Private Lab

Like so many amateurs, I subscribe to free newsletters, electronic websites, magazines, and so forth. Invariably due to targeted-marketing, I’ve been asked my name, address, email, and company. Well, I was President of a non-profit corporation (the Magnolia Intertie Inc., now closed), but other than that, I really no longer “have” a company address.

Shh! It’s a Private Lab…

But some web database jockeys just won’t take no for an answer…or a blank field. Often I just put Private Lab in the place for a company or organization. The thought was that they’d know that I was only a hobbyist, not someone influencing a high-dollar sales figure each year or be worth all the targeted marketing that I seem to receive daily. But I do make all management decisions on what I order so sender beware.

When my friend and Elmer, Martin K5FLU, heard I was building an electronics test workbench, he said:

“Oh, that’s the fun part of amateur radio!“

I agreed heartily with Martin’s response. It is one of the most enjoyable parts of the hobby for me. I also learned from his own workbench, hidden behind the famous pictures of the radio collection shelving in his MFJ corporate office. Few visitors get to see that private space but I’ve been fortunate to see what he was working on many times.

Since I couldn’t seem to get advertisers to not use the term for my contact info, I began to call the electronics workbench in the garage my Private Lab. I receive stuff in the mail all the time addressed to me at Private Lab located at my street address. What’s a ham to do? So, I’ll melt solder, cut holes, measure stuff, and make things. Hopefully, they’ll work. If not, back to the bench. As the Grand Pouba of Private Lab, with the doors closed and the small AC/Dehumidifier unit humming in the corner, it is one of my happiest places to practice this part of the hobby.

Behind those wooden doors, this is my RF Lab in recent days. I add, remove or arrange equipment periodically. I’ve put in lots of plastic bins for parts storage. Some homebrew cubby hole inserts are in the lower two shelving slots over the bench surface, made from thin wood sheets and boards. They hold smaller equipment and most are connected by USB to the PC that runs the Lab.

Part of my main workbench area with test equipment. There are two 19″ IT racks bolted together to give me space for gear with some smaller units in the overhead shelving. On the work surface itself, there is a small riser shelf holding both PC monitors and other equipment. Underneath on the left, I’ve built cubby-hole style places with sliding vertical “walls” to hold small test gear. The walls are moveable to allow different pieces of test equipment to fit as needed. Cabling for above and below are via holes drilled at appropriate places.

The HP 8714ET VNA attached to the Agilent multiport (8-port model) test set. It’s connected to one of my two PC monitors via a VGA port. The monitor is set to auto-input mode so it automatically switches to the VNA screen output when the 8714ET is on. The VNA is connectable to my PC via either HP-IB (to USB) or LAN connection with a browser. Note the floppy disk drive under the monitor. It’s for saving key info from the VNA such as calibration data and so forth. Note the LibreVNA and LibreCal in their cubbyholes as well as the TinySA Ultra.

I have a small air conditioning unit and dehumidifier in a corner of this small room to keep my equipment at a fairly constant temperature on the high side and humidity in the 40-50% range. It vents to the outside. Most who read metrology literature will recognize why I added this item. Plus, I live in Mississippi where it’s terribly humid during the hotter months.

This stack of test gear includes a range of older lab quality items as well as newer gear, largely made in Asia. I’ve put a list of gear below. See if you recognize each one in the picture! A Dell Precision 1700 workstation on a shelf under the workbench surface runs this Lab. I use it to connect to each test gear unit that is connectable. This may be via HP-IB (to USB), USB or via LAN. There is a USB hub behind the IT racks that connect to several test units. I prefer to get the data from each test as well as the readouts from the test gear itself. Visualizing data is very useful for more completely understanding the DUT’s characteristics. Test results are stored on my LAN for retrieval. All manuals and a large library of RF reference material is stored locally for easy search and reference.

Here is my primary work position unless I’m soldering or assembling something. Lots of bins for parts, cables and fittings. The two PC monitors help with reading manuals or looking up Youtube How-To videos. A small USB camera allows me to engage in video conferencing while working, if needed. The small vertical item just to the right of the left monitor is a Hovercam Solo 8Plus USB 13MP 4K Document Camera ($107 on eBay). The accompanying free software is great for examining parts and circuit boards.You can see the end of the magnetic strip that is screwed into the bottom edge of the wall shelving. It’s a terrific item to keep the tools I need to get to very quickly. On the right, I have power supplies and solder station equipment, including homebrew fan system with carbon filtering to get the soldersmoke away from my work. A better view is in the pictures below.

On the right side of the bench, my bespoke soldering platform sits with a Hakko 951 soldering station on the riser shelf, partially shielded by my Aven magnifying light. My soldering platform is homebrew, made from remnants of sheet steel purchased from a favorite eBay vendor. It’s been documented in the May 2022 issue of Practical Wireless magazine with details of the build and why each element was incorporated. I gave one to an Elmer whose son was a graduate student in E.E. at Mississippi State University. The son took it up to his Lab where the wiring harnesses for their entry into the Collegiate Electric Vehicle Competition were created using this soldering platform.

I’ve been soldering things since I was a young teen. I didn’t have the proper equipment then and lacked a sound understanding of the physical and electrical aspects of the operation. I’ve tried to make up for that, especially since I retired. For electronic soldering, I now use a Hakko 951 soldering station. It has very good temperature control with interchangeable wands and tips. I find HakkoUSA to be a very good vendor. These make all the difference if you’re doing delicate work.

My homebrew soldering platform. I got tired of the ubiquitous $5 third-hand devices see at hamfests. I dropped mine and it broke to hell and back. It motivated me to think about what I wanted in a soldering platform. I built this one out of sheet steel: it’s one big heat sink! Everything except the four round feet on the bottom is attached by magnets. I can start with a bare surface and build-out just what I want on the platform. For instance, the two vertical alligator clips are inserted into a magnet base. They are superb for just holding both wires or cables for splicing them. The funny looking things with tweezers on them are used in manufacturing. The single round turn-screw makes them go “limp” but tight it and they’re set. I can put multiple surgical tweezers to hold wires and parts so both of my hands are doing what it needed: soldering parts.

I built a steel “holster” for two additional tools on the right end of my bench. One is a Weller soldering gun. The other is a Hakko FR301-03/P Portable Desoldering Tool. Since I’m right-handed, they are both at the ready for use. I don’t have to worry about either tool being to hot to put down as its “holster” is also a big heat sink. Just out of view on the bench edge is an orange device which is very useful, too. It’s a hot air blower designed for heat shrink work. It has a rounded spoon so that the heat shrink gets reflected heat on the back side which makes quick work of finishing up cabling. The numerous medical clamps (brown handled tweezers) are often used as temporary heat sinks on things that are connected to plastic. They draw away the heat of the soldering tip so that that work can be adequately done without melting the plastic housing or so forth.

I’m not very good at surface mount component soldering but a few things do help. One is low temperature solder, Kestor is the brand I buy. Another is a good lamp with magnifying glass, like the Aven Tools Mighty Vue Pro Magnifying Lamp that I splurged on to add to the right end of my workbench. It’s dedicated to soldering operations. The changeable lighting on the Aven with the firm scissor-style mount has been worth it for me. A third is the homebrew ventilation system is built around three PC server fans, backed by a sheet of carbon filter (changeable). A voltage control turns it on or off and adjusts the fan speed. A fourth one is an electronic microscope. They don’t have to be expensive. There are numerous reviews of these items on Youtube which I studied before I bought one. Mine connects by USB to my Lab PC, allowing pictures and videos to be recorded if necessary. Reading small board parts becomes much, much easier to identify and source with such an item. It’s usually stored on the wall shelf shown in the picture below. My eyes have seen the glory and it’s an electronic microscope when it comes to small circuit boards or fittings!

Out in the garage area, I have a small “fabrication” bench with a drill press, chop saw, vice, and power tools for general cutting, sawing, grinding, and other tools. Test equipment doesn’t like sawdust or metal grindings! It’s not a large bench but it serves my needs well. The lack of extra space forces me to put small tools back where they belong. Now shown below is the wall rack of wire Rubbermaid shelves that I outfitted my garage with a few years ago. They keep many things off the garage floor. There is another magnetic bar to hold small metal tools that I need quickly so they’re always there.

Small fabrication bench in my garage area. Two key items are a precision drill press (left) and chop saw (right). They are both made by Proxxon, a German maker of precision power tools. They have a US website for quick shipping. Jewelry makers and makers in general often use Proxxon equipment because they are known for precision work. The front materials on the bench (purchased on Amazon and very sturdy with adjustable leveling feet) are for my EiffelTenna vertical HF antenna. It’s inspired by Jim W6LG’s Youtube video about using a metal trip and Jason VE5REV’s implementation via Twitter (X). I’ve made mine with a fitting to hold a 17′ telescoping vertical and a middle loading coil (Wolf River Coil’s Sporty Forty shown). The folded gold material is Faraday cloth which I’ve modified with a connection to serve as a radial field. The blue items are exercise weights that velcro around the three tripod legs to keep it on the ground in the face of mild wind. If my testing shows that this EiffelTenna is an effective design for portable ops, I’ll prepare an article on building it so some notification will appear on this blog. This is an example of what I use this small fabrication bench for in my garage.

The right end of this small Lab is mostly for ready-access storage. The wall shelving houses my household media equipment, including fiber Internet, router and switch. The pizza box antenna feeds about 16 off-air HD channels to most rooms with a coax port as well as a RJ-45 port for LAN access. A Craftsman tool chest houses some tools, nuts-and-bolts, and miscellaneous parts that do not fit well into bins. Peg board on the right holds a morass of cables which need better organization. The magnetic cup hooks on the media wiring panel cover help hold cables and such. I’ll soon add some additional “stackable” shelves on top of the tool chest to help declutter some of the mess in the picture. I often stage things that come in from online vendors there until I can get them to a more permanent location.

The small Toshiba AC/Dehumidifier unit (white) helps keep my Lab into an appropriate environmental zone to make my equipment happy. It gets hot in Mississippi and very humid at times so this outside-vented device works well. It is accessible from my LAN via an app which has some automatic settings such as when to turn it on and off and by calendar dates. It’s been very worthwhile.

Coming….what’s underneath the workbench surface (cue theme from Jaws here).

Equipment List [April 1, 2025]

  • DMM
    • Keithley 2015 6-1/2 Digit THD/Audio
    • HP 34405A 5-1/2 DMM
    • Fluke 87V
    • EEVblog 121GW Multimeter
    • Triplett 630 Analog Volt-Ohm Milliammeter
  • Oscilloscope
    • Rigol DS1054Z Digital Oscilloscope 50 Mhz, four channels
    • Tektronix 2465 analog four-channel, 300 MHz
  • Power Supply & Load
    • HP 6248A DC Power Supply 0-20V, 0-3A
    • Rigol DP711 Programmable Supply
    • MFJ-4230MV 30amp
    • Opek OP-PS3001D 30amp
    • Maynuo M9812 Programmable DC Electronic Load
    • West Mountain Radio CBA V Pro – Computerized Battery Analyzer + Software
  • RF Power Meter
    • HP 437B Power Meter + HP 8482A Power Sensor
    • HP 11683A Range Calibrator
    • MFJ-849
    • R.L. Drake Wattmeter Model W-4
    • Bird 43 + various slugs
  • Frequency Counter
    • HP 5334B + Opt 030, 100 MHz AB Input, 1.3 GHz C Ch
    • HP 5386A Opt 004 10 Hz To 3 Ghz
    • B7TBL FA-2 6G -30dBm to +20dBm High
  • Frequency Generator
    • HP 8657B 0.1MHz-2.06GHz Generator
    • HP 3324A 21 MHz Function/Sweep Generator
    • Rigol DG1022 2 port 25Mhz 100 MSa/s Arbitrary Waveform Generator
    • BG7TBL WB-SG1 Wideband Source Signal Generator Band Pass Modulation
  • Spectrum Analyzer
    • Siglent SSA3021X 9KHz-2.1GHz
    • TinySA Ultra 0.1-800MHz up to 5.3 GHz, level calibrated up to 6GHz
    • SDRPlay RSP1 with Andrews SA Software
    • TinyPFA Phase Analyzer
  • VNA
    • HP 8714ET RF Network Analyzer (T/R), 300 kHz to 3 GHz + Agilent 87050E Multiport Test Set
    • Sdr-Kits DG8SAQ VNWA 3EC 2 port with Test Set, 1.3 GHz + MagiCal
    • LibreVNA 100kHz to 6GHz 2 port USB based VNA + LibreCAL
  • Antenna Analyzer
    • MFJ 269
    • RigExpert Stick Pro
    • RigExpert AA-55
    • Mini1300 0.1-1300MHz
  • LCR Meter
    • HP 4275a LCR Meter 10kHz to 10MHz
    • MATRIX MCR-5200 LCR Meter 40Hz-200kHz
  • SLM
    • HP 3586A Selective Level Meter, 1Hz-32.5 MHz
  • GPSDO
    • Trimble-based UCCM GPS Receiver GPSDO 10MHz 1PPS
    • 2 x Bodnar Precision Frequency GPSDO Reference – dual port 450 Hz to 800 MHz output
    • 2 x Bodnar Mini Precision GPS Reference Clock, single port 450Hz-800MHz
    • PCTEL GPS (L1) 26dB Timing Antenna Radome GPS-TMG-26N
  • Multi-purpose
    • Digilent Analog Discovery 2 with impedance measurement addition. DMMCheck Plus Rev. 8. KMoon Voltage Reference (AD584-M based). TC1 Multi-Function Tester. MFJ -5904 RF Design Box, MFJ-251 Switchable Dummy Load
  • Soldering Platform
    • Hakko FX-851, numerous additional irons, guns. Homebrew soldering platform constructed from sheet steel, precision indicator arms, medical/jewelry tools. Homebrew solder exhaust extractor. Aven 26505-ESL-XL5 Mighty Vue Pro 5-Diopter LED Magnifying Lamp
  • Miscellaneous
    • RF tools: RF bridge, couplers, filters, attenuators, splitters, wide-band noise generators, precision loads, precision capacitators & resistors, and a boatload of cables.