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Updated June 2010


W2WDX - The Station circa 2001

Page 1 of 2

Here are some images of the station as it existed around 2001.

Station W2WDX
as of 09/2001
     This is the old station as it looked as of September 2001. It was a work in progress, in preparation for my HF priveledges. For years I had thought about what specific gear I wanted and decided I enjoy the simplicity of older equipment. Not to mention I can actually repair this gear myself if I have to! Much of my gear wasn't even set-up yet. Missing is my Drake 4 series, a Hammarlund SP-600, a Clegg Zeus & Interceptor and my test gear. As you can see nearly all of the gear was over 20 years old, the only exception is the audio processing gear for the AM set-up.

The AM Operating Position
     The AM position consisted of a Heathkit DX-60B transmitter, an HG-10B VFO, and a HR-10B receiver, although the primary receiver was a Hammarlund HQ-100. The microphonium is a CAD Equitek E-100 studio condenser. The mic preamp and associated processing consists of a DBX 760X mic pre, Alesis 3630 Compressor/Limiter, and a Samson E62 1/3 octave graphic EQ. I also had a "brand new" Johnson Valiant, which I found in a neihbors attic unopened in the original shipping crate. (wow!) Also, I was in the parts collection phase for a homebrew AM transmitter consisting of two 813's modulating two 813's! For VHF, a Clegg Zeus transmitter was also on its way. High level plate modulation ... Yummy!
(Note the Hammarlund mousepad. I thought it was neato!)

The SSB and VHF Operating Position
     There was a nearly complete Yaesu 101 series "Twins" station consisting of an FL-101 transmitter, FR-101S receiver, SP-101B Landliner speaker/phone patch, SP-101 speaker, YC-601 digital display, FTV-650B 6m transverter, YO-100 monitor scope, and the matching YD-844 microphone (the mic sounds like a turd by the way). The FL-2100B Amplifier was in restoration at that time. I still had to get my grubby little fingers an a YP-150 dummy load/wattmeter to finish it off. Down near the monitor is a Yaesu FT-221R all mode 2m tranceiver with a Shure 526T microphone. Also shown is the only piece of my Drake station present, the W-4 wattmeter, which sat next to the control unit for the Ameritron RCS-4 remote antenna switch which was for HF and 6m antennna switching. They are both sitting atop the Heathkit SA-2040 roller inductor antenna tuner. There was a Daiwa cross needle wattmeter and a Hamkey HK-3M straight key.
(Which I never, ever used but we all gotta have one. Right?)
     The station set-up was incomplete and the two "L" shaped tables you see were just the first step. The table on the right is 80" long. The other table, holding the computer monitor and the AM position, is 60" long. The 80" table is free standing (not mounted to the walls) and the tubular steel legs are set back 20" so as to provide free movement (for my legs) across all the operating positions. The computer CPU is mounted under the long table near the monitor end, suspended by a steel CPU bracket (from Ikea) so it is up off the floor.

      A hutch (see New Additions page) was planned, and eventually implimented to go at the SSB position. It was constructed of solid "pickled" red oak, like the tables. It was 48" long, having two shelves above the tabletop. It was located to the far right of the image where the Yaesu FL/FR-101 station is positioned. The VHF gear was placed to its left next to the computer monitor. It housed the Yaesu 101 station, my Drake station and a Hammarlund SP-600 receiver. My oscilliscope, HP analyzer, and signal generator was on the top shelf. (Man ... I love HomeDepot.)

     The computer station, which was integrated into the station, is a Dell Dimensions 4100 866Mhz Pentium III, with 572 megs of RAM. The Monitor was a 17" Dell monitor. It was used for logging, various calculations and modeling, all digital modes (via a Rigblaster) and was eventually used to handle all ATV operation (once I got around to it).

     Indoors the entire station was wired with 9913 coax, custom made by CableExperts. Outdoors, all cabling was LDF-450 1/2" semi-rigid (yes, even HF). The grounding system was a single point, low inductance system utilizing all copper components, and all connections are made with various widths of solid copper strap. The grounding was accomplished with six Harger Enhanced Ground Rods equally spaced six feet apart. The ground connection from the station, tower, and household AC consisted of 6" heavy solid copper straps. Incidentially, in addition to lightning protection, my receive noise on all bands dropped substancially after this grounding scheme was installed! Bonus!
     The antennas consisted of an IAC 80m Double Bazooka at 90', a Raibeam RB-406 6m 4el yagi at 60', two stacked GulfAlpha 2M-7EL yagis at 75'. Also there were two homebrew antennas; a 80m full-wave horizontal loop at 60' and a quarter-wave 2m vertical for local repeaters and simplex (yes ... its one of those made with brass rods and PL-258 chassis mount connectors).

     This is how the station then. I finished the work over the fall of 2001.

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The New Station


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