Author Topic: My Ham Radio station and workshop/Man-cave  (Read 10615 times)

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Offline k7rmj

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My Ham Radio station and workshop/Man-cave
« on: December 25, 2016, 10:20:23 AM »
I am still working on getting the place wired, cleaned up and organized. Lots of stuff still in boxes because we just moved here in January (11 months ago LOL).

First the Ham Station

Left to right, SB-200 Linear, Drake MN 2700 Tuner with Astron RS-35M 12V power supply on top of it, Yaesu FT-950 Transceiver with MFJ-492 CW Keyer on top of it. filename Station1.jpg

Next is another pic of the station that includes the Kenwood SP-930 speaker and Yaesu MD-100 mic on the right. Ignore the cable mess under the bench. filename stn2.jpg

I routed the ground cable and the antenna feed line coax across wall above a set of shelves next to the window. You can also see the DC power distribution panel mounted on the side of the window frame. Filename cableroute.jpg

The station ground cable connects to the cold water plumbing pipes. You have to look close but this is a pic of the connection to the pipes. I couldn't solder it to the pipes without taking the pipe connection apart and draining the water out of the pipes so I cleaned the pipe with Tarnex and used a hose clamp to bond the ground cable to the pipe. Yes, I have to take the connection apart and clean the pipe again with Tarnex about once a year. You can also see the hole in the wall I brought the coax cable through. filename cablntrnc.jpg

This is the messy workbench and some of the storage bins for small parts on the bench. I could only fit 6 of the small parts bins on the workbench. But that is another story by itself. filename = wkbnchmess.jpg

Storage shelves next to the workbench filename storage.jpg

And last is the computer and audio amp for the station. The amp is an old Sherwood R-325 Audio/Video receiver I resurrected. It was a tough repair I picked up at a ham-fest. The problems it had were all due to a blown fuse on a circuit board. filename compooter.jpg

That's the rundown for my man-cave. There are several more shelving units but I doubt you are interested in old dead radios, half full paint buckets and other treasures that only a home-owner can appreciate LOL.

73 DE K7RMJ  Frank

Offline The Radio Shop

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Re: My Ham Radio station and workshop/Man-cave
« Reply #1 on: December 25, 2016, 10:46:34 AM »
Nice station. Just too darn clean lol.  You have some good equipment there. I like it. You should see mine. It is a mess!

Here is a tip. hen uploading pictures resize them to 640 X 480. (large web) Makes it fit the forum nicely. Then you can link them.
Example below.


Good job on the station and work bench setup.

Buddy kc4umo

Offline Jim M

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Re: My Ham Radio station and workshop/Man-cave
« Reply #2 on: December 26, 2016, 12:10:49 PM »
You have a window, that's a plus.

Offline k7rmj

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Re: My Ham Radio station and workshop/Man-cave
« Reply #3 on: December 26, 2016, 12:50:25 PM »
Nice station. Just too darn clean lol.  You have some good equipment there. I like it. You should see mine. It is a mess!

Here is a tip. hen uploading pictures resize them to 640 X 480. (large web) Makes it fit the forum nicely. Then you can link them.
Example below.


Good job on the station and work bench setup.



Thanks for the tip, Buddy. I wondered what the secret was to imbedding them into the text of my replies.  I tried it with just the "Insert Image" button but that didn't work so I used the filename where I wanted the image to go. I'll give that a try next time.

Thanks, Frank

Offline k7rmj

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Re: My Ham Radio station and workshop/Man-cave
« Reply #4 on: December 26, 2016, 12:57:33 PM »
You have a window, that's a plus.

Thanks for the comment, Jim.  Yes, I really love that window in front of the ham station. It gives the "cave" an opening to the rest of the world LOL. I need to wash that window but it was raining when I took the picture.

So far I have seen quite a bit of wildlife out that window. Deer, a Wildcat, several tree rats (squirrels), chipmunks and a really weird neighbor LOL. I only have the one neighbor that is fairly close to the house. All the other lots surrounding me are not buildable lots so no houses will ever be built on them. It gives me a huge area to put up lots of wire antennas.

73 DE Frank  K7RMJ

Offline RJ

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Re: My Ham Radio station and workshop/Man-cave
« Reply #5 on: December 26, 2016, 03:01:40 PM »
Nice setup!

Offline k7rmj

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Re: My Ham Radio station and workshop/Man-cave
« Reply #6 on: December 26, 2016, 03:50:54 PM »
Hi RJ and thanks for the kind words.  It will be a lot nicer when I finish putting it all together and cleaned up.

I finished installing the station ground bus this morning. I made it out of a 5' long piece of 3/4" copper tubing. The copper tubing is much softer than copper pipe and easier to drill.  I hammered one end of the tubing flat then installed it on top of the radio table across the back edge next to the window.



Then I bolted the Station ground wire to the flattened end. Then the fun began. Behind each piece of equipment I drilled a small pilot hole in the ground bus tubing and secured a ground strap to it. The other end of the strap has a ring connector soldered on it and is connected to the ground terminal on each piece of equipment. No ground loops that way.

The cabling behind the equipment was pretty neat before this project began LOL



73 DE K7RMJ  Frank

Offline The Radio Shop

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Re: My Ham Radio station and workshop/Man-cave
« Reply #7 on: December 26, 2016, 06:12:46 PM »
After you add your attachment and summit your post do this.

Click the picture to make it larger, then right click the picture. Select properties.
Highlight the address of the picture and copy it.

Now in the message window type the following. I will put spaces in it so it shows.

[ img ] insert the address here [ /img ]

Now save and it will show picture in full size. I will do a demo of it later in a new thread.
Buddy kc4umo

Offline The Radio Shop

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Re: My Ham Radio station and workshop/Man-cave
« Reply #8 on: December 26, 2016, 06:14:19 PM »
Ok, I modified your picture above, hit the edit and you can see what I did.
Buddy kc4umo

Offline k7rmj

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Re: My Ham Radio station and workshop/Man-cave
« Reply #9 on: December 26, 2016, 06:23:17 PM »
Thanks Buddy, I think I got it figured out now. I was able to do the same thing to the second image file that you did to the first.

You ROCK!!   8)

Offline The Radio Shop

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Re: My Ham Radio station and workshop/Man-cave
« Reply #10 on: December 26, 2016, 06:30:00 PM »
Thanks Buddy, I think I got it figured out now. I was able to do the same thing to the second image file that you did to the first.

You ROCK!!   8)

Cool deal!
Buddy kc4umo