K9RST - Building a new shack with history as a guide!

K9RST - moving to a new QTH

Like many from my generation, I got started in ham radio as a shortwave listener. Ham radio entered the picture in an unusual way when my Boy Scout leader took us to the firehouse where he worked at Notre Dame University and in the back room was a huge ham radio layout. It was an amazing array of radios, dials, knobs, and noise. I was instantly hooked. However, it wasn’t until college when the bug really bit. My physics professor presented me with his Kenwood TS-520 radio and told me to get a license!

Enter wife, family, work other distractions – you know the story – and it took a while for me to really build out a station. I was licensed in the late 80’s as KB9RST! My first station was a mess! I had no idea what I was doing. I took random coax, attached to various antennas, and just started growing the station. Eventually, it became unwieldly, and I had to start all over with the proper coax for the proper antenna and band. I had a great functional station until the wife said, “It’s time to move!” “No way!” I protested (at least for a minute). When the real estate lady came to appraise the house, she made it clear, the antennas had to go. NOW. The rush was on. The house sold within days, and we had to vacate in a rush.

I paid close to attention to Mark Klocksin’ s advice when he made his move. It all made perfect sense on paper! In reality, things got tossed into boxes and thrown into a truck. Moving is hell. No better way to put it. I ended up with a pile of boxes and a tangle or cables and parts. It has been a chore to rebuild.

My new house doesn’t have the same space as my old place and so a good deal of time has been spent pondering where to build the shack and how to deploy antennas. I focused on building a small corner of the basement into my new shack. Two things that drove the design: 1) I had to be able to get to the back of all the gear simply and 2) how to bring the coax into the house? The later proved simpler to achieve. I found an old dryer vent that sealed shut. With a little work, I could re-open that pipe and bring cables right into the basement. Making the desk accessible was more problematic. I bought a bunch of used office furniture and put some wheels on the bottom. That worked to a degree, but the real secret was building a set of plastic rails for tabletop to slide on. I simply pull the entire table top out about 20” and I can get behind the gear! I built some shelves and moved radios around till they seemed functional. Of course, now days, the PC is really the center of any shack, so everything revolves around the computer screen.

I love HF and chasing DX although lately I have been more preoccupied with public service. My favorite contact was with a ham in Australia. At a Boy Scout event, we set up a vertical on the back of our car and with my Icom 706IIG, we spoke for almost 40 minutes with this guy across the world with barely 60 watts. It was a magical moment. Here we were in the middle of a grassy field talking to this chap like he was next door. I’m still blown away by the idea. That is the magic of radio. No internet, just a radio and antenna.

My current rig is the Icom 765 Pro III. Thanks to Field Day, I have tried many other radios but this one still meets all of my current needs (and budget).

There still is plenty to do around the shack but I have the bones in place and a promising idea about antenna arrangements. It is still a work in progress, but at least we are making headway even with the distraction of my wife’s exceptionally long honey do list.

By the way, the portrait on the wall is my grandfather…who was not a ham but a carpenter. No one in the family wanted his painting but he was a guiding influence my entire life.

Rob Orr K9RST

Member Station – WA9IVH

NSRC Club member Mark Klocksin, WA9IVH, was first licensed in 1963 as WN9IVH. Mark has been continuously active, except for 1 year in an apartment in the 1970’s. Mark and his wife Lucy moved from Wilmette to Northfield 2018, and Mark successfully negotiated for his “dream shack.” (Many of you were in the room for our last pre-Covid in-person meeting when Mark gave his presentation on this move.) The new house provided an opportunity to start “from the ground up,” and Mark was able to include some things he’d never had before, such as an externally-mounted entrance panel to include surge protection and grounding, in addition to providing a clean entrance for the many cables to come into the house. He found a picture of the operating desk he “had to have” on-line, and hired a carpenter to build it for him. Something else he never had was 220 volts in the shack. Since the 220 power has been installed, he reports “the lights no longer dim when I talk.” His antennas are a SteppIR 3-element Yagi for 40-6 meters (which he’s had since 2005), a fan dipole for 80 and 40 meters, a dual-band Diamond UHF/VHF and a Comet tri-bander (2 meters, 220, and 70 cm). He has a number of VHF and UHF radios, and an OpenSpot hotspot. He really enjoys using his Icom IC-7800 although he knows it’s becoming an “older radio” at this point, and it has needed some repairs over the years. Mark does not have a tower: instead, the SteppIR Yagi is just 5 ft. above the roof. “This was admittedly a trade-off vs. having a tower, but the installation and maintenance is much easier—and less expensive--than a tower would be,” Mark says.

Mark’s hamshack is laid out with VHF/UHF gear on the left side, the main HF radio, keyboard, CW keys, SteppIR controller, and SWR meters front and center along with a large-LCD monitor on the top of the console. The antenna tuner, Icom PW-1 linear, and antenna switch are on the right. This allows for plenty of room for all the gear, and the desk provides quick access to all functions. There’s a high degree of automation involved, with the SteppIR antenna, the linear amp, and the antenna tuner all following the radio’s frequency automatically. The antenna rotator is also serially-interfaced.

Mark’s primary interest in the hobby has changed over the years. Early experience with SSB traffic nets and Field Days turned into rag-chewing and casual operating for decades. He became active in RTTY contesting shortly after joining the NSRC in 2000. Recently, like many of us, Mark has focused most of his HF operating time on FT8. He has earned 8-Band DXCC and 8-Band WAS. Next on the list is 6-meter WAS “If I can ever, somehow, possibly, work and confirm Hawaii and Alaska on 6-meters, I’ll have 9-Band WAS!” he says. Mark was NSRC Net Director for 17 years, resigning at the end of 2021. He has also served as the Field Day SSB “tent captain” for many years. Mark is happy to share his experiences and interests with other Club members. Contact him at wa9ivh@arrl.net.

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