vk6flab

Noise la la la la la hinders if I were a rich man effective a noise annoys an oyster communication but a noisy noise annoys an oyster more.

Or said differently, when you're trying to communicate, something that the hobby of amateur radio does in spades, you'll need to deal with a phenomenon called noise.

This noise comes in different forms, but the effect is the erection of barriers to successful communication. We refer to the impact of noise as a signal to noise ratio or SNR, the signal being the desired information, the noise the undesired interference. Expressed in decibels so you can deal with a massive range using a small number, an SNR greater than 0 dB means that the signal is stronger than the noise.

Building a shack requires that you consider noise in many forms. If you've been a radio amateur for a few moments, your mind is likely to head straight for the hiss, crackle and pop you might hear whilst attempting to communicate on HF, but there's a few other things to discuss.

There's all sorts of electronic noise received by your radio. In addition, there's audio noise picked up by your ears, and often your microphone. Then there's the noise that you produce, either from your transmitter into the rest of the building, or from your mouth or speakers into the ears of the people you share the space with.

Starting with audio, having a space that you can close the door on is a good way to limit the noise coming into and leaving your shack. An alternative is to wear headphones and generate text to speech, or prerecord your voice, ready for a contact, potentially ideal for contesting, not so much for free form discussion. Another consideration is audio from other radios, including those tuned to a local broadcaster, or aviation frequencies. In other words, if you're transmitting with a microphone, make sure that there's no other audio coming through. In some cases it's even illegal to transmit that audio, but in all cases it's noise that makes communication more difficult.

This kind of audio noise mitigation is pretty straightforward.

In stark contrast, achieving the same with electronic noise is pretty much a balancing act between budget and effectiveness.

The impact of noise is inversely proportional to distance. Essentially, the closer it is, the more impact it has. With that in mind, when you start dealing with noise, start nearby and work your way out. As you eliminate the nearby noise, other sources will become apparent.

Without turning this into a noise mitigation class, the process is essentially one of elimination. First locate the noise source, then eliminate it. That's easier said than done.

For example, if the noise source is a power supply sitting on your bench, you can turn it off, except if that power supply is the one powering your radio, so perhaps I should say: "attempt to eliminate it" instead.

There's plenty of ways to have a go at this and volumetric kilotons of content published on the subject, some of it even useful.

In many, but not all cases, noise is an electrical phenomenon that enters via any means possible and you'll need to attempt noise mitigation at multiple points of entry. Obvious sources are the power supply, coax and the antenna connection, the speaker cable, the microphone lead, and if you're using a computer, the USB, serial or Ethernet cable and within the computer itself. Each requiring different approaches.

The obvious one is to disable the noise, that is, turn off the offending device. As I said, that might not be an option, but you can replace noisy gear, or place it further away.

There's isolation, using tools like ferrites and chokes to stop the noise from reaching your radio. Often in the form of a clip-on blob, you'll find these on things like monitor and USB cables. Place the ferrite as close as possible to the input of your radio. If it's loose on the cable, wind it through the ferrite, the tighter the better.

There's software solutions with varying levels of effectiveness. You'll find DSP or Digital Signal Processing knobs and buttons on many radios. They're generally helpful for narrowband repeating noises, like the hum of an electric motor or power supply.

There's tools that attempt to impose a noise on your signal that cancels out the noise, anti-noise, if you like, by receiving the noise, inverting it and adding it to your signal, thus, at least theoretically, eliminating it, noise minus noise is silence. This can take the form of a device for noise coming in from the antenna, but it also applies to things like noise cancelling speakers. In audio this is called active noise cancelling.

There's also a new crop of noise cancelling software, using A.I. or Assumed Intelligence, that captures your signal, attempts to figure out what's noise and what's not, removes the noise and then feeds it back to you. Your Mileage May Vary and if you break it, you get to keep both parts. Consider your privacy and security implications of sending your audio out the door to be processed.

That's not to say that, at least theoretically, effective local Machine Learning models could be created to help with this. I have yet to see one.

At some point you'll hopefully reach a place where the noise inside your shack is no longer an issue. Then you'll discover your noisy neighbours, with solar panel inverters, pool pumps, plasma televisions, broadband modems, kids toys and pretty much anything electronic, purchased with no consideration whatsoever in relation to your hobby.

I'm mentioning this, because more often than not, you'll have little or no control of those devices. You could cultivate your relationship with your neighbours and discuss your situation, but don't expect compliant hardware to magically solve all your issues.

Antenna orientation, horizontal versus vertical might assist, as might placement or distance from the noise source. It's why I suggest that you start this journey with simple antennas, with plenty of room for evaluation and modification to suit the conditions.

All this to point out that once you have the perfect shack, your work is only just beginning, but then I suspect that you've already realised this.

Like antennas, I will note that noise and its elimination is an integral part of this hobby. It's easy to forget that, whilst you're in the middle of a frustrating hunt for a noise source, and if you like you can think of it as ripples or waves on the pond whilst you're casting a fly.

When you discuss this with other amateurs, you'll likely come across terms like QRM and QRN, the last letter describing either Man-made or Natural noise. I'm not sure how helpful the distinction is, but it's there if you need it.

One resource worth mentioning is a website called qrm.guru. It has documented processes and tools to discover where noise is coming from and how to go about dealing with it.

I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Putting your station together is best described as a juggling act, since you'll discover that everything depends on everything else and the more you plan, the more you learn and the more variables become apparent, none more so than with the selection of an antenna.

Antennas are endlessly variable. To give you a taste, imagine a loop of wire, shaped like a circle. As you stretch the circle, it becomes an oval, if you pull on four corners, it's a square, pull it tight between two points and it more or less becomes a single wire. In other words, one piece of wire can essentially make an infinite number of antennas, and we haven't even varied the material, length, thickness or coating.

So, to discuss antennas is to embark on a lifelong journey of exploration and me telling you to get one over another is not going to help, instead I'd like to discuss some considerations that you might not have encountered.

The obvious issue of space is generally the first consideration. Then there's the neighbours and their sense of aesthetics, or lack thereof. There's local laws to abide by and sometimes permissions and permit requirements, though in many cases it seems that seeking forgiveness is a quicker route to success. Your Mileage May Vary. Talk to your local amateur club.

There's the property owner to consider. If that's you, great, drill away, if not, you will need to tailor your antenna selection to the amount of renovations required.

If you live in a restricted location where there are all manner of rules about the things that you cannot do, you might need to think carefully about your options. Stealthy antennas are a thing. As I've said previously, inside your roof might be an option, but there are others.

Some examples to consider.

If there's a TV aerial on your roof, will that look similar to a 70cm Yagi, or could it hide a 2m vertical? Do you have a metal gutter which might act as an antenna, or could you use Christmas light clips to hang a wire antenna from your gutters? Could you hide a vertical in a plastic down-pipe? Could you dangle a ladder-line antenna out a window at night, or use thin wire to hold up your plants while hiding your antenna in the garden, or can you use a beverage antenna that's lying on the ground, or hidden under the fence capping? Could you tune up your fence for that matter?

In other ways to make your hobby look invisible in plain sight, could you use an antenna that looks like a roof vent, or if you're into moon bounce, could you repurpose a satellite dish? Could you make your outdoor washing line into an antenna or add a flagpole vertical antenna that also happens to soothe your vexillology sensibilities?

While we're talking stealth, you can paint your antenna to match the decor.

To get your antenna up in the air, could you use a length of wood, a pool cleaning or painters pole, strapped to your pergola, gazebo, balcony railing, or some other existing structure? Can you use the edging of a shade sail, professionally installed, it comes complete with mounting points.

It doesn't stop there, I've heard of several amateurs who managed to park a sailboat, with the mast up, in their driveway without ever once floating it in a nearby body of water.

Of course this is not exhaustive, nor is it meant to be, it's really a trigger to think about some options you might not have discovered. In other words, if you need stealth, you can be creative, rather than buy an antenna off the shelf.

Speaking of buying off the shelf, there's nothing quite like buying a wonderful antenna, the answer to all your questions, only to discover that it needs tuning and tweaking, to the point where you might spend a year getting familiar with all its quirks. That's not to discourage you from picking that path, just to warn you that there is no such thing as the perfect antenna.

If you are less space restricted, building a tower or a mast, the difference being that a tower stands all by itself, like the one in Paris, a mast needs guy-wires to keep it up. You'll likely need to consider failure, engineering standards and concrete, not to mention maintenance.

So, how do you go about selecting the perfect antenna to suit your needs?

In the same way that a magician pulls a rabbit from a hat.

In other words, there's a trick.

It's pretty simple, start small.

With that I mean, start with a simple wire antenna. It will achieve a number of things that only experience will give you.

For starters, it will prove that your shack works. As-in, end-to-end. That might not sound like a big deal, but there are many different moving parts in building a successful shack, making your first contact is going to be a milestone worth logging, more on that another day.

While making your first contact is momentous, getting an antenna in the air will also allow you to hear what your neighbourhood sounds like. Is it completely RF quiet, in which case, where do you live and do you have a spare bedroom?

The reality is, for most of us, local RF noise is the norm when setting up your station. Noise is a whole other topic and I'll get into that next time.

I haven't said anything at this point about your living circumstances, but it should be obvious that anyone you're living with needs to be on-board with your adventures, so discuss your plans and concerns.

I'm Onno VK6FLAB

When you start the process of getting your hobby off the ground, either for the first time, or after a hiatus, you might be left with the impression that the only way to "do amateur radio" is to have a shack, a place where you can set-up your gear, and connected to that gear using coax, one or more antennas. While that's a common scenario, it's not the only one at your disposal. We are after all in the game of communication and over the past few decades options have exploded.

Starting closest to the traditional radio, coax and antenna, is to consider indoor antennas. There's many to choose from. You can install one in the same room as your shack, or, you can build your antennas in the roof space, either way, invisible from the outside can sometimes be a requirement. Stealth is a topic all its own, and no doubt we'll get to that another time.

A word of caution. If you do have an indoor antenna and associated coax, consider your transmitter power levels, since it's likely that given the close proximity, you'll exceed emissions safety standards, or you'll cause harm to other electronic equipment in the building. QRP or low power is a good way to go if this is something you're considering.

If we step away from a traditional radio, coax, antenna configuration, you can build your shack in other ways too.

For example, you can use a local repeater which you might trigger from a local handheld radio. Often dismissed as being for local communications only, there are thousands of repeaters across the globe offering a variety of bands, frequencies and modes. Often you can access a local repeater that can be connected to a remote one using a bewildering array of technologies, some using the internet, some using traditional RF. You'll find repeaters on 10m, 6m, 2m, 70cm and 23cm.

There's nothing stopping you making your own repeater. You don't even need to go through the effort of making it completely standalone, for example, my Yaesu FT-857d has a detachable face-plate or head, connected to the main body by a short cable. There are plenty of other radios with a similar configuration.

Presumably designed for the installation in a vehicle, where the head needs to be near the driver and there's unlikely to be space for the body, you can run a longer cable from the head to the body and install it somewhere more convenient. In my case it was bolted underneath the removable floor into the boot next to the spare tyre.

There's several solutions that replace the connecting cable with an internet connection.

Now, that internet connection can be across the room, from inside your shack to your garage, or between your shack and a remote hill where you have permission to put up a bit of gear. In fact, the same type of setup can be used to connect to shared radios, and companies like Elecraft, Flex Radio and ICOM make specific remote heads that can operate remote radio equipment, marketed as RF decks, without needing to install and maintain computers at either end, but more often than not, this equipment is brand or model specific.

Which raises another option.

You can connect to remote equipment across the internet using your computer, which means that your shack might be a computer, a laptop, or a mobile phone and your gear might be in a different country.

Many radio clubs have discovered that their often extensive radio shack is virtually unused during the week, and have installed remote equipment to allow you as a member to connect, sometimes as part of your membership, sometimes with an extra fee, since there are costs associated with setting this up and keeping it running.

At some point you're going to discuss this with other amateurs and you're potentially going to hear someone tell you that this is not "real radio".

Considering over a century of radio evolution, from spark-gap through valves, transistors, integrated circuits and software defined radio, where exactly is the "real radio" line drawn?

Is using WSPR, RTTY, FT8, Hellschreiber, Olivia, SSTV, PSK31, Domino, MFSK and thousands of other digital modes "real radio"? If the answer to that is an emphatic "yes", then ask yourself, how do you actually use those modes?

The answer looks suspiciously like a computer running digital mode software, either connected to a physical radio in the same room, or connected to one across the internet.

In other words, with the proliferation of communication alternatives, amateur radio is evolving. No doubt it will evolve further.

So, today, a perfectly viable, and some might say, modern, amateur radio shack might not actually have any traditional RF based radio gear, though perhaps a hand-held might be something to consider when you next treat yourself, not because without it you're not a real amateur, but because it opens your world to other means of communication, something which I think is perhaps even more important than building the perfect shack.

In other words, you are not required to have a shack to be a radio amateur, it's just that it brings with it another dimension of engagement and activity. Speaking from personal experience, I miss my functional shack, but it's evolving, so there's that.

Next time I'll take a look at antennas, stealthy or otherwise.

I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Such antennas are primarily to be used in person-portable / rucksack-portable activations of parks, hills and mountains, islands and lighthouses in the various amateur radio outdoor award schemes. They would also be ideal for Field-Day operations, either as the main antenna for a single-op entry, or as an alternative antenna for multi-op entries. Of course, the same antenna designs can also be used at a home QTH - just use more substantial fittings and support structures.

The tools included in each designer page enable displays of radiation patterns, VSWR curves, antenna current diagrams, and Smith charts - all calculated and displayed dynamically for the antenna you design. No other website offers such an extensive set of tools to check your antenna design.

One of the potentially trickier aspects of putting together your shack is connecting the radio to the antenna. On the face of it, the challenge is limited to making sure that you have mating connectors on both ends, but when you actually start implementing this you'll run into several other considerations.

The very first one as I said is the connector. Every amateur I've ever spoken to goes through the same process. You pick a connector, typically the one that your radio comes with, then you adapt the connector on your coaxial cable to suit, then you'll get an SWR meter, a dummy load, some testing gear, a coax switch or two, perhaps another radio, or an amplifier and along the way you'll discover that you now have a growing collection of connectors to choose from, and that's just the connectors inside the shack.

After considering connectors, you'll start to contemplate the coax itself. You'll likely weigh price against signal loss, but there are other aspects to the selection of the right coax for the job.

For example, how do you get the coax actually into the shack?

One of the main challenges associated with solving that problem is surprisingly something that rarely affects our hobby, other than any human factors associated with the phenomenon of "weather".

Getting coax into a shack generally involves passing through a weather proof barrier of some sort. In doing so, you're likely to create a place where the weather can make its way into places it's not supposed to.

Water can and will travel along your coax. Hopefully on the outside of it, but if you're unlucky, on the inside too, likely destroying it along the way. At first glance you'll think that water only travels down with gravity and in an ideal world you'd be right, but as it happens, water will happily do other things like get blown by the wind, or condensate in temperature gradients, like those found near a hole you just created in your lovely weather proof barrier.

If your shack has existing openings, they're generally the easiest to appropriate, things like gaps in the eves, existing vent holes, between roof tiles or sheet iron, plenty of existing places where you can get from inside to outside a shack. Note that this is also the case if your shack is a trestle table tucked away in an office, like mine.

Before I continue, I'm about to raise some potential safety issues, but I'm not an occupational health and safety professional, so, do your own due diligence.

If you do need to go into your roof space, height aside, consider it a dangerous place. Make sure that there's someone to check on you and consider alternatives to climbing up there. Wearing a face mask and full body clothing is a very good idea. Often you'll find exposed wires, deteriorating or toxic insulation and other nasty things, conductivity of steel roof frames and pipes are also a hazard, so be extremely reluctant to venture there. Avoidance is preferable.

Working at heights 101: Don't .. that said, there may be no alternative.

You can lift corrugated iron sheets by undoing the roofing screws. If you do, make absolutely sure that you don't make a string of water inlet points when you put it all back together. In lifting a sheet, you can access the roof space and run your coax. Sometimes the gap between the corrugation and the rafters is sufficient to push the coax through, but if you live in a hot climate, make sure that it doesn't touch the sheeting, since coax is likely to distort, if not outright melt, if it's in direct contact with the iron sheet while the sun is belting down on it. Consider the temperature rating of your coax.

Similarly, terracotta roof tiles tend to have enough space to allow coax to enter the roof space. Be very careful, since they're often fragile and potentially irreplaceable. Look for openings like existing roof fittings, things like chimneys, vent pipes, roof ridges, etc. for simpler points of entry.

If you need to make a hole in your roof and seal it, there's special rubber grommets for this purpose. You cut a little opening in the grommet, too tight for the coax, then force it through. Seal to the roof with UV-stable silicone and you're good to go. Check them every so many years, they deteriorate. Speaking of silicone, if there's an existing hole that you're using, don't just seal it up, it might be there for a reason.

Windows often have vent holes or gaps that will fit some types of coax and there's inserts you can use to open a sliding window that will accommodate coax, but consider the security of that window before you commit. There's also special flat coax for running through a window frame or under a door, but check before you buy that they're suitable for the job.

Ladder line is also an option, it's much thinner, can travel longer distances, but its performance can be affected by corrugated iron and other conductors.

Rarely if ever does the initial acquisition of coaxial cable involve details like "bending radius", the smallest turn you can make with the coax without destroying its characteristics, since bending causes the insulation, the core and the shield to distort to some degree and with it, affect the RF passing through.

Whichever path your coax takes, consider that you can cut it short, but not long. If you really must know how long the coax is, use some string to run along the proposed path, but beware, the string has a bending radius that approaches zero, coax does not. Most coax will specify a bending radius for fixed and repeated bending. The fixed one is for a one time only bend and 65 mm is typical. Thinner coax tends to have a smaller bending radius, but that might affect the signal loss, or the budget, or both, so take that into account.

Cutting and joining also introduces points of failure, places of moisture ingress, thick spots that cannot be pulled through existing holes, and plenty of other hidden fun and games, in other words, don't be stingy, get it right, it might cost a few bob extra, but you'll have a happier time of it.

If you need to run your coax inside a wall, the tool you're looking for is called a "Cavity King", not of the embalming variety, though relevant if you happen to do something foolish like drill a hole through an existing power wire in your building, so don't start drilling holes where it suits without checking first. If you do, make sure that you drill on an angle facing upwards from the outside and find a place where the coax itself doesn't get wet on the way in.

Speaking of holes. Terminate the coax after you installed it, not before. You can use electrical tape to attach a rope to pull the coax along its route without damaging the coax. Before you close up the roof and pack everything away attach the connectors to the coax and properly test it. If it fails your tests, it's easier to run it again with everything in place than it is to start from scratch, ask me how I know.

In my shack, I have a run of RG-214 that goes to my VHF/UHF vertical, I also have a run of quad shield RG-6 that goes to my HF antenna. If you're familiar with coax indicators, you'll know that RG-6 is actually 75 Ohm, not 50 Ohm. Given that it's made from aluminium, not copper, it's also an absolute turd to solder. What it does have going for it is that it's absurdly cheap, since its used in satellite dish installations across the planet. It also very handily can be terminated with F-type compression connectors, which in the 25 years I've used them, I've yet to see fail.

The F-type connector can accommodate a handy BNC adaptor, bringing us back into the realm of amateur radio.

My coax goes under the corrugated iron of my roof through the plasterboard of my office wall, hidden away in a cupboard, snakes under the cupboard door, along the wall to the termination coax switch that is in turn connected to my radio, more on that another time.

The two coax runs are tied together, to ensure that they don't coil weirdly, don't pose a trip hazard and it's connected to various fixed points along its path.

None of it is permanent, other than the hole in the plasterboard, inside a cupboard, behind a faceplate. So, after removing the coax, a blanking plate brings everything back to invisible if that's ever required.

What happens outside is a whole different story and what it attaches to, yet another. The point is that from the place of picking the right connector, you likely discovered that routing coax is potentially a bigger challenge than you might have considered at first.

There are other options.

What issues affect the ingress of coax at your shack?

I'm Onno VK6FLAB

I was just informed that Chris Thomson VK6TNC in Wundowie became a silent key.

I never knew Chris, but I'm told that he was very proud of his callsign and I can understand why.

Vale Chris VK6TNC

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.radio/post/10939156

Dear colleagues,

In short, the atomic ensemble time scale at our Boulder campus has failed due to a prolonged utility power outage. One impact is that the Boulder Internet Time Services no longer have an accurate time reference. At time of writing the Boulder servers are still available due a standby power generator, but I will attempt to disable them to avoid disseminating incorrect time.

The affected servers are:

• time-a-b.nist.gov
• time-b-b.nist.gov
• time-c-b.nist.gov
• time-d-b.nist.gov
• time-e-b.nist.gov
• ntp-b.nist.gov (authenticated NTP)

No time to repair estimate is available until we regain staff access and power. Efforts are currently focused on obtaining an alternate source of power so the hydrogen maser clocks survive beyond their battery backups.

More details follow.

Due to prolonged high wind gusts there have been a combination of utility power line damage and preemptive utility shutdowns (in the interest of wildfire prevention) in the Boulder, CO area. NIST's campus lost utility power Wednesday (Dec. 17 2025) around 22:23 UTC. At time of writing utility power is still off to the campus. Facility operators anticipated needing to shutdown the heat-exchange infrastructure providing air cooling to many parts of the building, including some internal networking closets. As a result, many of these too were preemptively shutdown with the result that our group lacks much of the monitoring and control capabilities we ordinarily have. Also, the site has been closed to all but emergency personnel Thursday and Friday, and at time of writing remains closed.

At initial power loss, there was no immediate impact to the NIST atomic time scale or distribution services because the projects are afforded standby power generators. However, we now have strong evidence one of the crucial generators has failed. In the downstream path is the primary signal distribution chain, including to the Boulder Internet Time Service. Another campus building houses additional clocks backed up by a different power generator; if these survive it will allow us to re-align the primary time scale when site stability returns without making use of external clocks or reference signals.

Best wishes, -Jeff Sherman

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.radio/post/10939156

Dear colleagues,

In short, the atomic ensemble time scale at our Boulder campus has failed due to a prolonged utility power outage. One impact is that the Boulder Internet Time Services no longer have an accurate time reference. At time of writing the Boulder servers are still available due a standby power generator, but I will attempt to disable them to avoid disseminating incorrect time.

The affected servers are:

• time-a-b.nist.gov
• time-b-b.nist.gov
• time-c-b.nist.gov
• time-d-b.nist.gov
• time-e-b.nist.gov
• ntp-b.nist.gov (authenticated NTP)

No time to repair estimate is available until we regain staff access and power. Efforts are currently focused on obtaining an alternate source of power so the hydrogen maser clocks survive beyond their battery backups.

More details follow.

Due to prolonged high wind gusts there have been a combination of utility power line damage and preemptive utility shutdowns (in the interest of wildfire prevention) in the Boulder, CO area. NIST's campus lost utility power Wednesday (Dec. 17 2025) around 22:23 UTC. At time of writing utility power is still off to the campus. Facility operators anticipated needing to shutdown the heat-exchange infrastructure providing air cooling to many parts of the building, including some internal networking closets. As a result, many of these too were preemptively shutdown with the result that our group lacks much of the monitoring and control capabilities we ordinarily have. Also, the site has been closed to all but emergency personnel Thursday and Friday, and at time of writing remains closed.

At initial power loss, there was no immediate impact to the NIST atomic time scale or distribution services because the projects are afforded standby power generators. However, we now have strong evidence one of the crucial generators has failed. In the downstream path is the primary signal distribution chain, including to the Boulder Internet Time Service. Another campus building houses additional clocks backed up by a different power generator; if these survive it will allow us to re-align the primary time scale when site stability returns without making use of external clocks or reference signals.

Best wishes, -Jeff Sherman

Dear colleagues,

In short, the atomic ensemble time scale at our Boulder campus has failed due to a prolonged utility power outage. One impact is that the Boulder Internet Time Services no longer have an accurate time reference. At time of writing the Boulder servers are still available due a standby power generator, but I will attempt to disable them to avoid disseminating incorrect time.

The affected servers are:

• time-a-b.nist.gov
• time-b-b.nist.gov
• time-c-b.nist.gov
• time-d-b.nist.gov
• time-e-b.nist.gov
• ntp-b.nist.gov (authenticated NTP)

No time to repair estimate is available until we regain staff access and power. Efforts are currently focused on obtaining an alternate source of power so the hydrogen maser clocks survive beyond their battery backups.

More details follow.

Due to prolonged high wind gusts there have been a combination of utility power line damage and preemptive utility shutdowns (in the interest of wildfire prevention) in the Boulder, CO area. NIST's campus lost utility power Wednesday (Dec. 17 2025) around 22:23 UTC. At time of writing utility power is still off to the campus. Facility operators anticipated needing to shutdown the heat-exchange infrastructure providing air cooling to many parts of the building, including some internal networking closets. As a result, many of these too were preemptively shutdown with the result that our group lacks much of the monitoring and control capabilities we ordinarily have. Also, the site has been closed to all but emergency personnel Thursday and Friday, and at time of writing remains closed.

At initial power loss, there was no immediate impact to the NIST atomic time scale or distribution services because the projects are afforded standby power generators. However, we now have strong evidence one of the crucial generators has failed. In the downstream path is the primary signal distribution chain, including to the Boulder Internet Time Service. Another campus building houses additional clocks backed up by a different power generator; if these survive it will allow us to re-align the primary time scale when site stability returns without making use of external clocks or reference signals.

Best wishes, -Jeff Sherman

When you start on the journey of putting together a shack, in whatever form that eventually takes, you'll need to figure out how much space is required. Of course, no matter what you choose, it's never enough, but you have to start somewhere. Ultimately a shack is a work in progress.

As an aside, I'm using the word "shack", but that is really an amateur concept, so we're not necessarily talking about a plot of land with a wooden lean-to cobbled together from bits of wood collected from your beachcomber days. Not that it can't be that, but it doesn't have to be.

As I've said, my "shack" is a wooden trestle table, I know shacks that are a dedicated room in a house, a converted garage, a garden shed, a warehouse office, a radio station, an out building, several scout halls, demountables, a converted passenger bus and plenty more. In this context, in referring to "shack", I mean, "the place where my radio lives when I get on-air to make noise", but "shack" runs off the tongue a little easier.

Budget aside, in order to attempt to quantify your space requirements, you need to figure out what you're going to do with it.

This perhaps sounds a little ludicrous, since the answer is "amateur radio" .. duh .. obviously.

Okay, so, here's some questions. Does amateur radio for you mean any of the following: operating the local repeater, HF radio, solo or with visitors, listening to multiple stations, operating multiple bands simultaneously, computers, Morse code, contesting, soldering, building, experimentation and plenty more.

While we're at it, if you're into soldering, is that with valves, discrete components, or integrated circuits, and what levels of existing bits and pieces do you have? I'm asking because the racks of jars, component trays and drawers I've seen over the past fifteen years often rival the actual shack for size.

In other words, when you're thinking about .. what .. you want to do, be specific.

For me, amateur radio is more about computers and less about soldering irons, that's not to say that I don't own a soldering iron, just that its use is incidental, rather than fundamental, computers, keyboards and monitors on the other hand, for me, are part and parcel of my amateur radio experience.

Truth be told, if I could, I'd try to eliminate all the analogue radios from my shack and replace them with a single box capable of wide band operation across the amateur bands that I could control with a computer. I realise that this is not a universal picture of what amateur radio means, but it's what it means for me because it represents the ultimate level of flexibility.

That said, I love my FT-857d. I have several other radios that I loan out from time-to-time to new amateurs while they find their feet. I love to experiment with those as well, so my shack needs space for temporary set-ups.

While I enjoy chewing the fat over a cup of coffee, I rarely get on-air and make noise with anyone else. That's not because I don't appreciate it, but because I've yet to discover an effective way of filtering interference, a topic for another day.

Even if you're not a computer nerd like me, there's a high probability that a shack today includes a computer of some description, for record keeping, propagation forecasts, logging, and digital modes. So it's a good idea to imagine yourself actually doing your planned activities and speculating what kinds of things you'll need. Like, where do you put your cup of coffee, your keyboard and your Morse key?

While we're discussing putting things down. Think about the ability to actually use these things, not just where they live. It's no fun balancing a keyboard and trying to reach over the top to change the operating frequency, or having to strain your neck to look at the logging screen when you've made that elusive contact, so think about the ergonomics of what you're planning.

Right now I have a wire shelving unit sitting on my desk. It's 80 cm tall, 90 cm wide and 30 cm deep. The two shelves are adjustable in height. Currently one is at the highest point, the other has enough space to fit a base-station radio underneath it, about 13 cm from the lowest point. It's not ideal, since it means that the keyboard is in front of it.

During the previous iteration, of which there have been several, my monitors were in front of this and the keyboard was an external one connected to a laptop to the right of the screen, allowing me to have two screens to display information. The idea was that I'd use the computer to control the transceivers using a protocol called CAT. This never happened, so operating was awkward to say the least and as a result, hardly used. Instead the FT-857d sat on top of the bottom shelf, using a sound card to operate on digital modes. A slightly better operating angle, were it not for the monitor that hid it from view. As I said, not ideal.

I'm mentioning all this to give you a picture of at least one other shack but in my experience, nothing beats going out to see what others have gotten up to. Of course, you can visit shacks online with the proliferation of photographs proud amateurs have shared, but there's a difference between looking at a photo and walking around someone's physical shack, so keep that in mind.

Other space considerations are rarely, if ever, talked about. What space is there left for you to make changes to your shack? You might think that your shack won't change once you've built it. Here's a change, disconnecting the antenna in case of a thunderstorm, here's another, plugging in a CAT cable, setting up an external speaker, or even buying a new radio, you name it, the shack is never done.

So, think about the idea of being able to walk behind the radio. If you think that's silly, put the shack on wheels. You'll thank me later.

While you're walking behind your equipment, consider coax routing, a topic of its own, but being mindful of the need to actually get the coax from where it enters to your gear and how it relates to any electricity routing required to actually power your gear.

One other consideration in relation to space is your chair. How much space does it need? Can you adjust it, is it on casters, or a wooden dining chair?

Again, this can all be as simple as a dining table, or it can be something more substantial. In my experience, a happier outcome is achieved if you spend some quality time thinking about some of the questions I've proposed.

As you might have guessed, there's plenty more to explore.

I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Hackers gained access to an online coding repository belonging to the University of Sydney and stole files with personal information of staff and students.

The institution said the breach was limited to a single system and was detected last week. It promptly shut down the unauthorized access and notified the New South Wales Privacy Commissioner, the Australian Cyber Security Centre, and education regulators.