My station (At Christmas)
The main rig is a Yaesu FT847 giving me access to all bands 160m
to 70cm (1.8-440 Mhz). An FT840 can be linked to this to give
dual receive, useful for working split.
I still have two of my older rigs an FT707( my first rig bought
secondhand in 1984) and a FT101ZD, both I keep knowing that if
necessary I would be able to keep them going myself.
If the going gets rough I have two linears available, a converted
commercial KW1000 using two 572Bs and an AEA LA30 with a single 3-500ZG.
Both will run the legal 400W comfortably except on 10m.
I have always been a "Jack of all trades" and my aerial
system reflects this philosophy, quantity rather than quality. My
plot is about 150 by 50 feet. A doublet cut as a halfwave on 1.8MHz
is fed at 30ft. is folded round my bungalow.
Eighty meters is my favourite DX band, a dipole fed at 40ft in an
inverted V type configuration serves me the occasional new state
or country, much dependent on good propagation!
As I have packed five bands on to my VK2ABQ antenna it does not
work too well but performs similarly to a dipole between 14-30
MHz.
A Butternut vertical mounted on a post 13ft. above ground with
one radial for each of 9 bands gives good results on 7MHz DX, and
often compares with the dipole on 3.8MHz. In general it is
inferior in performance to my other aerials on the other bands.
At the moment my permanent VHF aerials are limited. 70MHz and 144MHz
are served by HB9CVs, the 144MHz one is hinged so may be used
vertically or horizontal. Above these at 30ft. is a vertical 5-ele.for
432MHz on top is an Icom discone working from 50MHz to 1296MHz. (but
no TX for 1296).
Other VHF aerials are available for temporary use. I have mounted
144MHz and 432MHz beams on a ground-level frame for satellite
operation, a particular feature of the FT847. Recently I made
several contacts on the 16 year old Oscar-10 satellite, the
patience of other operators was demonstrated by my marginal
station, often 8 minutes required to exchange call, name and
locator!