I decided that staying warm in the winter and cool in the summer wasn’t quite as important as having a dedicated space for my ham radio activities. Yesterday I moved the ham “shack” from inside the house out into what we call the sun room. It’s a two year-old addition to the back of the house that includes seven windows plus an outside door and has the look and feel of a fishing shack. I love the space and it provides easy access for feed lines and ground connections. That it might be chilly during the winter months could be a reasonable concern, but we don’t really get hard winters in Central Indiana any more so I’m willing to risk it.

This all just got underway and a lot of busy work remains to shape this into a comfortable and functional radio room. So far I’ve only setup the 7610 and the main shack computer. I’ll eventually get the shelf on the desk and add the other transceivers and equipment and that will create the need for a LOT of cable management.

Earlier this week I ordered a 33 foot push-up fiberglass mast. It’s made by SpiderBeam and distributed by Vibroplex. It’s going to support the vertical portion of an inverted-L wire antenna that I want to get in the air as soon as possible. The verticals do a nice job on the higher bands, but I could use a little help with 40 and 80 meters and I hope the wire will be useful during the upcoming season. It will be connected to the AH-4 auto-tuner in the shack with a ground connection in the backyard.

I received notice that the mast shipped today and will arrive here in a few more days.