pushed the window open.  The two stop blocks on that frame were definitely contacting the drip rail immediately above them preventing the frame from opening more than about 8 to 10 inches at the bottom.  The good news was that the Zip Dee patio awning would not interfere with the opening of the window.  The bad news is that I was not able to remove the two Philips head screws that secured each block to the frame.

I called Butch to find out what the tool was that I used at his shop to work on my brakes.  He said it was a manual impact tool.  This nifty little device is a screwdriver that turns through a small angle when you strike the end of it with a hammer.  This has the unique benefit of driving the screwdriver bit into the screw head while turning.  Butch thought that any auto store would have these so I called the local O’Reilly’s but they did not have any in stock in the store.

While I was talking to Butch Linda was researching other places to buy such a tool.  It turned out that Sears would be a good choice but the closest one was at Twelve Oaks Mall over 20 miles away.  I was getting ready to drive there but called Chuck first.  It turned out that he has two of them so I will borrow one tomorrow after our ham radio club breakfast.  I spent the last couple hours of the evening working on the desk design.  I then went to bed and worked on this post.

 

2015/06/29 (M) Website On The Air

Linda was up at 5:55 AM this morning and left for the bakery at 6:15.  Experience has shown that this is usually early enough to get ahead of the morning rush hour traffic inbound to the Detroit metro area from the northwest.

I got up about an hour later, had granola for breakfast, and enjoyed my morning coffee (Sweet Seattle Dreams half-caff blend from Teeko’s) and then made a run to Lowe’s to purchase a couple of copper ground lugs and 5 feet of #10 green ground wire.  Back home I tried to use one of the ground lugs to terminate the ground wire from the cable entry box (CEB) to the 36″ ground bar on the wall behind the ham radio desks but it’s shape prevented the wing nut from going onto the stud.

I planned to use the other lug to attach one end of the #10 wire to the ground bar and put a male spade lug on the other end to mate with the connector on the Go Box ground pigtail, but that clearly was not going to work.  I dressed the ground wire and (temporary) coax in the ham shack and put the ceiling tile back in place.  I then started cleaning up the living room and small bedroom per Linda’s request before she left this morning.  Some of our (my) projects have a way of expanding throughout the whole house.  I had hoped to also pick up the coax cables spread out in the recreation room, and at least start to straighten up the ham shack/office, putting materials away and moving tools to the garage.

At 10 AM I made a few phone calls.  The first was to Rick Short at ISRI USA regarding the 6860 bus driver’s seat and a possible visit tomorrow morning.  I got his voice mail (again) and never got a return call (again) so I gave up on getting any assistance from him or from ISRI USA.  I called Linda to make sure she did not have any commitments on Wednesday and then called Josh at Coach Supply Direct to set up a visit to his shop for Wednesday late morning.  Linda and I plan to finalize our Flexsteel furniture order and give Josh the deposit during that visit.  Next I called Scott Adams, AC8IL, at Adams Electronics and ordered a 20 foot length of LMR-400 with an N-male connector on one end and a PL-259 connector on the other end.  Scotty and I also chatted briefly about tower bases.

I e-mailed Scott Neader at QST.com regarding the transfer of the SLAARC domain name and website from GoDaddy to QST.com and got a reply back right away with an outline of the steps I needed to follow.  First on the list was creating an account for our ham radio club through his billing system.  I took care of that and e-mailed him back.

Keith Kish, from Kish Lawn, care showed up around 11 AM to cut the grass.  When he was done I headed back to Lowe’s to look for an alternate ground clamp and pulley support for the tower but did not find anything suitable.  So as not to have it be a wasted trip I bought three more bags of broken brick pieces to use around the tower base and cable entry box.

I spent some time looking at the Yaesu FTM-400DR/DE on several different ham radio equipment vendor websites.  Yaesu is offering a $100 rebate on this 2m/440 mobile radio through tomorrow.  All of the distributors are selling it for the same price, $599.95 and the rebate brings it down to $499.95, so if I buy one it will come down to who has them in stock and is offering free shipping.

Linda got home from the bakery around 3 PM, earlier than I expected and nice for her.  She went for a walk while I continued to fuss with ham radio and website stuff.

For dinner Linda made a white beans and mustard greens dish.  We eat a lot of lettuce, kale, and spinach, both raw and cooked into dishes, but only occasionally have collard greens or mustard greens.  Mustard greens have a very strong, bitter flavor and I liked them more than Linda did.  I think they are an acquired taste and may be more suitable as an accent ingredient rather than a main one.

After dinner I checked my e-mail and had a reply from Scott at QTH.com.  The QTH SLAARC account invoice was ready so I paid it using a personal credit card.  I then moved the coax from our Icom IC-7000 to Mike’s Icom IC-2820H and turned it on.  Mike was on the South Lyon repeater discussing the Field Day event with Steve (N8AR) and Bruce (W8RA).  Paul (N8BHT) was able to join the conversation but I was not successful breaking in so I just listened.  It was an indication that my power into the repeater was probably still marginal but a good reminder that ham radio conversations are very public.

When they were done I called for Mike and he came back.  We had a good QSO (chat) about the Yaesu FTM-400.  Jim (N8KUE) joined in for a while.  After Jim dropped off we tested my ability to transmit to, and receive from, both the South Lyon 2m and Novi 70cm repeaters.  The added power of the IC-2820H over my IC-7000 (50W vs 35W in the 70cm band) combined with the lower signal loss of the better coax made just enough difference that I could hold the Novi repeater when transmitting although my signal was still on top of a lot of noise coming back out of the repeater.

Linda wanted to watch an episode of Scorpion, followed by NCIS Los Angeles, after which I caught an episode of Two and a Half Men and then turned off the TV.  I will have to make a decision about the Yaesu FTM-400 in the morning.

 

2015/06/13 (S) On to Illinois

It has turned out to be a wet June so far and we had more heavy rain last night.  In spite of waking up during the night I was up at 7:30 AM and made coffee.  Everyone else got up as suited their level of rest and we sat around chatting for a while.  Ron put a load of laundry in the washing machine and then we sat down to a light breakfast.

Ron and Mary spent most of the rest of the morning repacking all of their stuff for the drive to northwest Illinois and their week-long bicycle ride.  FedEx Home Delivery delivered the Cyclo 5-Pro Mark II Dual Head Orbital Polisher I ordered along with all of the foam pads and detailing chemicals.

Ron retrieved their laundry from the dryer and after they finished packing we had a light lunch.  By 1 PM they were ready to load up the car so we helped get their bags out.  After a brief “farewell and safe travels” they were on their way.  They had a five hour drive but would gain an hour as they entered the Central Time Zone so they would be at their motel by 5 PM local time with plenty of daylight and time to eat dinner.

Linda took a short nap and then went for a walk.  I read through the manual for our SureCall Fusion5s cell phone booster and was part way through the manual for the Cyclo 5 when I decided to take a nap.  Linda returned from her walk and a little while later a USPS mail carrier delivered the OTA TV antenna I ordered from Antennas Direct.  All I am waiting for now is the cable entrance box I ordered from KF7P Metalwerks.

Once the cable entrance box arrives I will have a bit of a project.  First I will need to drill two 2″ holes through the east wall of the house and into the sump pump closet in the northeast corner of the basement, mount the box to the wall, and ground it to the outside ground rod by the tower.  I may also need to install additional ground rods.  I will then need to climb the tower by the house and do the following:

  1. take down the old OTA TV antenna and rotator;
  2. mount the new OTA TV antenna and aim it;
  3. mount the amplifier for the OTA TV antenna;
  4. attach a short piece of 75 Ohm co-ax from the antenna output to the amplifier input and weatherproof the connections;
  5. attach a longer piece of 75 Ohm co-ax to the output of the amplifier and weatherproof the connection;
  6. mount the outside antenna for the cell phone booster system;
  7. attach one end of a 50′ piece of LMR-400 or RG-213 co-ax to the cell phone antenna and weatherproof it;
  8. unmount our Diamond SG7900 2m/70cm ham radio base station antenna and remount it at the top of the tower;
  9. attach a 50-to-60 foot length of LMR-400 or RG-213 co-ax to the ham radio antenna;
  10. dress and secure all of the coaxial cables with plastic cable ties (zip ties).

Once I am done with tower work I will need to do the following to complete the installation:

  1. install the lightning arrestors in the cable entrance box for the cell phone booster and OTA TV (?) co-ax cables;
  2. route each of the co-ax cables into the bottom of the cable entrance box and attach them to appropriate lighting arrestors;
  3. attach additional co-ax cables to the lightning arrestors and feed them through the 2″ holes into the basement;
  4. mount the Surecall Fusion5s in the sump pump room and connect the co-ax for the outside antenna and the power supply;
  5. run a 50′ length of LMR-400 from the sump pump room across the basement ceiling and up through an old vertical furnace exhaust chase to the attic;
  6. drill a hole in the ceiling of the main floor hallway near the chase;
  7. mount the inside done antenna for the cell phone booster system to the ceiling with the co-ax dongle in the attic;
  8. connect the antenna dongle to the co-ax coming up from the basement;
  9. run additional co-ax from the sump pump room to the ham shack;
  10. run additional co-ax from the sump pump room to the video distribution point in the laundry room (or directly to the locations of the two TV sets);
  11. turn on the Fusion5s booster (transceiver), adjust the gain (if needed) and test it with our phones and Mi-Fi;
  12. test the TV sets (and hopefully not have to go back up the tower to reposition the antenna);
  13. connect our Icom IC-7000 amateur radio and test the antenna connection.

As I wrote out this list it occurred to me that I need to make a list of all of the co-ax types/lengths/connectors I need and that, at a minimum, I probably need to order a length of LMR-400 orRG-213 co-ax cable and the proper N-connectors to complete the ham radio antenna connections.  It also occurred to me that I might be able to do some of the inside wiring while I am waiting for the cable entrance box to arrive.  Also, once the TVs are connected Linda can scan for channels and communicate with me with our HT ham radios if I need to change the aim of the antennas on the tower.

All of this reminded me that I need to follow-up with a Bratcher Electric on running a new 100 Amp main feed from the transfer switch to the panel in the furnace room in the garage.  I also need to order some new split foam fillers from Critter-Guard and new electrical hardware for connecting the bus to the toad from EZ-Connector in California.

I must have been sleeping lightly and dreamed all of these details because I got up from my nap around 5:30 PM, finished reading the manual for the Cyclo 5, and then took a shower and got dressed for dinner.  Barb Spera had called Linda yesterday to see if we were available for dinner this evening.  They had really enjoyed our meal at La Marsa in Brighton a couple of weeks ago and wanted to go again so we agreed to meet them there at 7 PM.  We did not have to wait for a table and our waiter, Najheem (Naa-gheem), was delightful.  Barbara had the Koshary again, and Chuck had the Chicken Shwarma with tabbouleh salad, while we split an order of spicy vegetarian ghallabah with rice and a salad.  I had a mango smoothie and we all enjoyed the swarm pocket bread and garlic spread.

It was after 9 PM when we got home and we headed off to bed at 10.  We knew Ron and Mary had arrived at their destination because Ron played a Scrabble word.  Linda had also checked that our daughter and son-in-law were on their way back from Las Vegas.