Welcome to WA6SPA's home page...

My current station (I'm going through a "boatanchor" phase). It consists of a couple Drake Receivers (R4A & R4B), Two Tempo One transceivers (I just love the Tempo radios), and a few scanners to keep track of local "action"... Not shown is a couple of walls of the room - which are shelved, and full of solid state gear that I constantly dust, but seldom use anymore...

It seems like I've had (or tried out), just about every piece of HF gear made to date (I know I haven't) - and when all is said and done, I find myself leaning towards the tube gear for casual, "fun" amateur radio. Why? I'm really not sure - I just like it. But for serious dx work, or contests, I fire up some solid state gear (my current favorite is my Yaesu 1000MP). I appreciate the DSP signal processing in a pile up.

Speaking of rigs, I always find it interesting to hear what rigs people have owned - so I'll contribute my list here. I started off with a National receiver mated to a crystal controlled Heathkit transmitter, then a SB-301 receiver and a SB-401 transmitter, a Ten Tec Century 21 and 22, Kenwood 520S, Kenwood 830, Kenwood 450, Kenwood 850, Kenwood 870, Icon 730, Icom 735, Yaesu FT 101E, Yaesu 890, Yaesu 990, Yaesu 1000D, Yaesu 1000MP (currently), and a couple Tempo 1's. Along the way, I've tried my hand at other rigs, but these were my main rigs at one time or another. For QRP I always use my Heathkit HW-8 (built it myself, and love it - QRP is tons of fun). I still have a lot of these radios on the shelves, and will never sell most of them - too many memories :)

My wife doesn't understand all "the clutter" in my shack and "why on earth I would need more than one radio?", but she bears with me... :))

Note the 'ever present' computer. They've become a standard item in just about every ham shack I've ever visited. How did we ever get along without them? I grumbled about them when they first came out, and swore I'd never own one. Which turned out to be true - I don't have one, I've got four. -- You gotta keep up with the times or fall behind.

My favorite amateur radio activities are centered around HF - consisting of antenna projects and dx chasing. I do some (simple) kit building, and enjoy trading gear when I get the opportunity. I'm thinking about getting into packet, but so far, it's only a thought - I'd appreciate some comments on packet - is it worth the expense?

Okay, enough of that - here's a couple links for our club (Hams Helping Hams), and a page consisting of some Sell or Swap items...

I hope you enjoy your visit - and my thanks to QSL.net for making this web page possible...

John Lewis -WA6SPA

 

E-mail me...

Goto HHandiStand Page...

Goto SwapShop Page...


Always under construction...