"Ham Radio Perspectives" Interviews Dave, W7UUU, who lost his amateur radio shack in a fire and built a new one based on terrific principles for all hams. Hosted by Quin, K8QS, and Tom, WA9TDD. Post your ham shack ideas below.
It's not just the design that is amazing, but Dave's gumption to re-build--and to re-build better. Highly admirable! Be sure you don't miss an important point: the fire started with an old power strip. CHECK YOURS TODAY!
One of the tricks used in sound production is to double the sound with a 25-40 ms delay. Your ears interpret that as a loudness enhancement, and it doesn't sound like a 'slap back' echo (which is usually but not always 120ms or more) or reverb. Typically this is done digitally, or with tape,but not so, many years ago, and not always with electronics.An EXTREME example of that effect---which also was used to distort the EQ--is the song 'American Band ' by Grand Funk. The singer (drummer) has his voice done threw a kind of echo chamber made by a 30 foot spiral length of tubing called a 'Cooper Box'. 30 ms delay 'echo' relative to the main track. Now: Dave's shack probably has some cool secondary reflections that give the delay effects in that range, reflecting off the side and back walls. IOW his room naturally enhances the loudness of his voice without the sensation of a 'CB echo'. That help?;-)
Very nice. Now, what about the reworking of the actual boom to keep it from flopping around and provide more stability? Quin
All my radios are slapped into a 20U rack mount. Linear power supplies on the bottom because they don't need access and add stability weight, fans in center, then rigs and manual tuners from middle to top. Yeasu 5000 is too large to sit within the racks, which are full anyway, so sits on upside down rack on the top of the rack system. I have to get out of my Lazy Boy to adjust the knobs, so it isn't the "dream" setup as of yet. But, its slim, stupid simple, and keeps everything cool. As for good audio, I've gotten stellar reports with stock microphones. With all the fiddling with audio processing, improved microphones, and all that jazz can really up your sound quality, I've found I've gotten extremely good audio by focusing more on talking technique and how you set up the room itself. If you have a room that has terrible echo, it's hard to get any good performance even with a good mic. Padding the walls you speak into, changing the material of the walls and ceiling of the room, all of this can make a big improvement. As for speaking techniques, I learned a LOT during my singing lessons years back. People tend to speak into their palette, chew their words in their mouths, or speak in their throats causing terrible reverb. There is a lot to be said about opening up your whole system and learning to project your voice outwards cleanly, instead of letting everything echo in your throat, mouth, and nasil cavities. Microphones and radio are worse than real life, they pick up all that internal noise you generate and record it or modulate it! Often, the echoes in your upper body will cause more problems then the echoes in the room. Good video, and some things to think about.
Contesters prefer boom mounting because it frees up desk space and hand movement. You can also easily get a better proximity effect on (many) mikes if you have the versatility of a boom. The downside to a boom--when attached at about eye level-- is that you want to bring the mike DOWN to head level, so the ideal boom mount position is much higher up. But Dave's reinforcement allows him to really move the mike easily to any position, and he has it mounted fairly high up anyway. The ideal boom/mike position is one that doesn't block your desk space and hands--and doesn;t block your eyes. Note that when you use a boom mike you often have better control of the room reflections to enhance your perceived 'loudness'. So it is related to my earlier comment, Broadcasters do not have booms set up for reasons of interest to hams....they like to treat the mike like its a close-by friend whose ear you are talking into. It is MEANT to be in front of their face. They often swallow the mike to get an extreme proximity effect on the bass. Hams, especially on contests, want an 'annoying' EQ response so they cut in the QRM--no proximity effect. A contest EQ setting when rag chewing, BTW, is a real impedimemt to conversation. Howard Stern--for example-- does not have, naturally, the rich bass you hear on radio, but he sure knows how to coddle the proximity effect for a unique sound. Watch him 'play' the mike on the boom, changing distance to control the EQ..
So interesting. You guys really know how to make great content. Dave’s Shack is fantastic, and a cautionary tale. Well done him for coming back from that disaster stronger. Top notch guys, 73 de 2E0TWD
Dave is an inspiration and his shack is fantastic - definitely something to aspire to! Well done guys, and thank you for keeping it to the point.
Having a setup like that has been a dream of mine since I was a kid. Nicely done, sir. It is always good to have something to aspire to.
Yes, nice to the point to video. Enjoyed it very much, certainly a breath of fresh air in the YouTubeverse. Keep up the good work Quin! @W7UUU awesome shack OM!
Quin indeed did a really good job on this video - I appreciate being invited to provide what I could to aid the cause. Dave W7UUU
