The Station Notebook

When I originally set up my station as a novice, I didn't make a lot of notes. I wrote a few things on the back-side of my logbook pages: radios I used, antennas I put up. But, for the most part, I freely made changes to my setup without a lot of documentation.

Some years later, I had a small steno-style notebook lying around, and I used it to record certain information. Like the exact color-code of the RS-232 cables I wired up for my computer. That sort of thing was handy to have written down, because it saved a lot of reverse-engineering later I went to make another cable. But that was about it.

Perhaps a dozen years ago, I read a couple of articles about James Lawson, W2PV, and how he kept copious notebooks about his station. He even solved a sticky problem during a contest, because he kept notes about his antenna installation.

After that, I started writing more things down in my little Steno notebook. Most of it was changes I made to the station -- radios or antenna modifications. Or if something big happened -- like I blew up the amplifier. I recorded a lot more details, and I put dates on everything.

But when I began to spend most of my time out in Floyd County it put my little steno notebook out of reach. I had a new station and I still wanted to keep notes. My solution was dead simple -- I created a text document using TextEdit. I called it Floyd County Station Log.

Looking at it today, it's more like a diary. Each month, I put in a new heading: March 2017. And below that I record anything interesting that I do. I record the things that work, and I also record the things that don't work! If I don't do anything that month, I'll just change the heading to the next month.

The bottom of this document has a list of projects to be worked on. Silly now, since I'm no longer at that QTH: 6m antenna, K9AY controller, 20m and 30m traps for the dipole, tribander-Moxon  times 3 (now that's an interesting project I'll need to write about some day!), remote antenna switch, etc.

This method worked so well, in May 2015, I adopted it for my main station log. Not only did I make new entries, but I also entered all the data from the steno notebook. Plus, I went back through all of my contest comment submissions and recorded all the changes I had made to the station from November 1994 to date.

Today the Gwinnett County Station Log is a reasonably complete record of all the things I've done with the station for the last 22+ years. It has six pages of project notes at the end. Lots of stuff to work on! And, yes, I also have a smaller document for the Walton County Station Log.

I guess my point is that having a station notebook is extremely valuable. It doesn't matter if you use a small steno notebook, a spiral-bound notebook, a composition book with graph paper, a loose-leaf notebook, or a computer document. The important thing is to find a style that works for you to keep notes. After a while, there's just too much to try to remember. So keep good notes.

Fixing the Heil BM-10

Repaired Heil BM-10

Back in the early 1990s, I'd been contesting using a Kenwood MC-50 desktop microphone. It worked well enough. But long hours of contesting in one position became uncomfortable. So, I decided I need a headset with a boom mic.

Heil had recently come out with a lightweight headset, the Heil BM-10. For right at $100, I purchased one with the HC-4 element. The HC-4 was supposed to have a little bit more "punch", great for DX and contest work.

I was immediately pleased with how it performed. I used that headset for many years, many enjoyable contests. It was pretty comfortable, although after several hours, even the light touch on the  ears would cause a little irritation. The foam pads on the ears have been replaced a couple of times.

And then, in December of 2007, it quit. The microphone element stopped working. I disassembled it, determined that the element wasn't working, and it sat. I wanted to order a replacement HC-4 element. After all, Heil used to sell them. But no more.

After a while, I purchased a Heil Pro-set, perhaps one of the last ones made with the HC-4 element. It works spectacularly with the Elecraft K3.

So the BM-10 laid disassembled, for a suitable microphone element.

Electret microphone nestled in a bed
of foam.

This past January, I ordered an electret microphone element from Ramsey Electronics. It was probably one of the last kits they sold. The kit came with a resistor and coupling capacitor to isolate the bias. The capacitor was far too large to fit inside the 8-pin DIN connector, so used a smaller unit from the junk box.

I also replaced the boom mic clip. The original one had long ago cracked and was held together with a screw. Hell fortunately still sells them as a replacement part.

I had to do some hunting to find the microphone cover. The headset had been disassembled so long all the parts weren't in the same place.

Works like a champ. A bit of foam to keep the element from rattling around, and perhaps it is good for another dozen years or so.