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Old July 2nd 06, 02:44 AM posted to rec.radio.amateur.homebrew
ken scharf ken scharf is offline
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First recorded activity by RadioBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 182
Default Using Garage for Ham Shack

Alex wrote:
Hi Everyone,

I hope to get my technician license for the first time in a month or
two, and I've been thinking of setting-up shop in the garage once I
start getting some radios and equipment.

Some questions though, the garage is on the corner of our brick house
with one smaller window (facing front of house), two walls are interior
walls with other two being exterior (one having garage door).

My thought is if I insulate the attic and the one exterior wall without
the garage door then replace my aging garage door with a better sealing
one, that should do the trick -- right? As for heating and cooling,
i'm in central texas, and our summers do get hot. I don't think our
A/C in the house could pump out enough cool air to cool an additional
430sqft, so any suggestions for that? The only window is on front of
house, so don't want to use window unit. I have a radiant heater I've
used in there for winter, and it works well.

Thanks for any suggestions or ideas ... we don't park our cars in the
garage, and I hope to build a small shead in the back yard for the
mowers and such -- so that's 430sqft of space that's going to waste.

Thanks again and take care ---

Alex

Garage doors lack insulation, but you can do something about that.
I live in South Florida, and while it doesn't get as hot as in Texas,
it does get hot. We added insulation to our metal garage door in the
form of Styrofoam insulating panels slipped into the inside of the door
ducktaped in place. Fiberglass insulation with the cardboard backing
would work as well. (Which has the better R value??). You might have
to re-balance the door after adding the insulation, but in our case
the garage door opener didn't seem to care and isn't straining. The
insulation lowered the temperature in the garage during the summer by
at least 10 degrees F.