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Your station is one-of-a-kind. Do you have a record of how it's put together? Here's how to capture important details about your station for future reference.

There is a station accessory that no Amateur Radio shack should be without. It works with stations that operate HF, VHF, UHF, microwave and even moonbounce. It is useful to both "Big Gun" and QRP stations, casual operators, contesters, DXers and rag chewers alike. It doesn't matter if you operate phone, CW or data modes. Best of all, it is readily available and costs under five bucks. This amazing addition to your shack is the Station Notebook. Every ham should maintain one for his or her station. Here's what it is and how to use it.

Quite simply, the station notebook is a collection of technical or operational details specific to your station that you document in a journal. The Station Notebook is a living document that grows over time as your station evolves. What kind of information goes into the Station Notebook? Some examples include:

Your notes can be as simple or as detailed as you want, but the important thing is that they get written down!

My concept of the Station Notebook is based on the engineer's notebook. For commercial purposes, the engineering notebook is considered a legal document used to record the invention process, which is essential for obtaining patents. While the requirements of the typical Amateur may not be identical to those of the practicing engineer, there are format similarities between the two notebooks. My personal preferences for a Station Notebook are as follows:

While it might make sense to some to use a three-ring binder instead of a bound notebook, I believe the bound notebook is handier and therefore more likely to be written in and actually used. The bound notebook is easier to take out into the field for recording those antenna measurements. It also takes up less space on the bookshelf than most three-ring binders. The photos show the cover and an example page from my own Station Notebook.

The utility of the Station Notebook was demonstrated to me one day when I accidentally erased the memory contents in a VHF transceiver. Ordinarily this would have meant spending several hours with the Repeater Directory recreating the list of the dozens of channels that had been lost. Instead, all I had to do to recover was refer to my Station Notebook where I had a written list of the frequencies and tone settings that had been programmed in the radio. This episode alone proved the value of documenting my station.

Every station should have an up-to-date block diagram that describes the major system components and how they are interconnected. System components include transceivers, receivers, exciters, transverters, preamps, amplifiers, antennas, signal switching boxes, lightning arrestors, power supplies, as well as their interconnection. The Station Notebook is an idea place to document this. As your station architecture changes, simply modify the drawing or make a new one. Do you remember how long a length of coax is to your 40 meter dipole or when you last checked the connection at the feed point? Use the Station Notebook to capture a sketch of each run of transmission line you have, along with its length, type, and when you installed it or last inspected it. When you write it down, you can simply refer to your Station Notebook without having to rely on your memory. You already have enough on your mind!

Whenever I have a new idea for an antenna project, I sketch it out in my Station Notebook. I include rough plans for its design, where to locate it on the property, estimates of materials, and how to integrate it with existing antennas. When I install a new antenna, the design and installation details go in the Station Notebook, too. This includes a chart of the measured SWR across the band. This not only to reminds me which sub-band I tuned an antenna for, but it is also useful to compare over time with current readings as an indicator that something has changed since the original installation.

Do you live close to an airport? Use the Station Notebook to document that your antenna structures are in compliance with FCC and FAA regulations. Do you run 500 watts or more? Then you are responsible for evaluating your station compliance with FCC Maximum Permissible Exposure (MPE) RF limits. The Station Notebook is an ideal place to document this evaluation.

Many hams open up their stations for operation to visiting hams. This is popular with contesters who may travel to exotic DX locations or who visit "Big Gun" multi-operator stations. What better way to acquaint the visiting ham with the particulars of a new station than by the Station Notebook.

These are just a few examples of the value of having a convenient, centralized notebook of station information. It is equally important to understand what the Station Notebook is not. The Station Notebook is not a logbook for documenting on-the-air contacts or your DXCC totals. You probably already own a favorite software logging application or use a paper logbook for that purpose. The Station Notebook is not intended to be a general technical reference. It is not the place to note the formula for Ohm's Law or the resistor color code; this job is better left to such texts as The ARRL Handbook or the popular Pocket Ref or Tech Ref books. Finally, don't store your user manuals, warranties and sales invoices in the Station Notebook. Create a separate file area to store these important documents.

Once you get in the habit of updating your Station Notebook, over time you will have created a documented history of your station. The notebook will have captured your shack's initial configuration, equipment changes and additions, results of experiments, your thoughts and ideas for future improvements, and antenna projects past and present. After only a few years of entries, not only does it make for very interesting reading, but it provides you with a real sense of accomplishment to remember all those projects you have implemented and had long since taken for granted. Not bad for a $5 investment!

So visit your local stationery or office supply store and purchase you latest station accessory - the Station Notebook. Use it to keep a written record of your detailed station technical information. Store the Station Notebook in a convenient, accessible place in your shack (it doesn't take up much space). Keep it handy so you can find it when you need it. You will be glad you did!

Many hams provide information and images of their stations on Web pages for all the world to see. All one needs to do is search for a given callsign on google.com or click on a link on a qrz.com call sign lookup page to view these sites. Generally, individual ham Web sites do not include the kind of detailed information that is typically documented in a Station Notebook. But some come close. On his site, Randy Thompson, K5ZD, features a "Hardware Change Log" in his Station Tour pages. His change log is a chronological listing of enhancements to his station over a five year period. An advanced form of Station Notebook is the Web-based Master Equipment Inventory maintained by the world-class contest station PJ2T and the Caribbean Contesting Consortium. In addition to equipment listings and their current status, each equipment item features a link to a page of maintenance notes with entries sorted chronologically. This is a very impressive documentation feat, especially given that it covers not one, but four separate kilowatt-class stations.

While electronic documentation is not the focus of this article, it exists in various forms and capabilities. They include general purpose drawing applications, computer aided design (CAD) packages, schematic capture software, digital images, document scanning tools, text editors, word processors and portable document format (PDF) conversion tools. All these diverse file types can be pulled together and viewed from a Web browser by using your favorite hypertext markup language (HTML) editor to create a set of linked Web pages. Depending on your skill with such tools and the amount of time you wish to spend, it may be an appropriate route to take for creating a Station Notebook.

Wayne Greaves, W0ZW, is a retired electrical engineer. First licensed in 1970, he is enjoying a renewed interest in Amateur Radio. He operates CW, RTTY and SSB on 80 through 10 meters. When not on the air, and the night skies are clear, he can be found in his own observatory imaging deep sky objects under the dark New Mexico sky.