My Station

This is my current station which consists of an Icom 756 for HF and 50 MHz working the Yaesu FT 897 is used mainly on 2 Metres and 70 cms and the Ascom is on 4 metres. My general coverage receiver in an Eddystone 1830/1 and sitting above that is my ICOM FR7000 25MHz - 1.3GHz receiver or scanner. The HF antenna is a Short Wire which is top loaded and tuned with a SGC tuner it performs surprisingly well for such a compromise. The VHF and UHF antennas are located in the loft as we do have a problem regarding the fitting of antennas on the side of the house. I get away with the wire antenna as it is not so easily seen. I might try a vertical at the bottom of the garden sometime which may be a better alternative

For mobile and portable I use a Yaesu FT100D which covers top band to 70 cms and I run a Yaesu Quadbander FT8900 as well. I occasionally take the FT897 on trips as it is quite a versatile rig although I was not too fond of it when I first acquired it. Maybe I will air it more in the future. The antennas on the car are generaly mag-mounted Pro-Am whips or dedicated 2m/70cm whips. I intend to mount a plate on the roof-rack to witha more permanent fixing in the future. I have an old Microwave Modules transverter for 4 metres which gives me the facility of SSB, CW and FM.

My portable antennas range from a variety of wire antennas to vertical fishing pole antennas (Rob Mannion style). I bring out beams for 4 and 2 metres and also 70 cms depending on the activity and weather.

My first station consisted of a Codar AT5 transmitter (AM/CW) on 160 and 80 metres running a mere 10 watts of power from a 6BW6, which was more than adequate. The AT5 measured 8.5 x 5 x 3.5 inches which was small for the era. The receiver was a Codar CR70A MkII which was a a pretty good partner for the AT5. The antenna was long wire and I even used a Partridge Electronics Joystick which gave good results. There were amazing claims made about the performance of this antenna but, in fairness, log extracts were supplied which could not be disputed. At the same time many were operating the old 19 set, available from G.W. Smith and Sons and also homebrew designs available from Practical Wireless. I still have this station and it is in perfect working order after all those years along with a T28 receiver (covering just 160 and 80 metres) and the CR70A MkII (a general coverage receiver).

The next station was an FT101E with an SEM Z-match plus long wire antenna which provided me with hours of enjoyment. A speech processor was included with this tranceiver and it gave quite a punchy signal. Never any complaints about over processing so I must have done something right. Eventually I replaced the 101E with the Yaesu separates FL101 and FR101 which were an excellent combination running into an 18AVT trapped vertical.

A move in QTH provided some spare cash so the separates were replaced with a FT 902 DM plus KW1000 Linear and a good doublet antenna as there was plenty of space and good sky hooks to hang it from. I had the perfect set up and stayed with it for a number of years until I had to move back into the city and horror of all horrors had to sell up everything to furnish and decorate the new house.

Much time passed until I picked up a Kenwood TS130S for next to nothing. I was back on the air in no time. For a little rig it was worked to extremes as band conditions were pretty good in those days. My antenna was strung from my house to the one located on the opposite side of my back garden. This rig was eventually replaced by an Alinco DX70TH which in my opinion was one of the finest tranceivers I have ever owned. Hours were spent on this radio with hundreds of DX QSO's notched up. This rig survived a move to yet another 2 QTHs and continued to be operated until recently when I part exchanged it for a Yaesu FT100D. To this day I really don't know who got the better deal. Whilst there were more facilities on the FT100D the Alinco really was the nicer radio of the two.