Nothing
really exotic here. Mostly it is old stuff that nobody else wanted that
has been restored, or rebuilt, or modified, or homebrewed and then
pressed into
service. The station equipment operates on all bands between 160
meters and 440 mhz with all available voice and digital modes.
Amazingly, the little lunchbox sized FT-897D can do everything the huge
mass of iron below can do and more.
This is the AM station. On the left
is the Johnson Viking which has been built into a 6 foot rack to
accomodate additional audio and power supply components. The final of
the Viking was originally a 4D32, but this has been replaced by three
6146B tubes. The original 807 modulator has been scrapped and replaced
by a deck with a pair of 811A tubes and a 300 watt Thordasen
transformer. Below the
Viking RF deck is the audio deck, which is composed of two 6550 tubes
in a push-pull Williamson configuration. An audio compressor is
installed just below the audio amp. The Variac above the Viking RF deck
controls the 800 volt plate supply for the RF tubes and a separate 1250
volt plate supply for the 811A's, allowing power adjustment from
milliwatts up to about 150 watts of RF power. The zero biased 811A's
sound very clean at powers under 1 watt, making this a very unique QRP
rig! I have worked into Great Britain on 10 meter AM using only 1
watt from this rig! As I recall, one evening back in the 1980's on 160
meters I was able to work WA1KNX (Dean) about 100 miles to the north
with a
few hundred milliwatts. On the right side is the 6 foot rack housing
the homebrew 4-400 rig which is bandswitched for 160 - 75 - 40 meters.
The single 4-400 is modulated by a pair of 833A's in a push-pull
heising configuration (using a multi-tap plate transformer as the
reactor) suggested to me by Steve - WA1QIX. This rig is also variac
controlled and can run
cleanly from around 75 watts input to roughly 900 watts input. The
833A's have a regulated adjustable bias supply that allows a wide range
of plate voltages to be applied without pushing the modulators out of
class B operation. The antenna for these rigs is an open wire fed 160
meter inverted vee fed by a T-Match made from an old GPT-750 CU-658/UR
ATU roller
inductor and two huge cardwell bread slicers which feed into a homebrew
3kw balun. This station warms up "Studio A" very nicely in the winter!
The station receiver is a reliable
old SP600 which has been restored and works very nicely from the bottom
of the broadcast band up through the six meter band. An FM detector has
been built and added to the SP600 just for the fun of it. The volume
control wiper has been tapped and used to feed audio to a pair of 6L6
tubes which drive a 10 inch KLH acoustic suspension speaker. Not
shown in these pictures is the "Deerfield Special" FRG 7700 shortwave
receiver which is used for AM,
FM, CW, and SSB
on 160 through 10 meters.
The slightly more modern station is shown below. It runs all bands from 160 meters through 440 Mhz in all modes. The convenience of running the rice boxes is obvious, and they are reliable and fun. A SignaLink SL-1+ handles all the digital modes nicely with the ICOM 756 Pro III. The FT-897D handles the duties on 2 meters. On the top shelf is the newest addition, an Ameritron AL-80B which keeps the room nice and warm during the winter months!
Fall 2007
Fall 2007
Fall 2007 - I love cable! Not a trace of TVI even at a KW!
Spring 2009 - The upstairs AM operating position with the resurrected Viking III and FRG-7700
The modest antenna farm is shown below. The tower is a very old EZ-Way 60 foot crank-up and tilt-over galvanized steel monster. It was sighted by my good friend Joe, W1AIU, who tipped me off back in 1987 that it was being retired from service and was available. Probably the best hundred bucks I ever spent. It has a 5 foot nosepiece on top and a 14 foot mast above that, which puts the tip of the GP-15 vertical for 6/2/440 at a bit over 80 feet when the tower is fully extended. I generally run the tower up to about 50 feet and leave it there out of respect for the old EZ-Way's age. The 6 meter 3 element beam sits at a little over 50 feet, the 2 meter 15 element beam is at about 55 feet and the very tip of the GP-15 reaches to just under 70 feet. In the fall of 2005 I finished up a fairly extensive rust reforming (ferric-oxide to ferric-phospate) project and used cold galvanizing paint to get it ready for the winter. Three years ago the lift cable snapped and I just never got around to re-cabling it until last summer. When I finally managed to get the tower cranked down, as I tilted it over, the tilt cable snapped with 1 foot left to go in the tilt process, so it slammed down gently with a resounding thud. It could have been worse... The latest renovations for the summer of 2006 involved pulling out the 20 year old HD-73 rotor and installing a Yaesu G-800SA roter. The next steps involved replacing the old 6 meter rotatable diopole and the AR-6 six meter vertical with the M2 6M3 and a GP-15 vertical. All new HD rotor cable and 3 LMR-400 feedlines had to be scrounged up as well. So far so good... things have loaded up very nicely and all the hardware went together just fine.
Cranked to 50 feet
The Stuff at the Top
The slightly more modern station is shown below. It runs all bands from 160 meters through 440 Mhz in all modes. The convenience of running the rice boxes is obvious, and they are reliable and fun. A SignaLink SL-1+ handles all the digital modes nicely with the ICOM 756 Pro III. The FT-897D handles the duties on 2 meters. On the top shelf is the newest addition, an Ameritron AL-80B which keeps the room nice and warm during the winter months!
Fall 2007
Fall 2007
Fall 2007 - I love cable! Not a trace of TVI even at a KW!
Spring 2009 - The upstairs AM operating position with the resurrected Viking III and FRG-7700
The modest antenna farm is shown below. The tower is a very old EZ-Way 60 foot crank-up and tilt-over galvanized steel monster. It was sighted by my good friend Joe, W1AIU, who tipped me off back in 1987 that it was being retired from service and was available. Probably the best hundred bucks I ever spent. It has a 5 foot nosepiece on top and a 14 foot mast above that, which puts the tip of the GP-15 vertical for 6/2/440 at a bit over 80 feet when the tower is fully extended. I generally run the tower up to about 50 feet and leave it there out of respect for the old EZ-Way's age. The 6 meter 3 element beam sits at a little over 50 feet, the 2 meter 15 element beam is at about 55 feet and the very tip of the GP-15 reaches to just under 70 feet. In the fall of 2005 I finished up a fairly extensive rust reforming (ferric-oxide to ferric-phospate) project and used cold galvanizing paint to get it ready for the winter. Three years ago the lift cable snapped and I just never got around to re-cabling it until last summer. When I finally managed to get the tower cranked down, as I tilted it over, the tilt cable snapped with 1 foot left to go in the tilt process, so it slammed down gently with a resounding thud. It could have been worse... The latest renovations for the summer of 2006 involved pulling out the 20 year old HD-73 rotor and installing a Yaesu G-800SA roter. The next steps involved replacing the old 6 meter rotatable diopole and the AR-6 six meter vertical with the M2 6M3 and a GP-15 vertical. All new HD rotor cable and 3 LMR-400 feedlines had to be scrounged up as well. So far so good... things have loaded up very nicely and all the hardware went together just fine.
Cranked to 50 feet
The Stuff at the Top
At the very top is the GP-15
tri-band
vertical. I use this for repeater and simplex work on 6/2/440 with the
FT8900. When the FT8900 is in scanner mode for aircraft and public
service, the GP-15 at its height above surrounding terrain works far
better than anything I have ever used. I can easily hear all the ground
control frequencies at Bradley Field as well as some of the Military
aircraft stuff up north at Westover and Westfield. Next is a Cushcraft
15 element 2 meter beam, which is used to play
on 2 meter SSB. Below that is the little M2 6M3 6 meter
beam. My early observation is that M2 produces some very
sturdy stuff. I really like the way they handle the driven element
which looks very strong and water resistant. It resonates exactly as
their charts indicated it would. The 160 meter dipole can be seen to
the right of the tower in this picture.
Extended Above the Trees
The tower peeks above the trees to
the east, south, and west, but the persistent tree to the north is
about 10 feet higher than the GP-15 at the top of the tower. I hired my
local tree crew to cut back some branches that were beginning to
intrude into the tower space last fall. There's plenty of clearance
now. Part of the 160 meter dipole can be seen spanning
the sky to the left of the tower.
256 Foot Open Wire Center-Fed
For 160/75/60/40 meter operation, I use 90 feet of open wire
feedline to a center-fed 256 foot inverted vee. If you look closely at
the upper center of the picture, you can see the feedpoint and the open
wire line trailing off at the top of the picture. The apex is
sitting at just under 70 feet, and the ends are tied off at 45 feet.
The feedline is made from #14 insulated wire and 3 inch spacers made up
from quarter inch plastic tubing (used for low pressure refrigerator
icemakers) that I picked up at Lowes for a couple of bucks. The spacers
are
a foot apart and are locked to the wire by glue from a hot glue gun.
The assembly process is quick and easy, and the end product is very
durable. After cutting the tubing into 3.5 inch lengths, you just drill
out a 1/8 inch hole on both ends of each spacer for the wire to sit in,
then use wire cutters to cut a slot from the end of the tubing to the
hole. Stretch your two wires out and as you walk along the length of
your wires, just snap the spacers in place at one foot intervals. When
you have them all in place, just walk down one side with a hot glue gun
and pump some glue into the end of each spacer. All you need is about
1/4 inch of the tubing to be filled with glue and you will find that
the wire is locked firmly in place after the glue has cooled down. When
you get done with one side, hit the other side the same way. It took me
about 4 hours total to assemble 100 feet of the stuff. Unlike the store
bought window line, the wind passes right through it and moisture from
rain and snow doesn't affect it much.
Wire and Spacers Before Using the Hot Glue Gun
256 Foot Open Wire Center-Fed
Wire and Spacers Before Using the Hot Glue Gun
The feedline is connected to a
W2FMI 10KW balun that is bolted to a 10 foot TV mast which is pounded
into the ground and staked out with several eight foot copper clad
electrodes. I use a 6 foot run of coax to the window threshold and then
15 more feet inside the station to the T-Match. It works well, doesn't
pose any RF problems in the station, and when the lightning season
comes, I think it is a good thing to have the balun sitting outside
with a low impedance straight shot to ground. Time will tell...
