It took about 18 months to get active on 70 MHz again after my return to radio
in 2005. In my swl days I had an ex services R220 converted from crystal to
tuneable around 70.260 MHz and later, when first licenced, had a fine AM Pye
Cambridge and eventually a Microwave Module 4 metre transverter.
I had sold both the Cambridge and the transverter during the big clear out (see "Twenty years later" in History) but I did unearth an old receive converter and the old Microwave Modules documentation. I therefore embarked on homebrewing a "chinese copy" of the MM unit using the found receive converter for the receive and local oscillator portions of the design. I am not very proud of the quality of the construction but it works and gets me out with about 18 to 20 watts on 4.
I did homebrew a pa which worked well for a couple of contests but then a foolish error while trying to improve the cooling system resulted in the main device, a SD1441, going short and I have been unable to source a replacement thus far.
Antenna wise I have a three element beam in the loft space homebrewed out of plastic conduit and aluminium tubing sourced from B & Q. I use this as a "fall back" if I am unable for time or weather reasons to mount a more substantial beam on the outside mast. For outside use I use either a four or five element beam homebrewed to a design generated using K7MEM JavaScript design tool, which I have found to produce reliable, reproducible designs. (See Links page).