It's been a busy couple weeks here at home!  We're trying to move fast on our basement project, which by default means we're also moving fast on the shack progress.  I figured a quick and fun way to share the progress would be to throw up some of the progress pictures, and let the pictures and captions do the talking.  Some of these pictures are from the main rec room, but since the two projects are intertwined as one big home project, I figured I'd share everything.  

     The last time I gave an update, the drywall was hung and finished:

And here's all the progress since then:

     I'll jump out of the gate by giving one last congrats to the activator and hunter that made the most contacts during the POTA Summer 2018 Support Your Parks event!  I picked up the plaques from the trophy shop this week, and dropped them in the mail - congratulations Mike and Brian!

and here they are, all snug in their  boxes, heading out on their trips to the shacks of the winners (with a bit of luck they'll be there by the end of the week!)

This next bit I was going to sit on and not share until next week, but I'm too excited to wait.  Plus, we're planning on moving pretty fast... 

As I write, the last of the drywall sanding is being finished up, but depending on when you read this it may already be partially or wholly covered with paint.  It's amazing the talents people have, and I have a ton of respect for people that do work, which has the ultimate goal of NOT being noticed.  With that thought, let's stop for a moment to admire N3HQN's work, because when you run your hands over this, you can't even feel that it's there, and once the paint is on, you won't be able to see it either!

I think it's pretty impressive, especially when you consider the fact that he was finishing drywall that was hung by someone (me!) who had never hung it before!

Anyway, the next time I show pictures, the shack will be "Colonial Verdigris" and the rec room (which will be a play room for the kiddos in reality) will be "Pink Harmony."  My YL and I will probably be covered in some mix of the two...

     Just in case you didn't already know this, I've been putting in a lot of hours helping to get the QSO storage system for the Parks on the Air group up and running.  From the main website, if you go to the dashboard section it takes you to a page of statistics where you can see results from activations, log in, look at your own personal profile etc.  That's the stuff that we've been furiously working on for the last few months :-)

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    Since I just recently finished up my Information Systems degree, it's been nice to have this project to help work on, so that I can get some "real world" use out of my new-found skills, and support a hobby that I enjoy at the same time!

     Fun certainly does not always equate to easy though!  It's been quite a lot of work (I estimate conservatively that I've spent about 12 - 20 hours a week on it.)  The only reason I point out the amount of effort that we have been putting into this, is to highlight that we're all volunteers doing it - Our reward is seeing people enjoy the program, and having a fun time activating parks.  In one case though, one of the individuals who participates in the program, and also helps out with some of the administrative stuff, went above and beyond to show his appreciation, and sent me this in the mail as a way to say thanks:

     So, in return, thank you!  As soon as the new shack is ready to start having furniture moved in, and decorations hung, this will be one of the first things to go up on the wall!  Until then, it's sitting next to me in the temporary closet-shack that I call home while the dirt and dust flies around down in the basement :-)

     Things on the shack front are getting pretty exciting! 

     After we got the quotes for having the drywall I hung finished, the YL and I sat down to review our options.  We got 3 quotes - two of them were very close to each other, and the third was very high (so high, that I suspect the guy didn't actually want the work.)  Since the other two quotes were very close, it made sense to me to go with the person who is another ham!  We dropped the check in the mail last week, and this week the fun started out in the main part of the basement:

     I'll be sure to share some more pictures when the drywall finishing is complete, since the first coat of mud and tape isn't really the glamorous part of drywall.   While the work down there continues, I'll be getting some paint and flooring together so that the YL and I can move along with that stuff as soon as the drywall is ready for paint :-)

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Today during my lunch break we took a drive to a local antiques shop. We’re not far from Strasburg PA, which is known for historical train stuff, so once in a while old telegraph equipment pops ups in the places near us. I didn’t luck out and find anything like that today, but I did stumble on some vintage test gear - a couple “milliammeters” some various volt and amp gauges that could be neat in a project, and one thing that I’m not familiar with - a “Cathode Follower.”

Searching Google for the make and model brings up a lot hits for old articles about accelerometer testing, one of which includes a block diagram of this device in between an accelerometer under test, an amplifier, and an oscilloscope.

This leaves me asking a few questions:
Are the old milliammeters worth the $40 they’re marked at, are the volt and amperage gauges sufficiently cool and vintage enough to be worth around the $15 they are marked at, and lastly, WHAT exactly was this “cathode follower” normally used for?