Aug 25

N3QO Desk

One of the trickiest parts about building a shack is how to set everything up that is both easy to use, makes the best use of the space and can facilitate additional operators (+1). Since upgrading to my HF privileges in March, it was just me and my 746. In short time my YL, Laurie (KB3SIK) obtained her General license and soon had her own HF rig. An L-shaped desk wasn’t going to cut it if we both wanted to operate. At least electrically we could do it with the help of 2 antennas and a set of ICE filters, but ergonomically it just wasn’t happening.

For the last 2 months I had this idea for as stacked desk design in my head. Just this last weekend I finally executed on the build. It measures 8ft wide and can facilitate 3-4 radios in 2-3 operating positions. I also wanted to later design in a 19″ rack under the main desktop for central power supplies, antenna patching/switching, audio processing, etc. The grounding wire interconnected the Alpha Delta switches is NOT the final setup. With some input from Jon (N3INJ), I’ll be using copper strapping as the final station ground bus.
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Aug 10

N3QO – Back on the air!

Spent most of the day getting the MA5B back up on the roof since the move from Allentown to Pottstown. I was graced with hearing EK6TA out of Armenia, my furthest I’ve heard yet. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to work him, but it was nice to know the antenna was at least picking it up. In addition an Italian and Irish station were also propogating to me around 5-6PM. You’ll see the ground wire on the outside station ground bus, this has since been changed out to zero gauge copper. I initially needed some form of ground for the polyphasers to discharge any built up static.

The wire routing will also need to change to separate the beam mount and inside station ground from the transmission and rotor control lines. Although so far I haven’t found any RF hot spots anywhere inside. But then again, at most I’m outputting 100 watts.
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