The North Carolina shack of Harold Johnson, W4ZCB.    (18Jan08)  

Harold is well known as a builder of innovative rigs and corporations and as one of the three designers of the transceiver partially described in EMRFD called "The Triad."


This clean, sanitary looking shack is loaded with sophistication.    We may recognize some of the gear, but not the rest.   The upper left box is an Alpha 78 that Harold has had for 24 years.    The box under the Alpha is a power supply for the box in a similar box on the upper right (below the speaker) that houses a homebrew 4CX1500B power amplifier.   Under this is a station console with controls for the antennas, power meters, and a scope to keep an eye on the SSB quality.  

The box in the center with numerous knobs is an old FT726R for 6, 2, and 432.   The box on top of that is Harold's pride and joy, the first PICaStar transceiver to be on the air from North America.   See more below this for information on this design.

Another gem is on the floor, almost out of sight.   It's the box in the lower right corner of the photo that appears to be a computer.  But concealed in the box is a 100 Watt, 43 dB gain Class A power amplifier with a built-in 48 volt switching power supply.    Harold is devoted to having a clean signal!

 
This is a photo of a later version of the Software Defined Radio that Harold built.    This transceiver is built in the case for an old HP instrument and uses a knob from another classic.     These rigs are outgrowths of the PICaStar Transceiver originating in the UK and the subject of a Yahoo Group.     The design has a full chapter devoted to it in the 8th Edition of the Radio Communication Handbook from the RSGB (Edited by G3XDV and G4HCL.)    

We now move on to Harold's shop and lab facility.

The left rack, top to bottom, contains a frequency standard, a HP312/313 Selective voltmeter and tracking generator, and a pair of HP8640B signal generators.   The collection at the right includes a HP8405 Vector Voltmeter,  a homebrew spectrum analyzer with tracking generator with a Tek 603 storage monitor, and a Tek 2236 'scope.   Above that pile we have a quad lab power supply and a HP calculating frequency meter.


The left most box is another quad lab power supply.   (One never has enough power supplies!)   Next is a pair of network analyzers.   (Apparently what goes for power supplies also applies to network analyzers.)   The upper small unit is for "portable" applications while the lower unit is a dual with a built in S-Parameter test set.   Both of these are high performance homebrew designs by N2PK.  See n2pk.com.    Some filters are piled on the table for measurements.   The lab computer is networked with others in the house.      The shop also includes a metal lathe and drill press, plus an occasional junked PC board, I'm told.