Welcome to the WØMDM Ham Shack

My dictionary would define the words from the term Ham Shack as follows:

ham (ham) Informal. A licensed amateur radio operator.

shack (shak) n. A small, crudely built cabin.

I am a licensed Ham but I take exception to defining shack as a crudely built cabin. I'll put anyone who reads this on notice that it is NOT A CABIN! The rest is up to your interpretation.

Way back when I got started in this hobby I took over a corner of the basement and began developing what has been the home for my ham equipment for over 45 years, it doesn't hardly seem possible that time has gone by so quickly.

In the early years of my hobby I didn't have a lot of equipment and my facility was less than ideal. The damp basement, oh heck I just as well be honest, when the rains came in the spring I sometimes had to wade into my corner to get to my bench. Then I installed a sump pump and have had dry feet ever since. Such obstacles are part of any hobby.

I had another obstacle, well let's stay with the honesty again, four problems. My four sons were very young at the time and at times I need a fenced enclosure to keep them out of the stuff, my wife feared they'd hurt themselves with all the contraptions I had setting around. They were good kids, but just like their dad, inquisitive.

With this brief background here are the pictures I promised.

This is the main bench for my equipment. It has taken many forms over the years as the equipment evolved. The major equipment shown is a Kenwood TS830 on the left a D104 Mike, a Yaesu 1000MP center and on the right is a heath SB200 Liniar amplifier. Not shown in this shot is my PC set-up on the left.

This is the view further to the right of the main operating position. The newer looking concrete block in the top center of the picture is my attempt to stay warm on the cold winter nights. The iron frame windows I installed when I built the house made it so cold I'd nearly freeze to death at the mike.

If there is any equipment in these photos that you want more details on just drop me e-mail.

Of course along with every Ham Shack comes an array of antennas. These are the antennas that guard the roof of my house. They are composed of a Miniquad hf beam and a 6 & 2 meter horizontal beam. They are in the forground and to the left of them is a 2-meter vertical beam consisting of 2 - 5-element beams horizontally stacked. This pole also has at the top a Diamond 2-meter vertical and lower are some other 2-meter antennas.

This picture was taken looking East at the backside of the house. The 45 foot tower on the left is holding a center feed dipole for HF. and the pole on the right holds up a 180 foot long wire for 160 meters. I have had to fight the huge Ash trees for the air space over the years.

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If you want more information please send me e-mail.