The Voice Radio To Do List, Rev. 01

Argh! Jerry Pournelle's words come back to haunt me - Save Early, Save Often. I did neither last night and I was putting the finishing touches on this post, I lost all the text. It's definitely a shame on me, as web-based text editing is fraught with peril; I think it's because I'm out of practice in blogging. Oh well, here goes again.

There's a long list of Things To Get Done before the voice radios are on the air. And in such cases, a friend's words ring true:

Plan The Work, and Work The Plan
- Harold "Ed" Sprinkle

1. Things to procure:
   • Plywood for interior frame, knee hole
   • Plywood for lower frame
   • (6) Motorola speakers
   • (6) microphone hangers, 3 are mini for the Icom microphones
   • Hole saw
   • PowerPole distribution power strip - DC Power?
   • Big Honkin' Gel Cell battery
   • LED lighting strip - West Marine?
   • Voltage / Current monitoring system - maybe the "Fuel Gage" type of meter that provides a running percentage and/or time available of power
   • Drop-in charger for Kenwood TH-F6
   • Additional rechargable battery packs for Kenwood TH-F6
   • PVC components for coax feedthrough into radio room
   • 6 (?) runs of LMRxxx, terminated with Type-N... or buy the connectors and/or tools to do it cleanly - no soldering.
   • Omnidirectional CB antenna
   • Repair Ringo Ranger "clone" antenna or buy a new omni 2m antenna
   • 900 MHz omni
   • (If necessary) short runs of more flexible coax to to into the Study Island, with necessary adapters like double female Type N; coax jumpers to match individual radios, like Type N to PL-259.
   • Additional Radio Shack mast sections to complete 3 30' masts
   • Zinc grease for masts (Never Seez?)
   • UV-safe cable ties for masts
2. Build interior frame for Study Island to mount radios, speakers, and microphones.
3. Modify existing radios power wiring to "standard" PowerPole connectors
4. Mount existing radios to interior frame
   • Johnson Messenger 4145
   • Heathkit HW-2036
   • Icom IC-28A
   • Icom IC-38A
   • Icom IC-48A
   • Kenwood TK-931
5. Modify interior frame for Motorola speakers
6. Mount Motorola speakers on interior frame
7. Modify interior frame for microphones
8. Mount microphones to interior frame
9. Mount LED lighting strip
10. Drill holes in back or tabletop of Study Island
11. Build frame for knee hole of Study Island
12. Mount Astron RS-20A power supply on knee hole frame
13. Mount West Mount Radio PWRgate PG40s on knee hole frame
14. Mount Gel Cell battery on knee hole frame
15. Mount PowerPole distributionstrip to knee hole frame
16. Wire up all power supply elements
17. Install coax feedthrough in radio room wall (gonna be a big project!)
18. Complete tower @ 30' (tilt down for tower work
19. Install Comet (?) tri-band omni antenna on tower to feed IC-28A / IC-38A / IC-48A with existing triplexer
20. Build "block / swivel / clamp" assembly for Radio Shack Masts
21. Install Radio Shack 30' masts for CB, 2m, and 900 MHz antennas on side of house; use zinc grease so sections don't stick together
22. Mount Radio Shack 30' masts on steel stakes with shaft; might have to modify masts with a notch so they'll stay centered up on the stakes.
23. Run coax into radio room, excess to be accumulated... ?
24. Make 3 hole notebook logbook
25. Make 3 hole notebook repeater directory
26. Make big net directory / calendar (Google Calendar?)
27. Make 3 hole notebook of the voice radio system
28. Make 3 hole notebook for all the major subsystems
    1. Power
    2. each individual radio
    3. antennas
29. Nice to haves:
    1. Multiple time zone clocks
    2. Design / build riser for top of study island - room for broadcast (?) radio, Johnson Messenger CB
    3. Tilt-up / stand for scanners
    4. One (discone?) antenna feeding two scanners?
    5. Stand, power supply (12V, of course) and speakers (also 12V) for iPod so I can listen to podcasts in the evening.
    6. Need to work up a good grounding system

73,

Steve N8GNJ