Seeking out your initial monitoring space requires that you find the best place in the house that gives you privacy, power, and access to the outside of the house. Dedicated radio people sometimes drag themselves out of bed in the wee small hours of the morning to hear something that is not there any other time of the day or night. Likewise, listening during "normal" hours can be frustrating if other members of your clan disturb you just as that ID of Radio Freedonia you have been seeking for six months comes over the air. What you want is two-way privacy.
Every house I have ever been in seems to have a corner where things that are seldom used get piled up. Stuff that is always sort of out of sight and out of mind. This might be a good place to begin your hunt for a station location. If your children have yet to discover the joys of owning copious amounts of clothing, there may be a closet that can be turned into an ideal monitoring spot. Basements, if they are not too damp and dreary, are also popular places for a listening post. A great out-of-the way place is a corner in a spare or guest room that is not in regular use. Avoid attics and garages unless they are sufficiently climate controlled. If you want to wear two pairs of long johns while enjoying a hobby take up ice fishing!
Part of thinking out your monitoring location is going to be your direct access to electrical power for your receivers and any other equipment you draw into the fray. Of course these needs will be different for each person. At the minimum, you will need to have one grounded outlet to plug in the receiver. If you have more than a few accessories you will want to consider one of the many power strips that are available on the market. These are especially useful because they are usually fused and have a master power switch. Better-quality power strips also provide protection against line voltage surges, further protecting your investment. Be careful not to exceed the recommended capacity for either the power strip or the wall outlet. If you have any questions concerning your household power and its use consult a licensed electrician!
You will want to have plenty of light to make reading and writing possible without eyestrain. Depending on which frequencies you frequent, try to stay away from fluorescent lighting. Fluorescents can cause unwanted interference. Stick with incandescent light bulbs for best performance. Try to locate the lighting so that it does not cast shadows when you are reading and writing.
One of the first signs that someone has actually decided if they enjoy the radio monitoring hobby or not is when they put up an outside antenna. Planning for first and future antenna installations should be part of your listening-post project. Easy access to the outside world for antenna lead-ins is not as tricky as it sounds. Usually the easiest route outside is through a window. You will also need to give consideration to how you might run your antenna ground connections. You may want to review our discussion of antenna / ground entry points in the shortwave section of this book as part of your planning.
My old Zen Master used to say "It is not the cup that performs the task, it is the space within it." The same holds true with most rooms. Now that you have zoned in on your shack location you will want to give some thought to making the space most useful.
After you have picked out a desk and chair that suits your needs you will want to plan for maximum use of the remaining space for that research and record keeping stuff we talked about earlier. The first law of great listening post design is, You can never have enough shelves, closely followed by my second law, You can never have enough filing cabinets. A couple of shelves right over your receivers will hold all of those important frequency-reference materials. A two-or four-drawer file cabinet is just the ticket for storing articles, log sheets, and other record-keeping materials.
If you want to make things as efficient as possible there is a neat "Human Engineering" experiment you can perform before you even drive a single nail. Put a chair in the spot you plan to sit during your monitoring sessions. First look straight ahead. Assuming that your receivers are arrayed on your table top (tilted upward to avoid neck strain of course), a point at eye level is the ideal place to install a shelf for your most needed reference materials. Now, from the same sitting position move your dominant hand around the desk top and room space. In the Martial Arts this is known as the dynamic circle. Everything within the immediate reach of your hand can be controlled quickly. This is an important notion in office design, not just in street fights. From your operating position you can now envision the most likely locations for desk, drawers, file cabinets, shelves, and switches.
Shelving comes in all shapes and sizes and can be had for very reasonable prices. Shop around a few hardware stores and lumber yards until you find what is right for your location. The only proviso I would make is that you make sure the shelving is sturdy and firmly installed. Nothing can ruin a DX session like a load of books pouring down on your head.