GM4WLL

Station Equipment

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The vast majority of my radio operating is portable. This is partially because I can achieve much more that way and partially because my main interests are VHF/UHF and my home is not a good site for those bands. As you can see, most of my equipment has been built, bought or developed with portable operating in mind.

HF

I don't operate on the HF bands a great deal, although I've recently got into RTTY, using MMTTY software.

My rig for HF is an Icom IC-735, an excellent piece of equipment which squeezes a lot of features into a small space without resorting to the ultimate radio nightmare: menus!

My HF antenna is a twin-band dipole for 21MHz and 14MHz, although I'll probably change that soon to give me something that will work on 28MHz as well.

70MHz

My main four metre station is intended for use portable. I use the 144MHz station as the i.f. for a Spectrum Communications transverter. If you haven't heard of Spectrum I suggest you have a close look at what they do. They're a tiny outfit so speed of delivery isn't their forte, but build quality and sound design certainly is!

The transverter produces 22w, which is fed via a coaxial splitter to a pair of Pye A200 PMR amplifiers. The outputs are combined via another coaxial splitter to feed around 70W to the antenna.

The antenna is a Sandpiper 6 element yagi. I upgraded it from a 4 element one, but to be honest I haven't noticed any difference.

For mobile and fixed FM use I have a converted Pye Europa, which operates on 70.425 (the Edinburgh net) and 70.450 (the calling channel).

144MHz

My 2 metre station has gradually developed over time to serve as a 2 metre contest station and to act as an i.f. for other bands. The entire station is built into a hefty rack, which includes power distribution, a fuse board, patch leads and all ancillaries. All I have to do is apply 12 volts and an antenna and I'm ready to go.

The station comprises a Kenwood TR9130. This is a fine portable rig, though a little dated by today's standards. It feeds a Microwave Modules 200W linear amplifier. The completed system also includes homebrew digital voice recorder and memory keyed, both built from kits and the a sequence which allows me to safely use a Spectrum Communications masthead preamp with the amplifier. As back-up have a Yaesu FT290R Mk2.

My main 2 meter antenna is a Jaybeam 8-over-8 element slot-fed yagi. These antennas have gone out of fashion recently but I believe they offer good gain, while retaining a reasonable beam-width, making them good contest antennas.

432 MHz

My 70cm station comprises the Icom IC-735 as a tunable i.f., used in conjunction with a Microwave Modules transverter and an MM 50W linear amplifier.

The antenna for 70cms is either a 21 element Tonna or a Q-Tek extended to 23 elements.

As back-up I have another MM transverter with 2m i.f.

1.3 GHz

My 1.3Ghz station is still quite embryonic. It comprises a Yaesu FT290R Mk2 as a tuneable i.f., a Down East Microwave transverter (kit-built), which produces around 2W.

At the masthead are a Microwave Components Service 20W amplifier built around a Mitsubishi "black brick" and a Down East Microwave preamp. The antenna itself is a WiMo 67 element yagi. If you haven't met these antennas I suggest you take a close look - the build quality is quite incredible!

I also have a 2C39 cavity amplifier, which I am still working on.

2.5 Ghz

I am presently working on converting a Drake 2880 down-converter to act with a 2m receiver to receive the new AO40 (P3D) satellite.

10 Ghz

A long-term piece of work in progress is a 10GHz transverter system. This is centred on a surplus "whitebox" transverter. To make it usable with a 2m i.f. I am building a G4DDK 2.5GHz local oscillator, a G3WDG x4 multiplier and a scarily complex power supply. I hope to have the system in use by the end of 2001.

Other Equipment

For portable operating I use either a 4 section 20 foot portable mast, which can be single-handedly erected very quickly, or a 35 foot pump-up Clark mast.