In June of 2000 my wife and I purchased a house and 2 acres near Azle, Texas which is about 25 miles northwest of Fort Worth in the far northwest corner of Tarrant County (if you go 1 mile west you are in
Parker County, 1/2 mile north is Wise County). My QTH is about 1000 yards west of Eagle Mountain
Lake. I made sure there were no antenna restrictions because I wanted to finally have my own station with towers and beams. I purchased a Tri-Ex LM-354HD 54' crank-up tower at Dayton 2000 and poured the
foundation for the tower on August 11, 2000. My TH-7 was put up in September of 2000. I added the Cushcraft D-3W and 80/40 Inverted Vee in September 2001.
My station currently consists of the following:
Kenwood TS-850SAT HF Transceiver: I just bought this in June 1999. It has one of the best receivers I have ever used (equal to the TS-930). It has the IRC dual 400Hz filter set.
Samlex SEC-1223 Power Supply: Slightly larger than a paperback book yet it provides 23A of power. This is a switching supply, but in side-by-side tests it is no noisier (RFI wise) than a linear supply!
DX4WIN Logging Software: I use this for day-to-day logging and awards tracking. This is the best logging software on the market in my opinion. Neat features include rig control, a packet window that lets you know when you need a country by voice announcement, a great map feature with gray line and 7 different projections (I love maps) and a sunrise/sunset/current time window.
TRLOG: This is my logger for contests. I think this is the best logger for the CW contest operator. It sends great CW and is very intuitive. I just wish it came in a Windows version : ).
Bencher BY-2 Gold Paddles: I will only ever use Bencher Paddles.
MFJ-434 Voice Keyer: Saves my voice during phone contests.
Ameritron RCS-8V: 6 position remote antenna switch. Lets me select all 3 antennas from 1 feedline.
Tower/Antennas:
Tri-Ex LM-354HD: 54' High Crank-Up Tower. 20' 1.9" Steel mast on top. Cranked down to it's nesting height of 22' during thunderstorms or high winds. Positioned about 175' from the house at the highest point on my property.
Hy-Gain TH-7DX: 7 element 20/15/10M Tribander. Mounted just above top of tower at 55'. My first
beam and a good one. Tuned for lowest SWR on the CW end of the bands, but works great everywhere
(less than 1.7:1 across all 3 bands, typically less than 1.5:1).
Cushcraft D-3W WARC Band Rotating Dipole: About 10' Above the TH-7 mounted 90 degrees to the
TH-7. Covers 30/17/12M. Really makes me feel loud, particularly on 30M.
Alpha-Delta DX-DD 80/40M Dipole: Mounted as an inverted vee on a piece of 1" PVC at 54'. Ends are about 30-35' High. Did a great job in Sweepstakes CW recently.
I QSL all bureau cards received 100% . If you need a direct card, here's my address:
Alan Benoit
12527 Liberty School Road
Azle, TX 76020
