Update: 9
Jan 10.
Our ham shacks have all changed a lot in the
last 50 years. This was my basement shack in 1957.
The gear, left to right, consisted of (1) the resonator section
of a remotely tuned VFO (built from an ARRL Handbook of that era), a
Johnson Viking Adventure transmitter (a 50 Watt kit rig of the time),
a homebrew receiver for 80 through 15 meters (crystal controlled converter
ahead of a BC-453), and a National NC-46 which was mostly just used for
SWL applications. The chassis on the shelf includes the power supply
and the oscillator tube for the remotely tuned VFO.
As things went on, my shack took on more and
more of a lab character. The view in 2004 is shown below:
This view includes all sorts of gear that is put on the air,
and a lot more that was used for experiments of various sorts.
Today my shack is isolated from the lab part
of the activity. The lab is still active, shown below. However,
there is less equipment than there was in the past.
This view shows the oscilloscope which is a Rigol DS1052E.
Two spectrum analyzers, an old HP signal generator, a couple of
homebrew signal sources, a N2PK type VNA, and considerable plunder
complete the measurement gear.
The shack is now in a separate room that also
serves as an office. A computer to the right of the rigs can be
used to log contacts and send CW as well as the more usual chores that
we assign to such a machine.
This is an
October 2009 photo of W7ZOI. The
blue boxes shown are, left to right, 6M SSB/CW transceiver, QRP transmitter
for 40/20/15 Meters, and a matching receiver that goes with the QRP
TX. The transmitter uses the VFO in the receiver. A Yaesu FT-7 is directly
above the homebrew receiver. A small portable transceiver sits above the
FT-7. A transmatch is on the shelf above the VHF sideband transceiver.
The aluminum box under the main receiver is an amplifier that provides
40 W output on 40 and 20 meters and 20 W out on 15M. The top shelf
includes a power attenuator/bridge combo as well as power supplies.
Folks sometimes inquire about the differences
between the two forms of ham shack that I have experienced, and ask
"what is best." After a few years with the setup shown immediately above,
I've concluded that I miss having measurement gear on the same table as
the equipment itself. The oldest stuff (1950s) was the most fun, but I'm
not ready to fully embrace the "boat anchor" craze.
I've recently been playing with a little rig that I built several years
ago for portable use. This rig, dubbed the "7/7", is named to fit the
frequency band (7 MHz) and intended portable "/7" application. Several
folks wanted to see a photo, so it is included.
This is the most recent update of the "7/7" transceiver in October,
2009. The rig is built in a 2 x 5 x 7 inch box and uses an external battery
pack of NiMH AA cells. The transceiver runs an even 1 Watt output.
The front panel LED is set to go off when the supply drops below 11.5
volts. The switch and push button at the left of the front panel control
the Freq.Mite digital frequency readout. The small knob at the left is
IF gain while the red knob controls audio gain. The rig went through a major
refinement to push the key-up current down to 39 mA to allow the batteries
to last longer.
I don't have a big antenna system here at w7zoi. The present collection includes a pair of dipoles (actually, inverted Vees) for 40 and 20 meters that are paralleled to operate from a single coax feedline. These antenna are only 35 feet high at the apex.
A couple of years ago I had small Yagi antennas for the 6 and 2 meter VHF bands. I took these antennas down and have them stored in the garage and gave the rotor to my grandson who does some experimenting at VHF. My interest in these bands may pick up again, for I always get excited about 6 Meters in the spring and summer months when we have the Es propagation.
I recently found enough junk aluminum in the garage to assemble a two element Yagi for the 15M band.
Now all we need are some more sun spots. (2Dec9)
A QSL Card that may be sent as an email attachment:
(9 Jan 10) Earlier Times
Here are a couple of old photos that I pulled from the archives.
This is "Mac," W7KIX, now SK. I first started wondering about amateur radio when I heard Mac on my crystal set in the early 1950s. I would sit and listen to it as I folded newspapers prior to my route in the early hours of the morning. Mac was an early riser and could be found on 75 Meters with his 1 KW to push pull 813s, modulated by push pull 803s. The receiver was an all band "16 tube super blooper." Even the knobs were homebrew. This was my first exposure to a station that was "homebrew" for reasons beyond the mere practicality of just getting on the air. The photo was from Mac's QSL card which was also homebrew.
This shot was taken the morning after an all night session where we finished building the 128 element bed-spring collinear antenna and put it on the air to make moonbounce contacts with the folks at Stanford. The date was November 23, 1975. That was great fun! The photo shows Fred (wa7tzy) and Susan (wb7bst) Telewski with w7zoi closest to the antenna.