Posts Tagged ‘Construction’

The shack has a ceiling

The progress of my new basement ham shack has taken another turn towards completion with the recent work completed on Saturday, 14 April.   If you recall, on 12 March (over a month ago) I blogged about the accomplishment of having the walls completed.  I had every intention of taking a weekend off and getting started on the ceiling prior to the end of March. 

Best laid plans…blah blah blah.  The weather in Colorado is I guess much like anywhere else.  Wait 5 minutes and it is guaranteed to change.  The immediate weekend after the walls went up was supposed to be nice.  However, it ended up windy/cooler and we delayed the outside painting project by one weekend.  This delay sort of shifted everything else on the schedule.  So we ended up doing the outdoors projects on the weekend of 24 March.  I did the sheet metal work for the AC/Heat duct work on 31 March.  Then on Saturday, 7 April I spent the day giving a presentation on summits on the air followed by a SOTA activation

As I had discussed, I rented a drywall lift and picked it up on Friday evening just before 8 PM.  This would allow me to get started early on Saturday without the need of running to the rental store.  I set my alarm as if it were a normal work day.  I allowed myself time for coffee and even some HF radio time.  With this being the 100th Anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, I really wanted to work a couple of the special event stations commemorating the event.  I worked K3MGY and W4S and decided it was time to go to work. 

While the drywall lift was a bit awkward in some of the tight places of the basement, it really saved the day.  Essentially you just place a 4×8 sheet of drywall on the lift and crank it into position.  Then screw it into position, lower the lift and finish adding screws.    Then repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat until all done. 

It was our goal to complete the ceiling in one day.  It’s not that we couldn’t afford to rent the drywall lift for another 24 hours, it was simply the desire to just get the work done in one day.  The last piece of drywall was securely fastened on the ceiling at just before 6:30 PM.  This left me enough time to shower and return the lift with time to spare. 

The below three pictures were taken showing progress from the same vantage point (or very close).  We started on the walls the weekend of 25 February and finished the ceiling on 14 April.  While this sets no drywall hanging speed records and I’d go broke if I were a professional drywall installer (which I’m not and never want to be after this experience) all work has been done by my wife and I. 

Of course, now begins the messy phase of the project.  Over the next week or two, we plan to start the taping, mudding and sanding.  Like anything else, if you don’t regularly do this type of work there is a learning curve and as you progress you get a little better and a little faster.  I’m not sure when it will get completed.  I guess I’ll just say that we’ll get it done, when we get it done.  We have a tremendous amount of work to still complete.

Oh….I did receive notice on Friday, 13 April to expect my Elecraft KX3 to ship sometime the week of 16 April – 20 April.  I’m sure I will have a strong desire to take it on top of a Colorado summit for SOTA in the next couple of weeks. 

Final comment.  Each corner we turn in the overall progress, I do see the end result and it makes me extremely proud to be doing this work myself.  I’m not sure of the exact date I’ll officially move into the new space.  At this point my goal is to be 100% complete and moved into the new space prior to the Colorado QSO Party which will take place the first weekend in September.    It truly is my desire to operate in my State’s QSO party from inside the new space. 

Until next time…

73 de KDØBIK

OAFS redux

A couple of days ago I decided to take another look at the Spectrum Communications Off-Air Frequency Standard (OAFS). It had been suggested that its failure to work might be the result of a solder bridge or similar error. I had a good look at the board using a high power magnifier and found a pair of pads that were suspiciously linked to ground. A moment’s work with the desoldering braid and sure enough there was a solder bridge exactly the width of a PCB track.

Having found a fault I was optimistic that the board would work. The setup adjustments were completed OK. But instead of hearing BBC Radio 4 in the speaker as the instruction sheet suggested I received a loud heterodyne with some speech faintly in the background, like listening to an AM signal in SSB mode with the BFO a couple of kHz off-tune.

I was looking at the Spectrum Communications advert in Practical Wireless to check how the ferrite rod was mounted and noticed that the description said “Background heterodyne whistle at 2kHz confirms lock condition.” That is exactly what I was getting. Odd that the instructions didn’t mention it though. Nevertheless I gave a cheer and went ahead with installing the board in its box.

My happiness was short-lived when I put my frequency counter on the output. It was 10MHz sure enough, but it was not phase locked to anything. I was only receiving the output of the uncontrolled 10MHz crystal oscillator which could be tuned a few tens of Hz either side of 10.000MHz. No adjustment I could make would cause lock to occur.

Comments made to my original post about this suggested that I might have problems with the OAFS as I am not in a good location to receive a strong signal from BBC Radio 4. I’m unhappy with the amount of time I’ve wasted on this. I think it would be best to write it off and forget about it. I’d rather not be bugged by it or have it taking up scarce space in the G4ILO shack. If anyone would like to have it and see if they can make it work then it’s yours for the cost of the postage.

Ham Shack Update–Walls Complete

Even with losing one hour this weekend due to the daylight saving time change, I’m pleased to report that after three weekends and an estimated 20-24 hours of labor, the walls are complete.   As I reported last week, I only had about 5 sheets of drywall to hang this weekend.  Unfortunately, these 5 sheets were in the laundry area of the basement and included a lot more intricate and fiddly work.  I also decided to replace the laundry dryer vent which took about an hour and two trips to the hardware store.   The old vent pipe was crushed and had been taped and spliced together before we purchased the QTH in 2004.   While we all know duct tape and bailing wire are near permanent repairs, I went ahead and erred on the side of better judgment and replaced it all. 

I also had to accommodate a small design plan my wife had suggested.  This included a short divider wall next to the washer and dryer.  The laundry area of the basement was one area my wife and I had changed our minds on the overall design.  Initially we had planned to completely enclose the washer and dryer behind doors.   Today our washer and dryer are a basic set of Sears Kenmore models.  We are planning to upgrade to some nice front load models.  I figure if we’re going to spend the extra money for these upgraded models, we don’t want them hiding behind a door. 

Here are a few pictures from the work this weekend.  Please excuse the mess, the area is under construction. 

Here’s the short wall which was a last minute addition. 

Looking from my ham shack down the short hall to the laundry area.  The door on the left is access into the utility closet where the furnaces, hot water heater etc. are located.

The next few pictures (a few I’ve shown in older blog postings) are in my ham shack area and show the progression over the past few weekends.

The stud walls

Just two more panels to close in the corner.

Corner done. 

The above corner had to be framed in this way due to a basement support post.  While it takes up a little extra space, it should be fine.  Above desk cabinets, below desk cabinets and a nice wide work surface and all will be fine.   I’ve also been getting the electrical outlets wired in.  Once electrical is done I’ll wire in the CATV and network (voice/data) jacks. 

So what’s next on the agenda?  After three weekends of hanging drywall, my wife and I need a break.  Plus I need to reposition one AC/Heating vent in preparation for the ceiling drywall work.  This will also be a good time to move some of the scrap drywall pieces from the basement upstairs to the garage and just tidy the construction zone up a bit. 

The weather forecast for this upcoming weekend is supposed to be warm and I think we’ll tackle a few quick outdoor projects.  While snow is still very much likely in the mile high city, signs of Spring are popping up right and left.   It’s time to get the flowerbeds cleaned, rake up the winter kill grass and drag the water hoses out. 

If all goes as planned, I’ll be ready to rent the drywall lift and start on the ceiling the weekend of 24/25 March.  Once all the drywall is installed, then we’ll start the messy phase of taping, mudding and sanding.  This phase could begin as early as the last weekend in March.  But I don’t want to jinx myself, so I’ll just say it will get done when it gets done.

In closing, you’ll likely not hear from me on this particular subject again until the ceiling is complete.  I won’t bore you with an update next weekend on my progress of sheet metal duct work. 

Until next time…

73 de KDØBIK

Drywall and DXCC Progress

If you’ve been following my ham shack updates from the past couple of weeks, you know I’m in the final stages of finishing the space in my basement which will be used as my ham shack, podcast studio, home office and overall man-cave.  The space is really starting to come together and I can see what the finished space will look like.  I’m truly excited and especially so after staring at nothing but stud walls for several years.

If you go back to this blog post and also read this one, you’ll get an idea of how I’ve spent the past couple of weekends.  While I believe we made great progress this weekend, we did fall short of my goal of getting all the walls done.   This delay was due to the extra time it took me to hang two doors.  These two doors will access the utility closet I framed in to hide the HVAC systems.  Because of the way the two furnaces are situated, I had to include two doors.  Otherwise, should anything happen to the hot water heater, it would have required demolition to remove it. 

The remaining work on the walls (about 5 more sheets of drywall) should get completed this coming weekend.  I then plan to take a weekend off and reward myself (and my wife) with doing something else that weekend and then it will be time to start hanging drywall on the ceiling.

Finally, I worked a total of about two hours in the ARRL DX phone contest this past weekend.  During this time I worked about 20 DX stations, adding four new to my growing DXCC list.  The four new DXCC entities worked this weekend were Bahamas, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago and Portugal.  This brings me to a total of 54 DX entities worked to date.  

Sorry no pictures with this update.  I’ll hopefully get some pics in the next update or two showing progress.

Until then…

73 de KDØBIK

FreeTrak progress

I have made some progress with the FreeTrak PIC based APRS tracker. I found a slightly newer version of the PICFlash programming software. At first this gave exactly the same warning message as the original version. But after a bit of random clicking I tried again and this time the software reported that it was writing to the chip. It verified OK as well. I don’t know exactly what I did, but at least that hurdle was now passed.

FreeTrak configuration

I set the DIP switches on the EasyPIC board to link the PIC pins used for serial I/O to the serial output. That didn’t seem to work the first time, either, but at the second attempt at powering up I saw the configuration prompt appear in the terminal window. I was able to complete the FreeTrak configuration with the PIC in the development board.

Next, I changed a DIP switch to put the chip in Run mode. Using a utility called NMEAGen I began sending simulated GPS messages to it using the same serial connection I used for configuration. The LED began flashing at 1 second intervals and using a crystal earpiece on the output pin I could hear the familiar sound of 1200baud packet bursts. I don’t know why it appears to be transmitting at 1 second intervals, but perhaps it is something to do with the simulated GPS data.

FreeTrak schematic

So FreeTrak appears to be working. All I need to do now is build it on to a circuit board and attach it to my GPS module and a radio. Here’s where I could use a little help from readers. The AFSK audio output of the FreeTrak uses an obsolete op-amp which is unobtainable. I presume I could just replace this with a simple transistor amplifier stage using a 2N3904 or similar, but do I really need anything at all, given that the audio will drive a sensitive microphone input? Could I get away with just a DC blocking capacitor and a trimpot to set the level?

The other thing I’m unsure about is how to interface the FreeTrak to my GPS module. I think the circuit shown is intended to work with GPS devices that use 5V TTL or even RS-232 signal levels. The data sheet for my bare GPS module states quite clearly that the absolute maximum voltage on any of the pins is 3.3V. The serial lines on the PIC measure close to 5V. How to connect them?

Weekend Ham Shack Update

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. 

DSC_0002

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)

Mistaken identity

A couple of weeks ago I came across FreeTrak, a PIC based APRS tracker developed by N0QBH. I have wanted to build a small ‘grab-and-go’ tracker for a while now. The FoxTrak works fine but is too big and bulky by the time it is paired with an HT. The TH-D72 is too much hassle as I need strong reading glasses to see the LCD screen and inevitably go out with some essential menu option disabled. Consequently these days I rarely bother taking APRS with me when Olga and I go for a walk around town.

I sent off for a couple of PIC 16F628A microcontrollers, thinking that I could program them in my EasyPIC5 development board. But when I tried, I immediately hit a snag.

My PICFlash programmer detects a PIC 12F508 instead of a PIC 16F628A.

I don’t think I’ve been sold a fake MCU. If I remove the 16F628A so there is no micro plugged in at all I still receive the same warning. So I don’t know what to do. I’ve bricked too many PIC chips by programming them with the wrong settings to try crossing my fingers and clicking Yes. So it looks like my FreeTrak project is not going to get off the ground.


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