the Station

As of 30 May 2022

My station is designed primarily for SO2R, but it is relatively easy to reconfigure for M/S or M/2 contesting..  Feeding each band separately on the Force 12 multi-monobanders gives me some added flexibility over the standard ‘tri-band’ single feed technique.  And certainly the band pass filters and the coax stub filters installed on each band’s feed line have been a benefit in allowing simultaneous multi-band operation.

Left to right, operating positions A, B C and D, circa Feb 2021

Main Station – Positions A and B

  • Elecraft K3, loaded with filters
  • SO2R with microHAM MK2R+
  • LP-100A Digital Vector RF Wattmeter with dual coupler option
  • DuneStar Model 600 band pass filters
  • Top Ten Band Decoder to automate band pass filter and antenna selection
  • Antenna switching & stack selection via ArraySolutions SixPack and StackMatches
  • Receive antenna switching via Ameritron RCS-10

Transmitting Antenna available at both positions A and B:

  • 160 meter dipole at 105 ft
  • 160 meter Inverted-L 75′ high 100′ wide, 40 buried radials 125′ long
  • 80 meter dipole at 105 ft
  • 80 meter 4-square (construction details here)
  • 40 meters 2/2 at 118/52 ft
  • 20 meters 3/3/3 at 118/85/52 ft
  • 15 meters 4/4/4 at 118/85/52 ft
  • 10 meters 7/7/7 at 118/85/52 ft

Beverage receiving antenna available at both positions A and B via home-brew Magic-T splitter.  Pre-amp is DXE-RPA-1.  Transformers home-brewed based on W8JI design.  Wire is 17ga electric fence wire. Height ranges from 9 to 11 ft.  Switching via Ameritron RCS-10:

  • 580 ft beverage at 45 degrees (Europe/middle East)
  • 480 ft beverage at 90 degrees (Africa)
  • 480 ft beverage at 135 degrees (Carribean/Brazil)
  • 580 ft beverage at 225 degrees (Mexico/Oceania/ZL)
  • 800 ft beverage at 270 degrees (Hawaii/VK)
  • 480 ft beverage at 315 degrees (Japan/micronesia)

Coax Stub Filters installed at SixPack on antenna ports. Coax is mix of RG-213 & JefaTech LL400. Measured with AIM 4170:

  • 10 meters – CS-6 (1/2 WL-open 10m) & CS-4 (1/2 WL-open 20m)
  • 15 meters – CS-3 (1/4 WL-shorted 40m)
  • 20 meters – CS-4 (1/2 WL-open 20m) & CS-5 (1/4 WL-shorted 20m)
  • 40 meters – CS-3 (1/4 WL-shorted 40m) & CS-7 (1/2 WL-shorted 15m)
  • 80 meters – CS-1 (1/4 WL-shorted 80m)
  • 160 meters – CS-9 (1/4 VL-shorted 160m)

Amplifiers  

  • Position A => AL-1500
  • Position B => AL-1500
  • Position C => Elecraft KPA500 or AL-811
  • Position D => AL-1200

Position C – most often used as “partner” computer location for either B or D

  • Elecraft K3
  • M2 KT34XA at 50 feet
  • 80-meter Inv-V @ 50 feet
  • 40-meter Inv-V @ 50 feet
  • 30-meter Inv-V @ 40 feet
  • 30-meter full-size rotatable dipole @ 50 feet
  • 17-meter 5-element Yagi on 30-foot boom @ 45 feet
  • 12-meter 6-element Yagi on 24-foot boom @ 45 feet
  • 6-meter 6-element Yagi on 24-foot boom @ 45 feet
  • IC-2100 with 5/8 wave J-pole at 25 ft for 2 meter FM use
  • Manually moving coax jumpers allows use of antenna not in current use at main station.

Position D

  • FT-1000MP
  • Ameritron AL-1200
  • M2 KT34XA at 50 feet
  • 80-meter Inv-V @ 50 feet
  • 40-meter Inv-V @ 50 feet
  • 30-meter Inv-V @ 40 feet
  • 30-meter full-size rotatable dipole @ 50 feet
  • 17-meter 5-element Yagi on 30-foot boom @ 45 feet
  • 12-meter 6-element Yagi on 24-foot boom @ 45 feet
  • 6-meter 6-element Yagi on 24-foot boom @ 45 feet
  • IC-706MkIIg for 6-meter use
  • Manually moving coax jumpers allows use of antenna not in current use at main station.

Common to all positions

  • Dell Optiplex i7, Windows 10 Pro using dual monitors
  • N1MM+ logger latest version
  • Bencher paddles
  • Heil Prosets (beginning to upgrade to Bose QC15)
  • Footswitches for PTT (no VOX in phone contests at W5WZ!)
  • EA4TX Interlock (added Jan 2020)

Etc …

Like most hams, I’m always gathering pieces and parts. Here’s the list of major hardware gathered that is not yet in service.

  • (1) Tic Ring Rotor model 1022D
  • An additional 200 feet of Rohn 55G with associated EHS and guy hardware
  • (1) KLM KT36XA (as of 05/02/09, on tower at K5ER as a loaner)
  • (1) M2 KT34XA
  • extra SixPacks
  • extra StackMatches
  • Over 1,000 feet of 1/2″ Andrews hardline
  • Over 2,000 feet of 1/2″ Commscope hardline
  • Over 1,500 feet of 3/4″ 75-ohm hardline
  • 20 ground rods, 10 feet by 5/8″
  • 2 large NEMA electrical/grounding boxes for weatherproof enclosures
  • EZ-Way tilt-over crank-up tower with CDE Ham II rotator
  • SDRplay RSP2pro
  • Hav IV + controller (2021)
  • TailTwister + controller (2021)