Station W2LJ

Base Station Equipment W2LJ QSL's 100%  !!! QRO Transceiver - Icom IC-751A QRP Transceiver - Elecraft K2 Tuner - LDG AT11-MP Autotuner Keys - DT-91 Single Lever Paddle CT-91 Single Lever Paddle Computer - 486 Notebook running Windows 95 Logging Software - Win-EQF VHF Rig - Alinco DR-1200

My old setup - you can see it was more complex.

The Butternut HF9V behind the kid's swingset in the backyard - best vertical I've ever used!

Various DX QSLs hanging out on the wall, having a good time!

My awards - WAC, WAC, DXCC Millenium, DXCC and my ARRL Lifemember plaque, as well as my license on prominent display.

Antennas It seems antennas are always the problem for a small suburban lots.  I have a full sized G5RV from KK4TR Antenna Manufacturing & Sales. This is a great skywire, the most sturdily built commercial G5RV I have come across ! It is strung from the house on one end with the center insulator in a tree, and the other end is tied off to a mast on the other side of my backyard. It is in a horizontal "L" configuration. And I also have a venerable  Butternut HF9V vertical in the backyard. Between the two antennas I have worked well over 100 countries.  In no way am I a "Big Gun"; but I get may share of DX!

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Streamlined station - "new" used  laptop computer,  smaller tuner - neater, more compact.   If you look carefully you can see QSL cards from my very first Domestic and DX QSO's hanging on the wall.

It's hard to see in this photo; but the center insulator of my G5RV is hanging from a limb in this tree.  It is a very stealthy antenna - none of my neighbors can see it, either!

Personally Speaking

To the left is a diagram of how I have my Butternut HF9V installed in the backyard.  The chain link fence is part of the radial system.  In addition, I have sixteen 25 foot radials emanating from the base of the antenna in sort of a semi-circle.  I used 12 guage insulated wire.  Every three feet along the length of the radial, I wrapped a bit of it around a gutter nail, which I then pounded into the ground.  By the time summer was over, the grass had grown over the radials and now you can't see them anymore! It must be working, because in February 2004, my  K1 at 5 watts reached Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands!  Only about 1400 miles per watt!

My deluxe building table !!!

Morse Code