WELCOME TO MY CORNER OF CYBERSPACE
Shack Status
radio in use at the moment is the IC-756ProII
the frequency is set to 7.035.000
and the mode is USB which will be decoding data
and the date and time is 06-Dec-2009 17:28:02
My Name is Bob
I live in the small village of Gildersome (clicking the link will tell you all about my location)
The part of Gildersome were I live lays in the shadow of Harthill at around 460 feet above sea level it is a modest location for VHF from 0 degrees through to 155 degrees which means there is not a lot much higher between here and the horizon.
My current station consists of the following
Main HF radio Yaesu FT1000 MkV field and SP-8 speaker (I have owned this radio for a few years now and is a real legend of a radio) for the audio I use a Heil gold line mic with the HC-5 insert and run that through the W2IHY EQ.
My second radio is the Icom IC-7400 and SP-23 speaker and SM-20 mic this is my main 2mt and 6mt radio and acts as a back up for HF (which I hope to never have to call upon it).
The Antenna system for 20,17,15,12,10 is the Cushcraft MA5B which is a 2 element beam for 20,15,10mts and rotary di-pole for 17-12mts
I have to say that I am more than happy with the performance with it apart from 20mts were it works ok but is a compromise (and it shows)
The 2nd antenna is a home made Doublet fed with 450ohm from the back of the palstar CV-1500 atu and is in a delta formation this antenna gives me rock solid performance on 30mts and average performance on 80mts, 40mts is a bit of a struggle so I plan to make a 40mt vertical at some point.
I also run an amplifier which is the Heatherlite Explorer running a pair of 3-500z tubes which at peak into the dummy load delivers around 1800 watts. Alas owing to restrictions with our licensing 400 watts is the maximum allowed. Now having cooked a couple of traps on the beam even at 400 watts I tend not to run more than 250-300 watts when needed and it does make a difference. She is an old lady now but still delivering the goods.
For Data modes I have two interfaces the first
one is the west mountain radio rigblaster Pro which I have hooked up to
the FT-1000mkV which I use for all my PSK and RTTY SSTV and other data
related modes as well as feeding the audio for my streaming webcam as
well as full cat control using Ham Radio Deluxe.
The 2nd interface is the MicroHam DigiKeyer which I have hooked up to the Icom IC-7400 and gives me full cat control again using Ham Radio Deluxe
Apart from a couple of computers in the shack which are used for all my ham radio needs that is it
