I don’t really have a dedicated shack, for my growing collection, but I have made the space I have in my garage rather productive. I spent money mainly on an old oak roll-top desk from Facebook marketplace and then used some old closet shelves to make additional storage on top, and a place to screw/bolt thing rather than do too much damage to the desk.

The Desk “Station”

Unfortunately, my desk is rarely clean, this photo was taken as I was installing some Palomar Engineers RFI kits to the three major transceivers.

Desk

Power

The following schematic shows the power layout, starting with the main power filter at the top on down.

  left ground bus ┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┊┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈ right ground bus
                             ┌────────────────┐
       ┌─────────────────────┤   Main Power   ├───────────────────────┐
       │              ┌──────┤    Filtered    ├────────┐              │
       │              │      └────────┬───────┘        │              │
       │              │       ┊       │                │              │
 ┌─────┴─────┐    ┌───┴───┐   ┊   ┌───┴───┐        ┌───┴───┐   ┌──────┴──────┐
 │ Mac mini  │    │ PSU-B │   ┊   │ PSU-P │        │ PSU-B │   │ HT charging │
 ├───────────┤    └───┬───┘   ┊   └───┬───┘        └───┬───┘   └─────────────┘
 │ MBook Pro │        ├──USB  ┊       │                ├──USB
 └───────────┘  ┌─────┴────┐  ┊  ┌────┴─────┐     ┌────┴─────┐
                │  DB20-G  │  ┊  │   KX3    │     │  IC-705  │
                ├──────────┤  ┊  │   PX3    │     ├──────────┤
                │   DB50   │  ┊  │ KXPA100  │     │   sBitz  │
                └──────────┘  ┊  └──────────┘     └──────────┘

The main power input is handled by a WAudio W-5900 providing 8 filtered and 4 unfiltered outlets. Two of the filtered outlets are used for BTech RPS-30PRO 30 Amp power supplies (PSU-B). One of the filtered outlets is for a Powerwerx SS-30DV 30 Amp power supply (PSU-P). The computer, monitors, and the chargers for various HTs and accessories are not using filtered outlets.

I run everything off Anderson power pole connectors, so the two RPS-30PRO feed into a Chunzehui F-1005 9 Port 40A Power Distributor. Because so many small devices and tools use USB power these days I also have a StarTech 10-Port Industrial USB 5Gbps Hub at each power position with a short Anderson power cable.

The SS-30DV is exclusively for the Elecraft setup and has no intermediate power distribution.

Ground

There are two main ground busses, large copper & heavy duty, on either side of bench with the sides slightly assymmetrical and shown with the dashed line in the figure above. The left bus is bonded to the right which is in turn bonded to the case of the WAudio W-5900.

Additionally, most of the spaces where I have equipment such as the shelves on top of the desk and the stand for the IC-705 have sheets of 1mm aluminium sheet attached.

Antenna Storage

To store field and spare antennas I used more of my spare closet shelves and some offcut plywood to build a box approximately 30”×12”×18”, with a cover at one end and bought some casters so I can move it around. The idea of the plywood cover was to drill holes through it to hold individual antenna while the larger open part held tripods and bagged antenna and accessories.

Antenna Storage

This cover ended up more sophisticated than originally planned, I cut two pieces of plybood, one for the cover and one smaller to fit in the floor of the box under the cover. I then drilled a number of large diameter holes through both so that I could pass some short lengths of plumbing tube, 1.5” and 3” as well as some simple 1” diameter holes in both for smaller antenna. This means that anything passed through the holes stays upright as it’s captive in the bottom. Finally, a bunch of countersunk smaller holes are useful for dropping in HT antennas and other accessories.

In the picture the large black pipe at the back shows that the whole thing is sturdy enough to hold my Intellitron mast, in a corner.

Radio and Cable Storage

I like to keep things ready to go, so radios, antenna, accessories tend to be organized into bags I can grab as needed. Unfortunately the number of these grew beyond what the desk could hold, then beyond what I could stand to stack “neatly” next to it. But, just as I was wondering what to do I was gifted a small but damaged shopping wagon! Perfect as it will never need to leave the garage but can now be wheeled out of the way if I need to get around the shack desk.

Other Storage

On the top of this, on the left, you can see the Nestout large gear case I use for the Lab599 TX-500 and accessories. To the right, at the back is the top of the Windcamp touring series Field Pack, my homemade 2m/70cm repeater, and one of the Elecraft ES80 cases. Underneath all that there are cable bags, line bags, a LifePo4 battery box and more.

Attic Antennas

I have currently five fixed antenna installed in the attic over the shack, handy but initially messy.

Attached to desk just above the antenna and equipment rollers is the patch rack I built for connecting radios, antenna, and accessories, see the post Ham shack antenna patch rack for details.