ABOUT

Hi, I’m Zachary Lamb, K2KYU, a Technician from Clinton, Kentucky, home of the Spring Chicken Festival.

I have always enjoyed working on things and figuring out how they work. Over the years I have built computers, repaired video game consoles, worked with radios and scanners, experimented with antennas and SDRs, and put together my own battery box. I also built the off-grid solar system that powers my building.

I turned a portable shed into a finished man cave by adding insulation, pine paneling to the walls and ceiling, and laminate flooring. It later became my ham shack.

I started with police scanners and shortwave listening before getting into amateur radio. Today I am active on 2m, 6m, and 10m. I use a Yaesu FT-2980R on 2m and a Yaesu FT-891 on 6m and 10m. I mostly use FT8 and FT4 and enjoy chasing DX.

Keeping track of the project

One of the lasting problems I have had since my right temporal lobe removal in August 2017 is memory. Because of that, I learned not to depend on remembering why I made a decision or what I had already researched.

When I first started planning a solar system in 2021, I kept pages of notes. I saved questions I asked on solar forums, copied useful information into Word documents, and made diagrams as I worked through the system.

I eventually sold those first panels, but I kept the research. When I started planning solar again, I went back through the old notes and forum discussions. They helped me remember what I had already learned, see what I wanted to change, and improve the system I was planning.

I learn best by doing the work myself, seeing what works, fixing what does not, and improving things along the way. Those notes eventually also helped me write From Extension Cords to Off-Grid Power.