Building my Shack pt. 7 the Antennamast

One of the most problematic Things in HAM Radio these days is the Antennasituation. In Cities you hardly are allowed to mount your Antennas and even if you live in your own house its often prohibited to mount an Antenna to get on the air.

I live on the Countryside where people hav other problems than the look of an Antenna so that was not an Issue. The most problem was to convince my Girlfriend.

Here you need to get the right tactic. I said i need a 15m metal mast with a miltiband beam mounted on Top in the Backyard. I them showed her some pictures of really nice antennas.


She was mich happier then when i said it would only be a 3m pole mounted on the rooftop with a wire antenna. 🙂

I had different ideas about the mast. I wanted a non conductive mast mounted on the roof that could be tilted down if needed.

In germany i found a company that sells fiberglass poles at a giod prize. I ordered a 60x40x3000mm fiberglass tube.


After i received it i noticed that this tube way too strong for my need but its good if i want to mount a small yagi antenna or a rotor for satellite communication.

I painted the tube eith spraypaint and i climbed on the roof to make a plan.

I found a wooden beam that is mounted under the roof and i decided this woold be the spot where i mount my mast.


I did not want to drill holes in the beam so i decided that i would make 2 metall plates that i can clamp on the beam. The plates were bend on the edges to get some strengh. I also welded some reinforcement on the plates.


For the tilt mechanism i took a look at a flagpole at our company. This was a good way to do it. Invan now adjust the angles of the pole and lay it down.


After spraypainting everything we climbed on the roof again for mounting the brackets. It was quite a work because everything was very tight.

After an hour or so we mounted the brackets and the mast itself.



We used some 35mm2 copper wire to wire the mast to the lightning rod.

After that we mounted the 2m/70cm sntenna on top of the mast and the 5band HyEndFed antenna on its side.


For lightning protection we installed a lightning arrestor for each Antenna and used some self vulcanizing tape to seal the connections.


I laud the coax under the tiles and put them through the hole in the wall of my shack.

This was a good day.


I measured the SWR of my HF Antenna and it was quite ok. I thought it would be worse because the antenna is quite near the grounded roof ends.


Now my Shack is operational. There ist still alot of work to do but the main work is done.
Best wishes

Hans

Building my Shack pt. 6 the Shelf

A small Sideproject while building my Shack was to make a Shelf where i can organize my HAM Radio gear. Normally this would not be a big deal but i am not a wood guy, but my uncle is. 

I gave him the Dimensions of the 3 planks i needed. He then found some 80 year old floow planks that have been in a farmhouse. After grinding and drilling the holes i cut some (you guessed it…) water pipes of a rod and deburred them. I also used some teakoil to finish the wood. 

I mounted everything with some threaded rods and nuts. 


For the feet of the shelf i uses some threaded balls that you normally use for handles. 

On this Shelf i mounted my Groundplate and installed the gear. 


It fits nicely and i still have some spare space for new gear. 
Best wishes

Hans

Building my Shack pt. 5 the Grounding

When i did Hamradio in my Livingroom i didnt have a propper grounding. This was a bit of an issue because i had alot of QRM and TVI. 

I decided when i build my own shack i will make it propperly. 

I read some information about station grounding on thebinternet but there was no way that i could put a 2,5m groundrod into the soil outside my House. The Soil is too dry and there are alot of Rocks in it. 

I decided to burry some steel rods 15cm deep in the ground and connect them to each other. 

I lend a Lamorghini for the weekend to have some make the work a little bit easier. 🙂


I welded a plow together and used a strong tow to bind it to the tractor. 

I laid the rods in the slice and connected the rods with some heavy clamps. Later i also pushed about 5 1m long rods into the ground and also connected it to the rods already in the soil. 


It was a quick act and my girlfriend didnt notice it. She later asked me „why is there some soil on the grass?“ i said „this f$%#ng“ moles!!“ and got never asked again. 

From the grounding i used some 35mm2 fine cable to go to the shack and connected it with a strong clamp. 


In the shack i made myself a groundplate out of bronze where i can connect all my gear. 
Best wishes

Hans

Building my Shack pt. 4 the Room 2

As i said earlier, the Room i wanted to build my Shak in was directly under the Roof so it was very good for my Project. 

The only Thing i had a hard time is to figure out how to get the cables from the outside into my Shack. 

I knew i had to drill a hole into the wall but there was ine problem. I had no idea how thick this wall was and what was in that wall. 

I meassured the approximate thickness of the wall and decided to drill a small 5 mm hole throu that thing to check whats inside…

The drill wennt right throu and now i knew that there was no brick inside the wall. 

The wall consists of a 20mm plasterboard, 25mm hardwood, 20mm air (very easy to drill :)), 150mm wool, 20mm woodboard and 80mm styrofoam. 

So i bought myself a 75mm wooddrill and drilled through the plaster and the furst wood layer. I then used a stick to put away the insulating wool. 


My plan was to put a plastic pipe into the hole so i can put the cables through.


I had to stop my work because for the styroform i needed a bigger Drill. 

When the drill arrived i cut a bigger hole from the outerside into the wall. The holes didnt match 100% but this was not an issue because the wool was flexible. 

I glued the plastic pipe into the wall with some construction foam and put a cap on it so the wildlive wont come in. 


The hole was finished and i had the idea to lay some network cables into my shack. It was a hell of a lot work but i think it pays off. 


After painting the wall the most work was done and i was very happy to make good progress. 

Best wishes

Hans

Building my Shack pt. 3 the Table

Before i moved to our new House i lived in a smaller Flat. I bought a cheap table for my Room and it was not that good. For my new Shack i wanted something decend so i decided to build my own. 

I wanted 2 long Tables to fit all my HAM Radio Gear on it and still have place for a work Computer and some other Stuff. 

I searched a long time for the wood board and had a hard time finding something for a decend price. 

In a local store i found out that you could buy kitchen workplates in the measure that you wanted for 50€/m (thats like 18$/feet?!? :))

I ordered 2 boards and it took a month to get delivered. In the meantime i ordered some sockets that can be build in the table and a cablecanal that will be put under the table. So there is no mess with all the cables. 


It took me an evening to drill the holes for the sockets and mount the cablecanal. 

A few weeks later i finally had the time to build the feet of the table and you guessed it, I used the good old 6/4“ pipes. 😉

On a Saturday i cut the pipes and assambled the feet and on the afternoon i mounted the feet on the plates.


The whole table got quite heavy and i had a hard time flipping it over but i did it somehow. 


So finally the Table was finished and i grabbed a well earned beer too look at the finished Project. 


Best wishes

Hans

Building my Shack pt.2 the Room

I started with an empty room that was painted 10 years ago. It wasnt a beauty. 

I decided to mount new lights in the Room because i like it when its well illuminated. I searched alot for lamps that i liked but they were either crappy build or way too expencive.

I decided to build my own lamp out of 6/4“  steel pipes. I kind of like the look of raw steel and the good thing on waterpipes is you can thread them together, adjust the angle and get nice looking standard connection parts. 


Then i bought 2 pairs of lampshades of amazon and mounted all together on a Saturday afternoon. 

The connection of the wires was a little fiddely but it all went well. 


After i premounted the Lamp my collegue came and hepled me mount it on the wall. It became quite heavy. 🙂


When i swithed that thing on the first time i was a little bit shocked. The Light was very good but because of the Lampshades the light came straight down aso the most of the Room was very dark. I needed a second Lamp and my first guess was to buy one „pipelamp“ from amazon. The package was delivered soon but it was a very bad quality. It looked as cheap as it was.

So again i had to get back in the Workshop and build my own lamp. First i ordered some connectors, angles and T-pieces. I used a rectangular insulated wire where the sockets can be clipped on and it fittet perfectly. I glued the sockets in the pipes with some Epoxy glue and let it cure. 


I liked the second lamp more than the first one. I know that this style is not for everybody and on my second thought it might be a little extravagant but i wont make a new one thats sure. 🙂
Best wishes

Hans

Building my Shak pt.1

Since i got my Licence in 2014 being on the air was very difficult for me. If i wanted to do HAM Radio i had to setup my Station in the Livingroom and when i was finished it didnt take much time till my Girlfriend reminded me to put the Stuff away again. 🙂

Mid 2017 I started to think about building my own shack. I had an empty Room right under the Roof and i started collecting ideas on how i would realise this project. I wanted to make a nice looking, functional Shack and in the next few Blogposts i will show you how i did it and why i did it that way. 
Best wishes Hans