Station Info

Although I have been quite keen on ham radio for a long time I haven't built up a larhge station. Whilst it is growing, it is growing slowly and is very modest. Even so I am able to get a good number of QSO's and have a had some nice surprises along the way with this little set up. The main station set up consists of a single rig, tuner and antenna although I do have a sneaky 6m beam that is currently in the loft (A place where it seems to perform rather poorly I might add)

Rig: Icom IC-7000

I chose this rig partly due to its size and partly to do with the features it has. Although it isn't the most feature packed radio available it certainly has enough for me. I've completed the IC-7000 mic mod which I can highly recommend. It has come with a few unsolicited positive comments and oddly enough 1 negative one (Thats most likely down to me not setting the gain correctly when I was setting up)

Tuner: LDG AT-7000

Now discontinued but still doing the work in my shack.

Power Supply: Watson WX-25M

A bit of a noisy fan but really apart from that it does what it is supposed to

Antenna: Hustler 6-BTV

I chose a vertical because if its neighbour friendlyness and cost. I can not afford a huge tower and beam, partly because no one in the house would talk to me for a few years and I'm sure the locals would have something to say about it. I would like a tilt over tower or something like that but I'm quite keen that whatever I get is small and salt spray and wind resistant. Since living about 50m ASL and about 1 mile from the sea I have lost more than one antenna on account of the high winds and corrosion that comes with this location.

Other kit:

I won a VX-3 hand held through Radcom which doesn't get much use although I have bought a Sotabeams MFD for when I am bike portable and get a chance to try out APRS with my Blackerry. I have also built a couple of Softrock kits and a cumbria designs morse code reader. All of which were thoughly enjoyable and not as hard as you might think.