My amateur Radio equipment.
Some of the Gear...
ICOM IC735
This is my pride and joy, yes I know it's not an IC756Pro3 but
I own it - not a finance company! general
coverage receive and 100w general coverage transmit ( a bit naughty but wonderful
for driving
transverters - those in the know
appreciate transverters allow optimised performance) it is fitted with a
narrow CW filter which is great for PSK31 and SSTV which I like to monitor on
the HF bands, once I get some decent aerials up I'll be in there mixing it with
the rest of them, I had a Diamond CP5 vertical which worked on 80m, 40m, 20m,
15m and 10m. Unfortunately this was blown down in the February 2005 gales and
was replaced with a GAP titan DX vertical which served me well until we moved
house. I'm hoping to eventually get a tower up, but until then I'm using a "W5GI
Mystery antenna" which seems to work reasonably well on all bands from 80m
to 10m.
Dentron GLA-1000B
ICOM IC-T8E
ICOM IC290d
When I was first licenced - not certified as some think - at the end
of 1979 this was the sort of radio I could only dream of owning. The IC290
cost £569 in 1980 when I was earning about £15 a week! this one
was an absolute bargain at £120 in the classified ads in
Radcom. This radio is now used as the driver
for my 23cms transverter.
Icom IC251E
ICOM IC471e
Kenwood TS120v
Yaesu FT690R Mk2
Icom IC2100h Yaesu FT-817ND B.N.O.S. 50w 50Mhz linear
Computer
Kantronics KAM TNC
Inac 36A Power Supply
Kenwood PS30 Power Supply
MFJ941E ATU
4m
Transverter
V/UHF Power Meter
Acquired from a local amateur moving to a smaller QTH, this is an
HF 1.2kW pep
input linear. It used 4 x 6LQ6 valves, but has been rebuilt to use 1 x Gi7b
russian triode (many thanks to Ted Lee N8NPQ for help and assistance) it has a built in PSU and is only about
11" square
by 6" high! Check out my GLA1000 modification page!
Nearly always in my pocket if not in my hand
is
my IC T8E which receives from 50Mhz to
999.995Mhz, and transmits on 6m, 2m and 70cm. and gives 5w out when used
in the car, its also great for marine/airband listening etc. The only fault
with this rig is the flexible antenna which is a) a good dummy load on 6m,
b) too long to go in your pocket. - Icom should have supplied two - one for
2m/70cm and reasonably sized - one for 6m, possibly telescopic and base/centre
loaded. (Now expanded for wideband transmit for going to Florida on holiday -
Thanks due to Icom UK for the mod - not
the holiday).
Many thanks to Dave G8KAP I now have in the shack the rig I always drooled
over at rallies when I first got my licence, and it's as good to use as it
always looked!
That man did it again! Dave G8KAP turned up at the club with an
IC471e �Take this and use it I never have� so thanks to Dave I have this
excellent radio in the shack.
I know it's a Kenwood (Trio actually) but it was cheap, bought faulty, the carrier board had a complete component change
and now is working again. I've modified this radio so that the �FIX� switch now disables the P.A. and provides a low level output
to drive the transverter through an additional socket on the back. Also in the
shack now is a Kenwood TS130s which is basically the same but is the 100w
version and has the WARC bands, this is my back up radio for HF.
At the
moment I'm using this FT690 mk2 for 6 metres, not my first choice by a long way
- Yaesu are the most unreliable radio I have ever owned and this is the fifth!
As one American I worked put it "what is the first letter of Yaesu?
Y, Y
bother? Y buy trouble? Y not get a decent radio instead?" But
beggars can't be choosers, and the price was very good, perhaps because the
previous owner was tired of having it repaired?
The IC2100h is installed in Caroline's car for when I use that, easy
to use, 55
watts on 2m FM and an incredible receiver, the more I use this radio the more I
think of it - very impressed!
Not had this long and it's another Yaesu, BUT at the moment it's still working!
If Icom had made a radio like this I'd have bought it even at twice the price!
Apart from the battery life is crap (Icom would have used latching relays to
keep current consumption down) it's actually not a bad little radio. I have to
add a caveat to that though because I fitted the excellent BHI DSP unit, it
meant drilling two holes in a brand new radio but needs must. This radio is now
mounted in an IC-240 mobile mount on the dash of my car, correct, Yaesu don't
make a mount for the '817!
Although not tremendously high power this 6m linear also has a pre-amp which helps a bit with the pile-ups.
The shack computer isn't anything spectacular, and again it is homebuilt,
Pentium 3 700Mhz, 18GbHard disk, 128Mb Ram, 8Mb ATI graphics, LS120, DVD-RW. Not
exactly state of the art but fast enough to run SSTV and PSK31 software. With
the PC is an APC UPS.
The original and said by many to still be the best multimode
TNC used for my packet(KaNode KIRKBY) and also, much to my shame, for CW
Running all the 13.8v equipment in the shack is this Spanish
built PSU from Waters and Stanton, it was reasonably priced and doubles as
a heater for the shack! seems reliable so far though?
Just acquired is a new (to me) second hand power supply, this now powers the IC735 as fortunately
it is plug compatible with the Icom and switches on and off from the radio.
Once I'd passed my CW and was using the IC735 for more than tranvserting
I had the choice of buying or building an ATU. Variable capacitors aren't
cheap or easily available, so I rung W&S, if you can live without PEP
measurement, and already have a dummy load (I can and have) it's a
bargain.
A new 4m transverter has just been finished, teething problems at the moment
include a faulty SBL1 mixer (fixed), the PA taking off (fixed) and poor bias
adjustment - I'll change the bias supply circuit when I can get round to it. Receive side is good and things are looking promising
if I can finish the PA.
Another silent key sale item, a Toyo power meter with ranges up to 120W forward and 20W reflected.