David Nicolaus, W9DN

I retired from a steel mill a little over a year ago and moved into this home. It took a lot of work to get my station to where it is today, but it has been worth the effort. Now when the XYL starts looking for me to do some job around the house, I just retreat to my shack and close the door — hopefully she can’t find me! It’s warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

I like to rag-chew on SSB and the homebrew computer in the center of the photograph is used for some of the new digital modes. Now that I can really live up to my call sign (Doing Nothing), life sure is great!

On the left is my HF station consisting of a Kenwood TS440S transceiver, a PS-50 power supply and an MC-80 desk mike. The MFJ-969 Deluxe Versa Tuner II is used to tune the 160-meter inverted “V” that is fed with open wire ladder line. The Hi Gain Ham IV rotator controller turns a Mosley TA 33 JR with a WARC kit installed.

On the right is my VHF station consisting of a Yaesu FT-736R that holds the 6M, 2M, 220 and 440 modules. The MD-1 desk microphone is next to it. Antennas for these bands are a Diamond X3200A tri-band vertical and a Tennadyne Log Periodic. You also see a dual band MFJ-921 for use on 144 and 220 MHz, attached to a MFJ-906 tuner. All of the antennas are mounted on a U.S. Tower 55-foot crankup tower in the backyard.

(Ed. Proud of that one-of-a-kind shack of yours? Well, why not get something in return for all of that hard work? Send us a photo!)