Rigs & things that make up the station of VK2JEM

These are rigs and accessories that I use now or have in the past... the Asterix is a star rating out of 5 in my opinion.
To see my actual station click HERE!

Click on each pic to go to a page with more info on that item.

The original R8. Fabulous radio, poor control layout, but my new favourite! A keeper.

 Kenwood R5000 perhaps my favourite receiver ever. Just watch old ones, May die young.

Ts-440S, a good radio let down by bad construction. Like the R5000 they dont age well.
R.L Drake R8 HF Receiver ***** Kenwood R5000 HF Receiver ***** Kenwood TS-440S-AT HF Transceiver ****

R75, A master at digging out weak signals, especially on SSB, but somehow joyless to use.

 IC 740, I had this... I dont remember using it much

720A, My 1st ham radio. Big clunking relays and great performance, general coverage too. No notch filter?
Icom IC-R75 HF/VHF(low) Receiver ***** ICOM IC-740 HF Transceiver ** ICOM-720A HF Transceiver ****

FRG-7700, a pleasant digital readout, general SWL/UTE receiver.

 The famous Frog 7. When I had the Dx100 I would spend hours staring at the ads for these. I finally got one last year. Im glad I did.

101z ham radio. Sensitive, with lovely audio and glowing valves. Fun to use, with Load and Plate pretuning
Yaesu FRG-7700 HF Receiver ** Yaesu FRG-7 HF Receiver ** Yaesu FT-101Z (D) HF Transceiver ***
Now THATS a boat-anchor! Full coverage 0.5- 30Mhz AM-SSB Valve receiver. These were used on Ocean-liners (including the QE1) in the 50s and 60s. Had this a long time ago. MY 1st good quality shortwave. Very similar to FRG-7, Sold it long ago, sadly missed. My 1st ever Shortwave. A truely terrible radio, but at 16, I loved it! Worked some surprising DX on it too.
Redifon R145 SSB HF Receiver R.L Drake SSR-1 HF Receiver *** Realistic DX-100 HF Receiver *
Picked this one up cheap at an auction. The best "Simple-SWL" radio I have used. Simple, with good performance and audio, and a pleasure to use. I know I had oone for a few months. ummm.. cant remember much about it. Bought it for $30, had big beefy audio, but was unreliable and finally died. Nothing special.
Kenwood R-1000 HF Receiver **** Kenwood TS120 HF Transceiver ** Sony ICF 6700W HF Receiver **
A tiny, cheap throw away travel radio. OK, but soon died. Another famous rig, Too big for portable, not quite good enough for main rig, but was long my "trusty standby" or bedside rig. A Very good portable, small and sensitive, I always take it with me when I travel.
Sangean ATS800 (aka Realistic DX370) * Sangean ATS-803A HF Receiver *** Sony ICF-SW7600 HF Receiver ***
A Tiny multimode hi quality HF-VHF-UHF receiver, with 5 Watts TRANSMIT as bonus! a windfall find! One of a few different CBs that I have owned. Still have this one.. somewhere.... The radio that started it all! Thanks Dad! My 1st Cb, My 1st radio of any type! 18 channels ("plus extra") "J.S.67" worked the worked on this!
Yeasu FT817 HF/VHF/UHF Transceiver *** Uniden President Grant HF SSB CB**** Realistic TRC 451 HF SSB CB ***
TrunkTracker III scans the newer trunked radio systems. A whole new field of scanning. Yet another simple scanner, small enough for a car or base. Works fine (yawn). Good on paper, poor in the shack. So much of a dog it HOWLS at full moons!
Uniden UBC-780XLT Scanner **** Uniden UBC-760XLT Scanner *** Yaesu FRG-9600 VHF/UHF Receiver  *

My 1st scanner. Worked as it should. To me scanners are just tools, they work or they dont, this one worked.

 Bought this one cheap and a bit beaten up. It just goes and goes.

A very good scanner, but NO BATTERY BACKUP for memories! Unplug it and spend an hour typing in 200 channels. D'oh!
Realistic Pro-2011 VHF/UHF Scanner ** Realistic Pro-2003 VHF/UHF Scanner *** Realistic Pro-2039 VHF/UHF Scanner

Have had this one for 20 years. A darned good radio. Still gets good reports.

 On on each band. Cheap and cheerful

Promised to be all singing, all dancing all coverage. Turned out to be deaf, hard to use and of so bad design that its almost unusable. Another HOWLER!
ICOM IC-255e 2M FM Mobile *** Philips FM900 (one 2M and one 70cm) ** AOR AR-1000 HF/VHF/UHF Scanner *
A very cheap 2 metre that was awful to use and broke quickly. Yep it HOWLED! cheap 2 metre that also covers marine band, lots of features, well built, great audio, great value! Covers both 70cm and UHF CB, sister rig to the 150A, same comments apply
Alinco DJ100T 2M FM H/T * FDC 150A 2M - VHF Marine H/T **** FDC 460A 70cm -UHF CB H/T ****
PC drivenr RXer, great for APT Satellites, good on VHF/UHf, just fair on HF Decoder for basic digital mode transmissions. Rtty Fax TDM etc. needs ISA slot in a slow PC The famous PK-2323 Pakratt. Have had lots of fun with this down the years. Still do occasionally.
Icom PCR100 HF/VHF/UHF RX for PC *** Universal M1200 Digital decoder card ** PK232 Pakratt Multimode TNC ****

ATU, and antenna switch/splitter... useful

 Could tune a rusty nail!

Multi band wire dipole. Well built, has served me well for many years, Im about to trial a G2RV as a comparison
Grove TUN-4 HF RX ATU (on the R75)** MFJ-941E 300W HF TX ATU **** Alpha-Delta DX-Ultra HF Antenna ****

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