Ham Shack Update

Well, with the exception of finding a Kenwood SP-120 speaker, I have just about completed a station that any ham from the late 80's to early 90's would be proud to call their own!

Just to brag (or whine, depending on time of day, my mood, and your point of view) my collection contains:

HF:

Kenwood TS-440S/AT (with FM module, IC-10 kit, Voice Module, tuner, and ALL optional filters)

Kenwood PS-430 power supply

Kenwood SP-430 speaker

Kenwood AT-250 outboard tuner (for 160m)

Kenwood IF-232C computer interface

Kenwood MC-50 microphone

VHF:

Kenwood TR-9000 (with ComSpec SS-64 tone module) 2m All Mode radio

Kenwood PS-20 power supply

Kenwood SP-120 speaker

Kenwood BO-9 base shelf

Kenwood TR-7730 (2m FM for APRS)

Mirage B-34-G amplifier with GaAsFET per-amp

UHF:

Kenwood TR-9500 70cm All Mode radio

Kenwood PS-20 power supply

Kenwood BO-9A base shelf

NEED THE SPEAKER!  ;-)

MISC:

SignaLink USB soundcard interface

Homebrew soundcard interface (cost <$20 and works just as well as the Signalink)

Homebrew coax tester

Homebrew LED ambiance lights ;-)

Homebrew PTT mic to PC interface

Wouxon KG-UV3D dual-band HT

Heath bench variable power supply

Radio Shack SWR/power meter

MFJ-941D antenna tuner

Cheap CW key

MOBILE:

Yaesu FT-2900R

Galaxy DX959

Radio Shack HTX-10

Radio Shack PRO-2050 scanner

Homebrew radio console

ANTENNA:

RadioWavz G5RV Lite

Homebrew 2m moxon
Homebrew 2m 1/4 wave ground plane

While this may all seem like an impressive list of equipment, it can all be replaced with one radio these days.  The Kenwood TS-2000, the ICOM 7000, the Yaesu FT-857D will each do everything that this entire list does and take up less space and power in the process!  Plus the new radios have DSP to clean up those weak signals.  On the flip side, all of the equipment listed didn't cost me what a fully loaded TS-2000 would cost.  So, pros and cons to each approach.

Anyhow, here is a quick pic of my shack (ignore the ugly desk, its not finished, and I'm an engineer, not a skilled wood worker, although I generally enjoy trying).

So anywho, there you go.  A shadowy flight into the ham shack of a man who does not exist...  Sorry, couldn't resist the geeky Knight Rider reference.

73 and good night,

Richard, KK4JDO

And... We're back...

To anyone that cares, sorry that I haven't posted in such a long  time.  My real job as a systems engineer at a children's hospital can get hectic at times.  On the bright side, we successfully opened a brand new, absolutely state of the art hospital in Orlando, FL.  Check it out at >here<

In addition to working some completely insane hours, I also moved from the massively over-sized house in the burbs to a marginally under-sized house in the country.  I'm into RC planes as well as Amateur Radio, so having a place with a lot more land allows me to enjoy both of my hobbies at home.  It also helps that this place is cheaper to heat and cool being that it is around 1,200 sq ft smaller that the last house.  Hopefully we'll be able to buy again in a few years.

I have had time for a few projects, mostly in the last week to two, and I have had some searches running on eBay and a few other sites (like QRZ.com).  As a result of these searches I have been able to acquire a Kenwood TR-9500 that I really wanted, as well as the matching BO-9A base and matching PS-20 power supply.  All that is left to have a complete system is the SP-120 speaker.  These occasionally show up on various sites, so I'll keep my eye peeled for it.  Here is a neat quick pic of my new rig:

The TR-9000 is on the middle shelf, left side (red freq display), and the TR-9500 is on the right side of the same shelf (green freq display).

Both of these rigs are all mode radios, so I have the ability to use single side band (SSB) in addition to CW and both narrow and wide band FM.  This is handy as some of the older satellites use SSB.  It also allows me to start dabbling in the world of VHF/UHF weak signal work, which takes place on SSB as well.  It is kind of neat to see how far you can talk on what are usually local area bands.  I am waiting on a Mirage B-108 to show up, which is an 80W amplifier that also contains a receive pre-amp to help with working low strength contacts.  One of these days I want to check out EME, or "moon-bounce", but that requires some seriously high-gain antenna arrays or even dishes (like re-tasked old satellite TV dishs, the big Ka band ones, not the little 18" DirecTV trashcan lids).

I also built a couple of quick desks since I no longer have an office.  I had to turn my "ham-shack" into a "ham-corner".  I built two identical desks out of 3/4" plywood and 1x12 whiteboard.  The main goal was to use as much vertical space as possible to maximize my storage options.  They are not quite finished yet, I still need to add trim, and build the linking section to make is a complete corner desk instead of two stand-alone desks.  Be at least I have a place to put my radios.  Here is a quick pic of the desk with my ham gear on it.  The other desk contains the gear that I use for work and is just to the left of it.  Not that anyone really cares how my shack is set up...lol...but I thought that someone might be interested in how my desk is designed.  Post a comment if you would like to see actual plans for them.  ;-)

One of the things that I am considering adding to the desks are a set of doors to hide the equipment when not in use.  I'm using the corner of my bedroom, and while I'm okay with seeing my stuff all the time, my XYL is only marginally impressed with the whole ham radio out in the open concept.  ;-)

Anyhow, I have a few other projects that I've been working on, and will work on adding those in additional posts this evening and in my "spare" time.  For now, have a good evening!

73,

Richard, KK4JDO

Wanted: Kenwood TR-9500

As you may have surmised from an earlier post where I added an SS-64 CTCSS encoder to a 2m radio, I already own a Kenwood TR-9000.  In fact, I have the complete station which includes the radio itself, as well as the matching SP-120 speaker, PS-20 power supply, and BO-9 base "shelf".  Here is a stock picture of this setup:

This is an absolutely awesome all-mode 2m VHF radio.  It can do Wide-Band FM, Narrow-Band, USB, LSB, and CW.  With the addition of the SS-64, it can also generate CTCSS tones to access repeaters.  The radio that I'm looking for is almost identical to this one, except it has a green display and uses UHF (70cm) frequencies.  Here is a closeup that I found online of that radio:

Ideally,  I would like to get the same complete station as above.  I think that it would be awesome to have a matched set of these radios.

The reason that I'm trying to acquire the aforementioned UHF radio is that I want to get into working other stations via Amateur Radio satellites.  Operating via this mode requires you to transmit on one frequency (called the uplink frequency) and receive on a different frequency (call downlink).  So you can see why I either need two radios, or one radio that is dual-band.  I could go the dual-band route, but I have to be honest, I have fallen in love with this awesome little TR-9000 and would love to use it for this purpose as well as 2m DX and chit-chatting on local repeaters.

There are several ham radio satellites in orbit, which always serves to amaze non-hams, as well as a ham radio installation on the International Space Station.  The station on the ISS sometimes acts like the other satellites, allowing you to talk to other Earth-based operators, and sometime operates as a normal ham station, allowing you to talk to the astronauts on the station itself.  How cool is that?!

Here is a diagram of one of the amateur radio satellites currently in orbit.  It is called Delfi-C3 (DO-64).  It was launched a few years ago by the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands as a student research project:

So, if you have one of these radios that you would like to part with at an even close to reasonable price, please let me know and maybe we can work something out!

73,

Richard, KK4JDO