Equipment and Antennas

Over the years the equipment has changed several times. The picture below is not totally up-to-date. I use the following commercial radios: Kenwood TS-590 (since Nov. 2011) and the good old Kenwood TS-850 which used to be my main radio for more 10 years or so. It is also used on 2m together with a homemade Transverter (SSB Electronics kit). Furthermore an old Kenwood TS-711E for 2m, which still does a good job and a Yaesu FT-857D, - a tiny portable radio which I use mainly for portable operations. Shack DJ2QV Apart from the radios there are some nice amplifiers visible in the picture. A Heathkit SB-1000 with a single 3-500Z is used on HF but normally when I work CW I hardly ever switch it on. It serves almost only as a pile-up breaker for rare expeditions. The 2m Amplifier on the shelf at top left is a homemade 3x 2C39 Linear (see Construction page). Mainly in use on 2m nowadays is the green box at the upper right corner, a COENS VHF PA with a 3CX800 that delivers almost the legal limit power. A Bird Power Meter on top can confirm this... The box in the center on the top shelf is the homemade Transverter for 2m. Also visible are several homemade switch boxes, including a "2 by 5 coax switch" which allows to switch up to 5 HF antennas to two different radios. The shack PC is an Acer 4820T Laptop. Keyers are Bencher Chrome (BY-2) or my preferred choice a Hi-Mound MK706 standing next to the keyboard.

Living in a rented house is not really the best situation if it comes to setting up a competitive antenna system. As I have moved QTH quite often during the past years I have never really had the chance to put up big towers with large HF beams. My philosophy here is that a small antenna system is better than nothing...

current QTH near Munich, JN58UA

Antennas at DJ2QV The antenna system is installed on the roof of a semi-detached house. It was re-designed in 2014 after some refocussing of activity. It now contains an Fritzel FB23 HF beam with an included rotary dipole for 12/17m. In the middle a homemade dual-band antenna for 6m and 4m is installed. It has 4 elements on 6m and 5 ele on 4m and is based on a design from G0KSC. An 8 ele I0JXX Yagi for 2m is installed at the top position. A sloper for 40m was attached below the upper bearing until summer 2014, but has not been reinstalled yet. The upper antenna is approx. 12m above ground and the QTH is 588m above sea level. So total height is 600m asl. See some terrain profiles of my QTH below. Northern directions are clearly free for the first 15km, while the terrain rises between about 90-280 degrees. But this does not significantly harm the propagation towards Italy or Croatia on VHF or UHF because the really high mountains are still some 30 km away. If you want to draw your own terrain profiles, check out this great link

Terrain towards North Terrain towards Northeast Terrain towards Northwest Terrain towards East Terrain towards West Terrain towards South

previous QTH near Schweinfurt, Bavaria JN59DW - until June 2008

Antennas at DJ2QVAt my previous QTH where I have moved in October 2006 the space for antennas was rather limited. An area of about 20 x 5m was available behind the house. The advantage here was that I had no neighbours from West via North to the Southeastern direction. The location is at about 220m above sea level and the surrounding terrain is more or less flat for the next 10 km all around before the first hills start to rise to about 500m towards the east and up to 400m towards the North and West. Apart from the Cushcraft R6000 Vertical all antennas are homemade. During 2007/2008 I was using the following antennas

70cm plastic

The advantage of the telescopic tower is that it can be taken down easily by one person and therefore gives me maximum flexibility. Antennas for other bands can be quickly mounted by simply pressing them into the brackets. For 432 MHz a short homemade 10 element Yagi (see picture on the left) was used very successfully during Contests. A 2 element beam for 10m has also been mounted at the top of the mast, but this is about the maximum antenna size the small telescopic tower can handle. At the bottom the mast sits in the bracket of a KR-600 rotator which easily rotates the entire mast.

M0RUN QTH in Basingstoke, England IO91KF

M0RUN antenna Living in a mid-terraced house in a new developed area at the outskirts of Basingstoke is really not the best situation for a radio amateur. The tiny garden (maybe 4 x 10m) would have been enough for some multiband vertical. But my neighbours did not like it and demanded me to take it down or they would appeal to the local council. Antenna situation in England is extremely difficult. For any permanent structure higher than two meters from the ground an offical planning permission is required. A TV antenna is ok, so my antennas were officially "TV aerials"... Apart from the VHF/UHF Yagis I had an indoor HB9CV for 6m and dipoles for 10/15/17 and 20m in the attic of the house. An endfed wire attached below the 2m Yagi and sloping down towards the garden fence was resonant on 40m and performed quite well into Europe as it was facing towards the East. The only advantage of this QTH was that it is located on a small ridge with a relatively good take-off toward the east. So on 2m I was able to work stations in western Germany under normal conditions.

2000 - 2005 QTH Remscheid JO31PF

2000 RS In 2000 I moved to Remscheid and lived on the upper two floors of an old house. My shack was situated in the attic of the house with very short cable lengths to my antennas. The location was pretty good for VHF as it was at an altitude of 320m. Toward the south the terrain was still rising but all other directions were pretty open. Initially I put up Yagis for 2m and 70cm and the multiband Vertical on the roof of the house. After a storm the R6000 broke but could be repaired easily. Towards the end of my activity from this location I used short Yagis for 2m, 70cm and also for 23cm. Additionally I put up a W3DZZ dipole antenna beaming towards NW/SE with a parasitic coupled radiator for 10MHz.