W2HX Virtual Shack Tour 2022!

I wanted to talk about RF routing in the shack and realized it might be a good time to give a shack tour. That will give the next video on RF routing more context. Enjoy.
LP-700 Digital Station Monitor: www.telepostinc.com/LP-500.html
Antenna/Radio Switcher: hamplus.com/
73 de W2HX

[@johnwest7993]

My kind of station. Thanks for the tour.

[@mackfisher4487]

Beautiful shack love the commercial and military gear, the American telephone and telegraph sign strikes a harmonic as well. Thanks for posting

[@w2hx]

thanks. That was a transom from an AT&T building somewhere in NH where I bought it.

[@pdp11henkie]

Loved the tour, fantastic collection of equipment in superb state! I am a RACAL and PDP-11 collector, so it was a nice surprise to see a PDP-11 J11 CPU (the big white IC) at 23:37 :) Very inspiring movie, thanks! 73, Henk, PA8PDP

[@w2hx]

Ha! Thanks for the kind words. You have a very keen eye to spot the pdp11! I have another part of the house with a bunch of DEC equipment and s100. Some other time I'll show that stuff.

[@JohnUsp]

Awesome lab. Congratulations.

[@andrewsquires7230]

Thanks for shack tour, just fantastic 73 Andy

[@Ken_K.]

Beautiful shack, very impressive. Thanks for the tour.

[@w2hx]

Thanks Ken. You had an important time getting me operational!

[@VA7BC]

I always enjoy your videos. This video is a great tour through history. I was surprised to see how early panadapters were being used. Tnx 73 de Greg in Vancouver

[@w2hx]

I've always had a "thing" for panadapters.

[@KennethWheeler-cm5ey]

VERY IMPRESSIVE COLLECTION.

[@w2hx]

thank you

[@lowsniper1]

The nixie clock is awesome! i have a few of them! so cool.

[@w2hx]

one of these days I have to get it running :)

[@Subgunman]

VERY NICE SHACK AND COLLECTION! You must have a very understanding YL to equip this shack as well as having it built. Hopefully there are more members in your immediate family with the love of radio. A good bit of my gear is still packed after moving to SV land 17 years ago. Hopefully I’ll get something set up soon. BTW love the Harris gear in the Defender. Even their state of the art public safety gear is impressive with the same impressive price tag.

[@w2hx]

Thanks! Yes the XYL is understanding.

[@wes11bravo]

Love the Sunair and Harris gear!

[@w2hx]

Thanks! I'm a big fanboy of Harris (and to a lesser extent Sunair).

[@TheFossilChannel]

Excellent shack my friend. My buddy used to work in that borders store!

[@w2hx]

ha! thats funny.

[@mattottie6410]

Most impressive, and must have had serious help getting all that up there, that older equiptment not light, thx. Matt

[@w2hx]

indeed. Had lots of help.

[@AB1Vampire]

Thanks for sharing your museum-like station. neil n2eye

[@w2hx]

Thanks! 73!

[@wa4aos]

My already bad back HURTS just thinking about you hauling all of that stuff upstairs. Hi hi...I hope you have a hidden elevator or 3 or 4 indentured Hams on standby to lug stuff for you. Just found your channel this weekend and I'm impressed with your projects and drive. 73, Glenn WA4AOS, DSM Labs

[@w2hx]

thanks a lot. Heavy stuff for sure. For some odd reason, i've always been attracted to heavy radios.

[@MacsForever1]

You talk about using a used reinforced heavy duty desk, but I’m more concerned about the garage ceiling if it’s able to support all that weight :-)

[@W8KZW]

Beautiful gear and shack, Eugene! I wonder if you ever worry about too much weight on the second floor. Did you augment the support of the flooring at all? 73, Jeff - W8KZW

[@w2hx]

Thanks, Jeff. Yes when we built out the shack we installed a massive 2 foot thick laminated beam with cement footings a few feet deep (I forget what the code was for depth). Here are some pix w2hx.com/?prefix=TEMP/Garage-Beam thanks for watching and thanks for the comment.

[@W8KZW]

@@w2hx Looks like that should more than do it, Eugene! It's amazing how quickly the weight of gear like this adds up. Certainly something for collectors to be mindful of. 73.

[@q95oldies57]

Very interesting. Since you are on the 2nd floor there, what grounding method do you use?

[@w2hx]

Hi there. For safety ground, my shack is above the garage where the main breaker panel is. I have grounding blocks in the shack that go directly to the ground in the breaker panel. For RF ground, I mostly use doublet-type antennas except for my vertical, that has a good counterpoise surrounding it. I dont really have any RF in the shack issues. thankks

[@Destroy_Communism]

But what works, what do you use, and whats only worth its scrap metal value ? I have racks and shelves full of test and radio equipment , rooms full, but its all eye candy. Gear from WW2 to the 80’s that collects dust, takes up space, and I cant give it away. But I cannot bear to scrap it either. So when I die my wife will hire a junk man and they will throw it all in a dumpster. No one wants a 30 pound 475 when they can put a 2 pound Siglent on their bench. And so on. And I just brought home another 800 -1000 pounds of high end test and radio gear from an SK estate - all free for taking it. On top of that - The jewel was a TriEx 4-70 with tilt base. 14 yrs young. Homeowner paid for removal costs and I rented a truck for the ride home. The real cost. A very sore back and a nagging wife. But what find.

[@w2hx]

Hello, Destroy. I would say 60% of the stuff in the video is working. I'd say another 25% should be "easy" to get operational again. The remaining 15% is probably just cool to own and no plans to get working. If you want, contact me through QRZ maybe I can find some buyers for some of your stuff?

[@MacsForever1]

Where are your ICOM, Yaesu and Kenwood radios? 😂. These are all great radios although there missing the familiar spectrascopes. 73, K9AT

[@w2hx]

:) I dont think I have even a single radio marketed to hams.

[@MacsForever1]

@@w2hx not even an HT I’ve got over 20 so if you want one, let me know :-)

[@jimmycake7143]

In the alley you have a grey unit with 2 8" speakers in it. can you tell me about that thanks KC2-AGT NY

[@w2hx]

Hi there. I tried to look up your email on QRZ but alas, you have no email address listed. I would be happy to send you a picture if you were interested. It is a military dual speaker thingamagiggy.

[@w2hx]

Still cant contact you through QRZ. The speaker is an LS-206/U

[@lowsniper1]

holy cow! Do you ever have any military radios for sale?

[@w2hx]

rarely. but not never

[@rw6783]

Man I want to know more about that Harris RF2301. That thing looks sweet. I tried looking around the internet and there isn't much on it. Edit: if you are ever in the mood to sell that thing, hit me up. After reading up on it, i kinda want one

[@w2hx]

Hi RW. It is a cool looking unit. I bought it probably 6 or 7 years ago and I have yet to power it up! It was working when I got it (seller demonstrated it to me). but it is verrry cool looking. It has a n original harris 120VAC AC power supply (not shown) that it sits on and can also run on 28VDC.

[@rw6783]

@w2hx oh that's really cool that you got the power supply with it.

[@user-hy6fv2gt6w]

All equipment obsolete, tube stuff from WWII. You must modernize you station!

[@md10591]

every one do what he like !!