"Mom, can I build an internet media studio in the basement?!"

So as you may have read previously, I have started attending meeting for the Southwest Missouri Amateur Radio Club (SMARC).  Well a few of the members also work with a local Hacker Space called SquidFoo!  The SquidFoo building houses an Art Gallery, facilities to make artwork, the Hacker Space, as well as a legal Chop Shop!!  These members of the SMARC Club are wanting to put in a Ham Shack, and a Studio for internet broadcasting.  Well the latter piqued my interests right away.

The local Springfield R-12 School District has a gifted program called W.I.N.G.S.  Working with the Individual Needs of Gifted Students is the gifted program for K-8th grade in Springfield, Mo.  I was very fortunate to attend this program once a week from 5th thru 8th grades.  In that time I was able to participate in their Media Program, something that was not offered elsewhere in the district till High School.  One of the classes that was offered was the Media class.  I took this class for 2, or 3 semesters, and had an awesome time!  We would produce once a month a 30 minute news magazine show, and then it would be broadcast on one of the local cable access channels.  One of the big stories I worked on while in the W.I.N.G.S. Media class was the tearing down of local restaurant Ebbetts Field.  Then Southwest Missouri State University took the property by Eminent Domain, and built a Parking Garage on the site.  We interviewed owner Nick Russo, his lawyer, and SMUS President John Keiser.

Then media was offered as two classes when I attended Hillcrest High School, starting junior year.  I did take Media 1 my junior year, and took the lead on two very interesting stories.  The first was about the Dickerson Park Zoo's annual Halloween Spooktackular, and the Hillcrest Key Club volunteering to hand out candy to the little kids.  My cameraman and I shoot lots of footage at the zoo, and interviewed the person in charge of organizing the Spooktackular.  One of the stories that was the most fun, was a Christmas story were I asked several HHS students & teachers what their favorite Christmas movies, or special was!  Favorites ranged from Miracle on 34th Street, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, to It's a Wonderful Life, to more modern movies like The Nightmare Before Christmas, & my personal favorite The Santa Clause!  That and the Ebbetts Field story are my two personal favorites!

So we come back to SquidFoo!  As soon as Steve Palmer (KA0SPM) told me about the Studio that they wanted to build in SquidFoo, I was hooked!  I've been wanting to do a video podcast for a few years now, thanks to lots of watching The TWiT Network.  I was reminded of those days in Media class, and yearned to get back to it.  But I've never really been able to come up with a very good show topic.  Shawn McKee (KD0CNP) described it as an Alternative Media Studio.  I had wanted to be a journalist at one time, particularly a photojournalist.  So working to help build an internet streaming studio just sounds awesome to me!  SquidFoo recently took over the basement og the building they are in, and this is where the studio is going to be.

So I went to SquidFoo for the first time this past Sunday, May 20th.  So you go down a concrete ramp to get into the basement.  the floor continues straight ahead to the back wall, which has a sump pump.  The floor to the right raises up about 4 feet or so, and extends for the full length of the room.  There was a simple wall made up of thin boards, and wire fencing.  There was lot of stuff down there:  a washer & dryer, several large blocks of foam, 2 movie chairs, and miscellaneous stuff.  The plan is to clear the room out, build a false floor to make it all level, and then to build the studio.  The ceiling is a little low, but I don't think that should be a problem.  Also to take care of any excess moisture, they plan to put a dehumidifier system under the false floor.

The goal for the evening was to take down the wall.  So the first order of business was take the wire fencing down.  as we started to do so, a small little thunder storm passed over Springfield, and we listened to the thunder as we worked.  Soon enough we had most of the fencing down, but one side was being particularly stubborn.  Who ever had but the fencing up on that side used several nails, and staples, like tons of staples!  But after a while we got that done too.  While Steve finished up the fencing, Shawn, Scott (a guy from SquidFoo), and I started tearing down the section of the wall that had already been cleared of fencing.  Once we had the wall down, it was time to break, and have pizza!  That was all we did that night.  I'm kind of excited to see what we will do next Sunday!

I know that this really doesn't have a lot to do with Ham Radio, but it does involve member of the Ham community.  That being the case, I'm going to include this project in this blog.  I'll try to remember to take my camera next time, and bring back some pictures!!

73, KD0RSJ