K4BEH - SHACK SHOT:  From the old hamshack in Marietta, Ga.



Pat, K4BEH, at his old station in Marietta before he moved to the mountains.   You can see his  SB-104 (right edge of photo), Paragon, MFJ keyboard keyer, MFJ and Ten-Tec antenna tuners and I believe the home brew amplifier with two 813's at the left.  I think that's the Viking Adventurer and Heath VF-1 mentioned in the article sitting at the top of the shelf.  Pat makes me try to count the pilots and ex-pilots on KYN - K4BEH, K4FDK, KQ4XH, and K4YKI..... any
others???


More info from Pat:
We moved from Marietta to Jasper, about 45 miles to the north, on August 11th and 12th.  We had so much stuff that they had to make two trips!  We are about settled in and are really loving it.  It is our dream home that started in 1992 when I bought two one-acre lots in a new development called Hunter's Ridge.  It is located on 525 or so acres about 3 miles north of Jasper, county seat of Pickens County.  The town has about 5,000 folks and the county 25,000.  Unfortunately lots of other Atlanta area folks have gotten fed up with the crime and congestion of the big city and are heading north, so we expect the county to double in about ten years or less.

We found a house plan we liked in 1994 and were able to see the house built to that plan in Tennessee a couple of years later through a strange coincidence that I won't go into here.  (It belongs to the Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner in Columbia, TN)  I spent the next few years writing specs for every detail of the house and finding the perfect contractor!  He builds a top-quality house and took my tight specs and made it better than them!  It has really been almost painless, thanks to his skills and insight.  He is a true craftsman from the "old school" .

The house has 3000 square feet of finished space on two floors and a 2000 square foot unfinished basement.  I had him put up the partition wall studs but not finish them.   That will be my project over the next few months (years?).  My  hamshack/workshop will be the first finished!  Until then I will operate from the bonus room over the kitchen.  I had the
tower base erected at the time the driveway concrete was poured.  It is a 70 foot self-supporting aluminum tower that I will guy for extra safety since we sit on top of a 1600 foot ridge with a clear vista in all directions.  On a clear day you can see Atlanta, but who wants to? ! ?

I call it Radio Nirvana because it is such a great radio location.  I now have room to try all sorts of antenna designs, something I have always found interesting and challenging.  I am also going to build my "Big Bertha" amplifier with three 3-500Z's in parallel.  I have been collecting parts for it for years.

I am really enjoying life in the slow-lane.  Jasper reminds me of Newport, Tennessee where I grew up, with some very nice folks who take the time to be helpful to a stranger.  Very low crime rates here and traffic problems practically non-existant, at least compared to I-75/85 through Atlanta!  We miss our Marietta friends but get down there once or twice a week for the time being.  We have a contract on our old house and as soon as the remaining structural problems are fixed beginning next
week we will close on it around September 21st.  That will be a BIG burden lifted!  It seems that I left lots of things unrepaired over the 25 years we lived there, most of which I was unaware of.

I will keep you posted on my progress with "Studio 'A'," as my dad used to call my hamshack in the mid-fifties, when you and I were both new hams!  I have collected some top-notch test and calibration equipment over the past few years anticipating the day when I could do lots of designing/building/tinkering, etc.  I can hardly wait to get started!



Return to Pat's Story.

Return to QAN Features page.



Published November 2, 2000.