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In April 2004 the station (and I along with it; or perhaps the other way around) moved from an apartment in Arlington, Texas, to a house in south Fort Worth, Texas, just north of Burleson (the city limit is about a mile south of the QTH). Real antennas went up for the first time, and the shack expanded from a desk in the corner of the bedroom (with many other things) to, well, that same desk, but in its own room. New desk is coming sometime.
While I'm assembling "Studio A" at the new QTH, a good bit of my HF operating has been from the north Arlington shack of WA5NJG. If we've QSOd and my signal was not quite on frequency and drifted a lot, this is why.
Heathkit SB-401 HF CW/SSB Transmitter. I figured that if Heath had a highly-stable and predictable transmitter/receiver design at six meters (the SB-110, below), then certainly it should be rock-stable at half or less the frequency. It's mated with a SB-301 receiver, since among other things, the oscillators can be "locked" together to transmit and receive on the same frequency (what a strange notion!).
Heathkit SB-301 HF CW/SSB/AM/RTTY Receiver. Receives 80 through 10 meters, and hears pretty well. Has two positions for VHF converters, the SBA-300-3 and -4.
Heathkit SB-110 6M CW/SSB Transceiver. This is a really fine radio, and for tubes operating at 50 Mc, it's surprisingly stable. The warm-up period appears to be instantaneous. With this radio I operated the June VHF contest, and worked several Es openings throughout the states with a modest antenna, a Moxon at 15 feet, all set up portable at the WA5NJG location. The radio also operated Field Day 2004 with the Arlington Radio Club, where we caught an opening into Connecticut and the midwest.
a.m. Station
Hammarlund HQ-110 HF AM/CW/SSB Receiver. The receiver for the a.m. station, receives HF through 6 meters, and 2 meters with optional converter that I don't have.
Heathkit DX-40 HF AM/CW Transmitter. The HF a.m. exciter. Most recent acquisition. I got a very good deal on it and a couple of other things, probably from a SK's estate. After a little minor clean-up, it looked as if it was built yesterday. Works well, too, I think. 75 watts input a.m. Need to get VFO for it.
Heathkit "Seneca" (VHF-1) 6M/2M AM/CW Transmitter. The 6M a.m. exciter. I acquired this a while back, and the build quality is quite impressive. The original builder even engraved his name and location on the rear apron of the chassis. It tunes up very well on 6M (not so well and not so much power on 2, as is to be expected). I hope to add this transmitter and a proper microphone and an antenna to the working station very soon. Even though it's a.m., it's 120 watts input, so that's still a few watts of talk-power.
Heathkit "Pawnee" (HW-20) 2M AM/CW Portable Transceiver. There's not much 2 meter a.m. these days, but it was a good deal, and neat too. 8 watts of a.m. into a 4el is better than nothing, I suppose.
National NC-2-40D General Coverage Receiver. Someone gave it to my dad twenty or so years ago, and until a few years ago it sat on the garage keeping dust off the floor and rusting. Is now working, but with dirty bandswitch contacts that don't hold tuning. Neat centerpiece, receives WBAP on a paper clip.
Yaesu FT-8000R 2M/436Mc FM Mobile Transceiver. The obligatory FM radio...
Yaesu VX-7R. The obligatory FM handie-talkie...
Computers
The Computer. A Mac G3/350, it's a few years old, but that's fine. Working on making it do PSK and digital modes. Also runs logging and card-printing database.
Apple IIe. Hoping to use this with the KAM Plus for radioteletype. First I have to get the serial card to work with the KAM, whee. The joys of older computers. It does seem rather silly to try to use this for r.t.t.y., when the other computer should be able to do it easier.
Antenna Mast #1. Contains a 2M/432 Ringo (ARX-270, I believe) at +20 feet and tensioning block for the Fan Dipole.
Antenna Mast #2. Contains 2M 4el beam at +15 feet, 6M stressed Moxon Rectangle at +18 feet, and tensioning block for Fan Dipole at +20 feet. Beaming north from EM12
Antenna Mast #3. Contains Fan Dipole feedpoint pick point at +20 feet. The HF antenna of choice! Working on ironing the kinks out of the 20-15-10 fan dipole (cut to textbook dimensions, 10 meters had best SWR of 10.5:1, and 20 not much better at 8:1, though top part of 15 fone would have been usable at under 5:1.
Feedline Bulkhead. Okay, so it's not really a bulkhead yet, more of a partly open window with feedlines through it and aluminium duct tape to seal the hole. Will fix eventually, maybe.
Pictures From The Old QTH.
Window As A Slot Antenna: The apartment had metal in the walls (expanded steel for stucco/plaster exterior), so an indoor transmitting antenna was out of the question. This evolved out of necessity, and it turned out to work very well (all things considered). It was fed with 52-ohm coax through a delta match ten and a half inches on a side; a tuning shunt was added about a quarter from the end to move the resonance from about 130 Mc to right at 146 or 147 Mc. This slot is vertically polarized. Mobile antenna farm is on the car through the window, a 6M Hamstick on top, and a 2M 5/8 / 436Mc collinear on the trunk lip.
ARX-270 Ringo On A Microphone Stand: Doesn't work well inside a metal box = apartment. This antenna currently resides at the new QTH atop 20 feet of Antenna Mast No. 1, where I am consistently impressed with its performance. 2M beam is seen in the picture too, looking on.
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