Amateur Radio Equipment

Any Amateur Radio station requires some level of investment in equipment. At a minimum, the station requires a transmitter, a receiver, and an antenna. Also required are devices that interface the operator (me) with the station (i.e. microphone, cw key or paddle). Today, both the transmit and receive functions are usually combined into one unit and called simply a transceiver. The antenna provides the means of broadcasting the transmitted signal and a means of collecting all received signals. A computer is a major upgrade to a station but is certainly not required for general operation. This web page serves to describe my Amateur Radio station in some detail.

Transceivers

The core of any amateur radio station is the transmitter/receiver (or transceiver) equipment. My principal radio is a Kenwood TS-570D transceiver. This radio operates from a 13.6 VDC Kenwood PS-40 switching power supply. An image of this transceiver is shown below:

Kenwood TS-570DG

This rig features a wide-band receiver that covers 500 kHz through 30 MHz continuously. Also, a wide range of DSP (digital signal processing) options delivers superb audio quality on both transmit and receive. The CW transmit section features a one-touch CW auto tune, a three channel message memory, and a built-in CW keyer. The rig also features USB and LSB selection, FSK and packet support, and a built-in automatic antenna tuner.

The Kenwood TS-570D transceiver's transmitted output power is selectable between 5 watts and 100 watts in 5 watt increments. During contests, for CW and Phone operations, I generally use the full 100 watts of output power. When working RTTY contacts, due to the full duty-cycle nature of RTTY, I use 50 to 60 watts of output power and when working PSK-31, I generally use 20 to 25 watts of output power.

My second radio, a home-built (from a kit) Elecraft K1 (Serial Number 01051), is a versatile, low-power CW transceiver that covers four builder-selected bands (40 meter, 30 meter, 20 meter, 15 meter). With instant band selection, receive and transmit incremental tuning (XIT/RIT), digital display, multiple crystal filter bandwidths, and a built-in keyer, the K1 is ideal for portable operation. The K1's modular assembly makes it a great selection for first-time builders and the detailed instructions inside the owner's manual makes construction of this rig almost fail-safe. An image of the K1 is shown below:

Elecraft K1

For the Elecraft's antenna tuner, I built (from a kit) EMTECH's ZM-2 ATU. This manual anntenna tuning unit uses two variable capacitors to tune balanced or unbalanced antennas with ease. This unit has a maximum power capacity of 15 watts and is a perfect match for my Electraft K1 and my Gap Titan DX vertical antenna. An image of the ZM-2 ATU is shown below:

 EMTECH ZM-2 ATU 

Antenna

My station's main antenna is a Titan DX multiband vertical manufactured by GAP Antenna Products of Fellsmere, Florida. The Titan provides coverage of the entire 10 meter, 12 meter, 15 meter, 17 meter, 20 meter, 30 meter, 40 meter amateur radio bands plus 100 kHz of the 80 meter band with SWR under 2:1. (In operation, wider portions of the 80 meter band can be worked with the TS-570D's built-in automatic antenna tuner.) The antenna is 25 feet tall, weighs approximately 25 lbs., and requires no radials, no grounding, and no guy wires. A drawing of the Titan is shown below.

GAP Titan DX Vertical Antenna

Miscellaneous Equipment

A major component of my Amateur Radio station is my Rigblaster Pro computer interface manufactured by West Mountain Radio. This box and associated cabling provides the interface between the transceiver and the station computer's sound card (used to generate the PSK-31 data). Also, this unit provides the necessary interface between the computer and the rig when the computer is used to generate CW characters and when the computer is used to generate the characters in FSK mode during RTTY operations. In short, the Rigblaster Pro provides all the interfacing requirements needed for computer operation of an Amateur Radio station. A picture of the Rigblaster Pro is shown below (the unit on the bottom):

Rigblaster Models

Still another important piece of equipment is my Bencher BY-1 Iambic Paddle. This paddle is used to generate CW (Morse Code) characters with a minimum of mechanical motion. A picture of the BY-1 is shown below:

Bencher BY-1 Iambic Paddle

Also, especially during Phone contests, I make extensive use of my Heil Pro Set. These headphones, boom mike, and PTT (push-to-talk) foot peddle free up my hands to concentrate on logging contacts on the station computer. An image of the headphones and boom mike is shown below:

Heil Pro-Set