Welcome to WDØM's "Shack"
I consider myself very fortunate to have been able to acquire some highly capable equipment for my station. The image above highlights the arrangement of my "shack". On the far left is an Alpha
87a amplifier - one of the top line amps produced by Alpha Radio Products.
My HF transceiver is an Icom IC-7700, capable of 200 watts output on all bands from 160 meters through 6 meters. Running at just 60 watts input, I'm able to drive the Alpha amplifier to the full
legal limit. You'll note that there is an "extra" monitor on the far left that shows the screen display of the IC-7700 - a handy feature. I also use a dual monitor setup to provide a little extra
"real estate" so I can have multiple screens available for the amateur radio software I use daily.
I interface all the equipment to my HP Phoenix computer by using a microHAM MicroKeyer II and a microHAM Station Master. That allows me to use any mode, SSB, CW or digital, without having to
rearrange any connections between the equipment. This has been one of the best investments I've made in making operation "easy".
My antenna system includes an SP7IDX Hex Beam at 25 feet that covers 6 meters through 20 meters with one coaxial cable. I use a Station Master to automatically switch antennas between the Hex Beam
and my 30 through 160 meter vertical antenna when I change bands on the IC-7700. I've worked well over 100 countries on 80 meters with
this antenna. I'm not a big 160 meter enthusiast, but have worked all states and about 30 countries on 160 meters.
One of my favorite modes is CW (Morse Code). My wife bestowed upon me one Christmas, one of the world's finest keys, a Begali Signature. The key is a masterpiece of construction and refinement.
I'm forever indebted to my wonderful wife!
The rotator I chose for the Hex Beam antenna is a Yaesu G-1000SDX. To make life easier, I interfaced the rotor with a Green Heron Engineering RT-21D rotor controller, which makes it possible to rotate
the antenna manually, or with the click of a mouse when I'm using a logging software program.
The logging program I use is Dave, AA6YQ's DX Lab Suite of amateur radio software, which is an excellent, integrated logging program that is great for daily DX chasing, or for contests. It also has
an integrated RTTY and PSK program which logs contacts in those modes as easily as it does when operating CW or SSB. I also use VE7CC's superb DX Cluster spotting program that pipes DX spots to the
logging program.
I use an Icom SP-20 Speaker when not using the Heil ProSet headset and boom microphone.
This equipment has allowed me to contact amateur radio stations in 339 countries around the world from Colorado in the past few years. My interests run the spectrum of frequencies from 160 meters
(1.8 MHz) to microwave (2.4 GHz), including communicating by amateur radio satellites.
I use various types of transmissions that include basic and reliable Morse Code (referred to as CW, or continuous wave), voice (single sideband, FM and AM modes), and digital modes, including
slow scan television (SSTV) allowing me to exchange pictures with hams around the world, RTTY (radio teletype), PSK31 (similar to RTTY but using a very small spectrum
only 31 cycles wide), and other exotic methods of exchanging information with other hams worldwide such as MFSK16 and WSJT to bounce signals off of passing meteors.
At this point, having been a ham for 60+ years, I'm thrilled to have been able to acquire this equipment for my hobby.....and have a wife that understands!
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