I remember telling a ham friend of mine, when a got my technician ticket, that won’t need more than one radio…he laughed and told me to have fun. Just over 2 ˝ years later and two upgrades, I’m sharing the shack with my wife who just got her ticket (KD8EFS). She has added her IC-746PRO to the shack which she won at the Findley Swap in OHIO earlier this month… not a bad way to start out as a new HAM.
I started off with the Yaesu FT-7800 and VX-5R…moving the radio from truck to shack was a pain. So as a reward for finishing our basement I brought an FT-897D, but up a tower with a vertical and 2 meter beam for SSB and an AO-50 for 6 meter SSB. Seemed good enough…not!
After earning my General ticket and making 3 contacts using an inverted “L”, I put down the mic for 6 weeks and studied for the Extra. The reward after 6 weeks… I’m rewarded with an Amateur Extra ticket. So of course this leads to the increased shack requirements, it only natural right?
Our equipment list today:
In the shack: IC746PRO, TS2000, Heil GM-4 mic, MFJ-393Y Professional Grade Boom-Mic Headphones, 13B2 Cushcraft Boomer, 9/11 dB 144/440 Collinear Dualband Antenna, 2 meter homebrew J-pole 2/440, 80 meter homebrew loop, G5RV, Z-100 and MFJ993B tuners and a KL145 2 meter Amplifier, 2 Motorola speakers, Hygain CD-45II, American Standard 40’ tower, a laptop PC loaded with Mixw software and Rig Expert MINI.
For traveling: FT-7800R, IC208H, VX-5R, 2 Diamond NR770HA 144/440 5/8 wave mobile, FT-897D, 40 and 20 meter ˝ loops and 102 stainless whip MFJ-971 tuner.
73,
W8RCM
|
|
