I planned to retire to this home at 1348 Swan Lake Road in Avon, Illinois. My wife and I purchased an older small hose. We remodeled it and added space. I was able to build on a room just for a Ham Radio Shack. But, I had to abandon the dream because of a 2010 heart attack. I thought I would share some of the pictures of that home.
Remote Operations
Shortly after moving into the home, I set up a system to be able to operate remotely. I used both a TS 480 and a Flex 5000. The TS 480 was equipped to operate remote, the 5000 had to be adapted.
One of the more interesting aspects of the 5000 was when power was lost, the radio would not come on unless you depress the “on” button. If the power to the shack went out, the radio would drop and it could not be brought back to the on condition without physically pressing the “on” button. However, by inserting a toothpick into the on button it could be forced to stay in the on position. With the toothpick in place, when power dropped, the radio would come back on.
The computers running the system also would drop when the power was lost. Therefore, I set them all to reboot when the power returned. The entire remote system could be turned on and off remotely by a remote power switch. Back in those days, it was not as easy as it is today!
The beams could be rotated using the remote provision of Ham Radio Delux. At that time there was nothing available commercially to switch antennas? I wanted a system that would switch any antenna on any of the radios in the shack.
I built an antenna matrix, purchased switching relays that were software controlled, and wrote a program that allowed me to switch the antennas onto any radio remotely as well as when in the shack. This system was set up in the same manner as a crossbar switch for those who have worked in telephone technology. Each antenna was a line down in the switch, each radio was a line across. The software, when told to connect a certain radio to a certain antenna, would activate the crosspoint which would activate the appropriate antenna switch.
Vintage Gear
As you can see there were many vintage rigs from Heathkit to Collins. They all worked. An Icom 970 was used for satellite.
Enjoy the pictures.
