For the last 18 months, work has been crazy. Things calmed down around Christmas 2020 and I was hoping to get back into hobby mode but the universe had other ideas. Christmas eve the river burst it’s banks and flooded the house and workshop. I’ve been dealing with the fallout from that ever since. 

Thank heavens for insurance is all I can say. The house is well on the way to being completed and the workshop is now looking somewhat normal but I lost a fair amount of stuff (some would say junk). It did need a clean out that’s for sure, but I would have preferred if I’d been able to pick and choose exactly what would end up getting thrown out. Still, it’s done now.

Luckily for me, around October 2020, I decided that I would convert the small upstairs box bedroom to a proper home office. I work from home most of the time now, and I’ve never been very comfortable doing working in my hobby workshop. That did mean that when I was flooded I could continue working. However, moving my day job out of my play room has given me a lot more space which is a real bonus.

The human malware epidemic didn’t really give me much time to do anything, but I did sit and pass the UK radio amateurs exam. They were offering tests via video conference and removed the need to attend all the usually obligatory training sessions that teach procedure and protocol. A quick thumb through the book and straight to the exam. Callsign is M7MOJ
I’m all set up now on 2M and 70cm; not that I get much time to play at the moment.

I got suckered into building a combined lighting and audio console for a friend that has turned into a mammoth of a job. I’ll be documenting more on this soon, but whilst electronically I’m on top of things, building the enclosure for the control panel has been a real challenge. I needed to be able to make small control panels, and after realising that there was no way I could do this with bits of aluminium and a file, I invested in a laser cutter. 
I’ve wanted one for years and it’s great fun. It will cut up to 5mm Perspex (Acrylic) and it’s made designing and cutting control panels so easy to do. Again, I’ve got some article ideas in the pipe line covering this including how I elected to make my panels, and all the mistakes and dead-ends I went down.