After retiring in 1999 and buying a nice sized house, I decided to take half of the basement for my electronics workshop. My wife took the other half for her crafts and quilting projects. Work benches were constructed with storage underneath and hinged doors using good quality plywood. The height is just right while standing or sitting in a standard bar chair. Three dedicated electrical lines were routed from the main distribution panel for the workbench, one for a 220 volt outlet in the event an amplifier may be tested and two lines, each feeding 5 outlets spread evenly at the rear of the bench. Both 110 VAC lines are on the same phase to prevent any ground loop problems and of course earth grounding was done straight down through the floor underneath the benches.
Coaxial cables 70 feet long, directly buried outside were routed into the basement corner under the den where the ham shack is located. A total of 5 cables were routed into the basement underneath the den where the ham station is located though an opening in the basement wall. The cable is aluminum jacketed which was is used by the local cable company for cable TV distribution with adapted PL259 connectors on each end. Coaxial switching was installed to enable any antenna to go either to the den or the workbench. The run of cable also included some direct burial 8 conductor cables which were for any future use such as remote control of preamps, telephone line, antenna rotators and burglar alarm switches on the outdoor buildings.
New radio gear and antennas were already purchased but we wanted to outfit the workbench with some test equipment. Buying new equipment such as a spectrum analyzer and a frequency counter would cost well over $20,000, so we decided to look for used equipment. E-Bay has been a blessing in that respect and we never could have found what I wanted by attending Hamfests in the area. We started out with the HP141t spectrum analyzers but found they took up considerable room and were too heavy to move around. They did work well, covering all the way to 22 GHz but I was in need of a tracking generator to adjust coaxial cable lengths and filter alignment. Many will disagree using an inexpensive spectrum analyzer made in China but I found a ATTEN 5011 analyzer on E-Bay rather inexpensively for $600. It includes a tracking generator which for my purposes works well. The frequency readout is rather course only reading out to a tenth of a megahertz but we always use a separate accurate marker generator.
The other test gear was also found on E-Bay except for the Tektronix Oscilloscope which was bought from a friend. Other items such as voltmeters, power supplies, probes etc are too numerous to mention. The Astron 70 ampere power supply is a big help, especially testing more than one radio at a time.
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