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Last week I blogged about the progress made on the multi-year basement ham shack, podcast studio, home office and just general man-cave project.  If you recall the sheetrock material was scheduled to be delivered and I had planned to start hanging the material just as soon as I was able to get the 4 foot by 8 foot sheets into the house (from the garage) and down into basement. 

Just like clockwork, the truck from the big box store pulled up on Friday afternoon and unloaded 46 sheets of 4×8 (1/2 inch think) sheetrock in the garage.  By the way, each 4×8 sheet weighs in at approx. 57 lbs.  These are bundled two per so total weight for two sheets is approx. 114 lbs.  Friday evening the task of moving this material into the basement was completed. 

I eased into my Saturday morning much like any other Saturday.  I’ll admit….I’m an addict and have been since my college days.  I can’t function with out my coffee and you don’t want to be around me when I don’t have my morning fix.  Anyway, I also applied a couple of Advil and a hot shower to get my joints moving again after the hard labor on Friday evening.  While giving all this time to work, I managed to work some DX.  I worked ON4CHD in Belgium on 15m JT65. 

Anyway, one other thing to note.  My house is a multi-family design. Meaning I share one interior wall with one neighbor.  It just so happens the portion of the basement I’m working in is that joining wall.  So while some would want to get an early start on a project like this, I want happy neighbors (I need happy neighbors) and never start anything before 9 AM. 

Now what possibly can an IT Guy know about home remodeling?  This is a good question and I wanted to spend a little time sharing my background.  While none of this work is rocket science, at some point in my life I’ve either been trained how to do most of the needed tasks or have previously done them. 

Most of the experience started by having a Dad who taught me how to do these sort of things as a teen.  Also, while I never intended to be a farmer, I did take 4 years of FFA in high school.  This taught me many skills which I’ve needed for this project including electrical, plumbing and general construction.  Finally, while I’ve been working in the IT field for almost 20 years, this didn’t start until late in my working life.  I spent about 4 years working for the State of Texas in a local public school system doing building maintenance.  It just so happened during this time both my Dad and I worked for the same school.  While we spent many hot Texas summers mowing and running a weed eater, we also did a lot of building maintenance  tasks.  It’s the experience of these tasks which has allowed me to do all of my own work. 

So with all that experience, we began the process of hanging the drywall.  My wife is a real trooper as well in all this.  Not only is she supportive in my amateur radio hobby, but she is instrumental in the help and guidance in the project from this point forward.  While I did all the framing, electrical and plumbing…she’s signed on to help me the rest of the way.  This help is making the drywall installation go much easier and will speed the painting process and all the other bits and pieces required before I move into this new space.

How about some photographs. 

As Norm Abram’s would say “Measure Twice, Cut Once”.  I’m measuring and marking the sheetrock material.

Carefully cutting a sheet for length.  No straight edge cut required for this piece.  Just free handing. 

Now as I’ve mentioned a few times in my blog updates.  I’ve tried to think of everything I could/would need not only today but in the future.  I’ve pulled extra coax for CATV as well as plenty of data cable.  In addition, I added many electrical outlets to this space.  All these added outlets require extra attention when hanging drywall. 

Back in my younger years, we would have to carefully measure where each electrical box was located and then mark the drywall sheets, then cut the openings before hanging the material.  You kept fingers crossed your measurements were accurate.  Today we have simple technology that speeds all this up.  I’m using a kit from Blind Mark.   Blind Mark uses strong magnets in a two piece device to easily locate your outlet boxes after you hang your drywall or plywood material.

Just place a Blind Mark target in each electrical box.  In the above picture one 4 foot piece of drywall was going to cover all three boxes.

A close-up of a single box.

Once you’ve secured the sheet of drywall to the wall, take the Blind Mark locator and slide it in the vicinity of where the outlet should be and it will find it.  Just trace with a pencil around the Blind Mark locator.

Then with your knife start cutting.  I also used a small cordless Dremel tool with a cutting bit to speed this process up.  Just be careful as the Dremel tool can easily cut into things you don’t want to be cut.  Once cut, just remove the Blind Mark locator and finishing securing the drywall to the studs.

How about a before and after shot?  Unfortunately, I can’t find the photos I took 5 years ago showing just the concrete walls (before framing) so you’ll just need to use your imagination.  These photos were in the blog posting from last week.

Before Sheetrock.  This is the corner where my main operating position will be located.  This room is roughly 16×16.

Before Sheetrock. 

After Sheetrock.  The corner unfinished portion is framing I had to do around a support post.  On the other side is a utility closet and where I’ll run antenna feed line, grounding etc. for the amateur radio station.   The wall on the right and left of the corner will be fitted with cabinets above and some below with an “L” shaped counter surface.

Another after sheetrock. 

All-in-all, the weekend was very much a successful weekend.  Together, my wife and I hung 17 sheets of drywall.  We are a little over half way getting the walls done.  Pending all goes as planned, we should be able to finish the walls next weekend.  Of course, once the walls are finished all that will be left is the ceiling.  While I can say I’m not looking forward to this part of the project, we will rent a sheetrock lift which will aid in the installation. 

Tentatively we are planning to do the ceiling on the weekend of 10 March if we can keep up the pace.  This would be three weekends in a row, but it would also be the completion of the sheetrock installation.  This would bring us to the dirty phase of taping, mudding, sanding and texturing.  But of course this phase must be done to bring us to the paint phase. 

In the mean time, I will begin wiring in the electrical outlets, network jacks, telephone jacks and CATV outlets in the areas where we’ve installed drywall.  I will work on a few every other evening or so as I have time.  While we’ve made significant progress on the first weekend, this is not a race to the finish.  However, I believe the progress we made did open our eyes to the fact that YES we can do this and we can complete the work in the next few months.

Until next time…

73 de KDØBIK (Jerry)

For many who follow this blog, you’ve known me for about as long as I’ve been licensed (almost 5 years).  Unfortunately, during a large portion of this time I’ve been talking about the work I’ve been doing on my new ham shack, home office and man cave.   If memory serves me, I began framing the unfinished portion of the basement in 2008. 

I worked pretty much every weekend (and some evenings) and managed to get the 2×4 framing done in about 4-6 weeks.  Then a few more weeks I had all the electrical, network, coax for CATV and telephone all done.  I also had to do some plumbing work to move the washing machine hot/cold lines and drain down a foot or two.  Then I stopped working on the project.

Weeks turned into months and months turned into a few years.  Some of these delays were trying to decide what sort of wall material to use (sheetrock or paneling).  The decision was made on sheetrock but then we kicked around whether we would do this ourselves or have it done.  Finally we came to the conclusion we would continue with our plans of doing all the work ourselves. 

So just after the new year I began working on the project once again.  I had a few more items to do before I was ready for the sheetrock.  All these final items where checked off the checklist and last weekend we placed an order for the drywall material.  The drywall was delivered today.

Many of you have asked for photos along the way and well I finally snapped a few showing the stud walls.  The picture below is one corner of the main room that will make up my ham shack, home office and man cave.  The room is 16 feet by 16 feet.  (I’m actually finishing out a much larger area than just the ham shack/office area) This corner will be my main operating position.  The wall to the right is 8 feet and the wall to the left is 16 feet.  I will install cabinets above and some below with countertop for the desk surface. 

I’ve been working in a corner type setup for the past several years and actually prefer it. To my right will be my Yaesu FT-950 for SSB operation and to the left will be my Yaesu FT-897 which is setup for digital modes.  My LCD computer screen will be positioned in the middle.

The picture below shows the above mentioned 16’ wall (this wall to my left).  Again this will have some cabinets above and some above with work surface to the end. 

I’ve tried to think of everything I would need not only today but in the future.  Again this space will serve both as my ham shack and my home office.   I also plan to have a nice TV and surround sound setup for when watching those action movies and sporting events.   So I’ve pulled extra coax for CATV as well as extra network cables. 

I plan to start hanging the drywall tomorrow (Saturday) after I move it down into the basement area.  My rough goals are to have the drywall done by the end of March and perhaps painting done by end of April.  We’ll see…

Until next time…

73 de KD0BIK

The Practical Amateur Radio Podcast episode 52 is now available for download or stream.  You can subscribe via iTunes, Zune or stream directly from MyAmateurRadio.com  Want to stream on the go from your favorite smart phone device?  You can do that as well via our mobile site.

In this new episode, I discuss the QSL Bureau Service as it relates to US Amateur’s.  The bureau service is a great, inexpensive method of QSL’ing those DX contacts.  Our featured website segment discusses the Ham Nation podcast/netcast as well as Mike Baxter, WA0XTT. 

Please visit MyAmateurRadio.com to listen or download this new episode. 

Thank you for listening and thank you for sharing your knowledge with others.  The Practical Amateur Radio Podcast, creating Elmers one podcast at a time.

Until next time…

73 de KD0BIK

As I’ve mentioned many, many times.  My attempts at learning Morse code or CW as a teenager were unsuccessful.  While I’ve mentioned my excuse was too many distractions (cars, sports, girls).  I also believe my failure was a learning block which I couldn’t overcome.  Perhaps another way to word this was a learning block I didn’t know how to overcome. 

Since getting my license in 2007, CW has been a mode I’ve wanted to operate.  I will admit that I’ve fiddled around in Ham Radio Deluxe DM780 and have also downloaded and installed other software applications to decode via the computers soundcard to text translation.  I’ve decoded many times, but have never actually attempted to send via these mechanisms. 

Please understand that what I’m going to say next is my opinion and only my opinion.  But if I have to use computer software to send and receive CW signals, I might as well stay away from that mode.  Again…this is my opinion for my own operational style and my own way of thinking. 

So having said that, I am in the process of researching methods of learning Morse code.  I’ve spent some time talking to some friends and researching information on the internet.  I plan to wrap up this discovery phase and get started in the next few days.

While I know many learned CW from simply studying the dots and dashes which make up each letter or from listening to code tapes.  I’m looking for alternative methods as I’ve tried the code tapes and studying an A is .- with not much success.  Of course, I also understand I’m a much different person now than I was 30 years or so ago.  Most of this will be similar to overcoming my obstacles with earning extra last summer.  Meaning, I just need to focus and get it done but at the same time not setting unnecessary pressures on myself. 

Morse code is very much alive on the bands and it is a mode I dearly want to enjoy.  I’ll be certain to most frequent updates to share both my successes and frustrations along my Morse journey.

Until next time…

73 de KD0BIK 

I’ve blogged about iOS apps before, but I can’t remember if I’ve previously mentioned anything about HamLog.  I’ve owned HamLog for a few years now.  I’ll honestly say for the record I don’t currently use it, but feel that will soon change.

HamLog is an iOS and Android application developed by Nick Garner, N3WG.  Nick has developed over a dozen different apps.  One I mentioned briefly in another blog post is his Pocket SOTA app.  You can view Nick’s listing of Apps from his website. 

As I mentioned, I’ve owned HamLog for a few years.  I believe Nick developed and released it in 2009.  I’ve watched Nick make many changes to the HamLog app over the years.  While I’ve tried using it to log contacts, I found I could log via pen and paper much faster.  Especially with operating SOTA, you can easily find yourself generating a large pileup.  The extra time it takes to manually key in all the info was just something I wasn’t interested in for my own operational setup.  Until now…

Please take a few minutes to watch this video.  Nick introduces some new enhancements to the HamLog App as well as a new piece of hardware called Pigtail Air.  Pigtail air will allow for true rig control through the HamLog app and of course will speed up the logging process. 

I believe the Pigtail Air device, coupled with my new KX3 (when it arrives) and my iPad will make a fantastic SOTA or portable logging setup.  I’ll now have an excuse to buy that Otterbox Defender iPad case.

Until next time…

73 de KD0BIK

I’m a few days late in getting this posted.  I wanted to provide a quick update on the progress of my 2012 challenge.  As I blogged about recently, I set my 2012 challenge to be a QSO a day throughout the year.  I’m happy to report I successfully closed out the month of January with a QSO logged each day for a total of 205 logged QSO’s total for the month. 

The breakdown is as follows: 

I’m hoping as the year progresses to operate more SSB and also PSK.  But with over 540 JT65 Q’s logged since I learned of this mode, I’m still having a lot of fun with JT65.

I’ve also recently given my main KDØBIK.com website a new look by using a  WordPress theme install.  While I’m keeping this blog site, as well as my SOTA blog and the Practical Amateur Radio Podcast websites all separate, the clean look of the WordPress theme just better ties everything together. Also, it allows me to essentially update the site from just about anywhere and even when on my iPad. 

Finally, another plug for my podcast.  I did release episode 51 back in late January.  As I’ve done the past several years, the January episode is devoted to amateur radio related New Year’s resolutions.  I provided several ideas in an attempt to help motivate and inspire.  While we are almost to the half-way point in February, in my opinion it is never too late to set a goal.  Especially if that goal allows you to have fun in the hobby of amateur radio.  

Until next time,

73 de KDØBIK

You’ve probably heard the news by now.  Last week the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) announced what many of us hoped would eventually happen.  In June 2012, QST will be available in an on-line, digital edition version.  Now before anyone panics, QST will still be available in the same print version we all know and love.   So in addition to receiving the print version, ARRL members will also have access to the digital version at no additional cost. 

This news truly excites me.  There are a few monthly publications which I subscribe to in digital only format.  Some of these publications are only available this way.  However, many other magazines (and some supporting our very own hobby) have recently introduced digital content.  CQ Magazine is an example of this.  However, even if you subscribe to the paper version you must still pay extra for the digital version. 

Our hobby is unique (so are those individuals who participate in it) and as I stated, while some of the monthly publications I subscribe to are just fine in digital only versions, I must admit that for now I still want QST, CQ, RadCom and Practical Wireless delivered to my mailbox in paper form.   However, if you think I won’t use the new QST digital version, you would be wrong. 

The ARRL is going to do more with the digital version of QST than simply scan the magazine in and create a .PDF.  There will be content available via the digital version (and methods of delivering that content) which won’t be available in the paper version of QST.  Want a magazine article to jump out at you?  With the additional features available in digital content delivery, readers will have access to click links from articles, watch video,  listen to audio, print, share and search across the entire edition.  All of this included in the regular cost of membership.

Again, while other magazine publishers charge (and charge full price as well) for both a print and digital version.  I proudly take my hat off to the ARRL for doing this the right way and making both editions available.  This is another example of why I’m proud to not only be an ARRL Member, but a Life Member.

Until next time…

73 de KDØBIK