Current Equipment

Home QTH

Equipment:(11-24-2025)



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the photo above from the top:

Diawa CN801HP, ALS-1300

Broadcast Tools SS 4.1 III Switcher/Router Relay packs.

Behringer Ultralink Pro MX-882 This is a audio splitter/mixer to distribute audio to various equipment.

Power strip with individually switched outlets.

Hermes Lite 2 Plus (Yes, the Flex is still in the photo.)

Dentron MT-2000A Tuner
 

Audio is an Behringer B-1 condenser mic, processed with a Behringer X Air XR12.

I use Klipsch Promedia 2.1 speakers and Superlux HD668B headphones

Antennas: 

20m Homebrew 1/4 wave ground mounted vertical currently with 8 radials.

This was modified into the 5 band vertical covering 20 - 10m.  I have not yet added any more radials.

75m/40m  inverted V

 

  Mobile: 

 

Icom IC 2730 Black

Kenwood TS-480HX 200w HF/50MHz

High Sierra HS-1500 HF screwdriver

Diamond SG-7500 Super Gainer vhf/uhf

 

 


Portable:

I use a Kenwood 590SG.  (See the article on installing the TCXO.) I also have a IC 718 and LDG auto tuner, but seldom use it as I prefer the RX and audio of the Kenwood.

 POTA is powered by a Eco Worthy 20ah LiFePo.  I have constructed an antenna system that allows me to quickly chage elements on my home would 1:1 current choke feedpoint for the inverted V when POTA activating. 

In the wall tent power is created by two Renogy 100w monocrystalline panels in series, EPEver MPPT 30A charge controller, and Napa 100ah AGM battery.

The antenna could be anything, but usually some type of dipole hung in a tree.  I tried out a Wolf River coil and whip.  The antenna worked well, but I don't like to have radials lying on the ground creating a trip hazard.  I have learned of ops using some type of wire mesh under these coils and getting good results without the large area needed for radials.



Comments

Post a Comment

I welcome comments, keep it on topic. Inappropriate comments will be removed.

Popular posts from this blog

5 Banding the 20m 1/4 wave Junk Pile Vertical

Image
One nice  spring day in 2019, my grandson and I went outside for a walk around the property.  I happened to notice a piece of aluminum tubing I had lying beside a shed.  On further investigation I realized it was half of a 20m beam element that another ham had left behind after a field day.  It had been a half wave dipole for the event and he told me to just keep it. I asked my grandson, 6yr old at the time if I remember correctly, if he would like to help me build an antenna.  His reply was a curious, "What's an antenna papa?".  So, we had the unforgettable experience of building a ground mounted 1/4 wave 20m vertical together. A few days ago I got the idea to add more bands to this antenna.  I did some digging around and found some wire, purchased a few pvc fittings and hose clamps, and started putting additional 1/4 wave elements for 17m, 15m, 12m, and 10m.  I know, some of those bands are going to be very inefficient ground mounted, but what t...
Read more

1:1 Current Choke

Image
    Up to now, I had fed most of my antennas directly with coax.  Doing eSSB I wanted to keep as much common mode (RF) out of the shack and help keep the RF on the antenna where it belongs anyway.  I suppose it is good engineering to do this anyway, so I started looking into ways of doing this. The 1:1 choke is the device, but there are different ways to achieve this.  The infamous "ugly balun" (Or is it really an unun?) is one way.  It requires no additional parts, just wind the coax at the antenna on a form.  12 turns of RG-8 on a 5 inch form is about 18μH at 160m. That means just over 15 1/2 feet of coax is used to make the choke.  With prices usually running about $1.20/ft, that's around $20 in feedline and you still need the PVC form and end caps to make a nice choke that will last.  My estimates as of January 2022 put that at about $30.  It is also a considerable amount of weight at the center of an antenna.  200ohm of impedan...
Read more