Spring cleaning…
It is spring cleaning time around the KU7M shack. I have spent most of the last two weeks doing a lot of cleaning (meaning throwing stuff out) and especially in the shack. This sort of started off because I got the idea to paint the shack. The plain white walls and 70’s dark wood trim started to get to me. Plus I found this really cool website of semi-famous authors offices, which sort of inspired me.
So the painting project required some serious cleaning to happen. The first stage was to remove the old desk that Rosie was originally going to use in the office. But since Isaac was born, it has been collecting dust. (She wanted space upstairs in the library, which is off the main living room.) Just removing that desk took quite a bit of effort, since it came apart in pieces when I tried to move it. Once the desk was out I started going through the shack and evaluating all sorts of stuff to be tossed.
I’ve been trying to re-cycle as much as possible, but that becomes difficult. I gave away my collection of Wired magazines, I had most of the first 15th years. They went to a nice lady that responded to the post on “freecycle“. This is really a great idea, it replaces Craigslist with heavy moderation and only stuff which is free. I also posted my old PowerMac G4, but that didn’t happen until today. (It had to be flatten, disked wiped and a clean install of OS X put on it.) I was surprised at how speedy it still was for just doing basic stuff. I have also already given away one extra PC and a stack of old Microsoft software I’ll never use. But there is still quite a bit which will end up in the dump.
I can’t believe how much REALLY old software I had piled up on the bookshelf in the corner of the shack. I had a full set of floppies to install Windows 3.1, Windows for Workgroups 3.11 and Windows 95. Tons of floppies of windows software from the same time period. All of these went into the trash, since I can’t think of anything people would want them for now.
In addition to the dump pile, my pile of stuff to take to a ham fest is growing. I probably have enough now to warrant getting a table, but I hate the idea of doing that. I’d rather give most of it away then deal with all the random stupid questions about it. Maybe I will just price everything at $1 or $5, cover the cost of the table and call it good.
I did accomplish one radio thing this week. I finally debugged / solved the noise problem that developed with the 220 radio. I moved around the radio PC a while ago, when I got a monitor arm for the LCD. (so it can swing out of the way) Ever since I did that, the 220 radio has developed a serious noise problem, even with the squelch turned way up.
So today I put monitor switch between the computer and monitor, which allowed me to move the PC about five feet into the corner under the desk. Just putting some space between the radio and computer solved the problem. I also like the computer over in the corner better anyhow, since it is out of the way.
Tomorrow I’m thinking very seriously about attacking the D700 install in the truck. All the talk about bridging the different APRS networks has peaked my interest. I have all the cables, so once the mowing is done I’ll run the cables at least. Actually installing everything can be done in small steps during the week, but I have to dismantle to many things to get the cables run.