Shack & Equipment

My transceiver equipment consists of a Flex 6400, a Drake TR-7, a Swan 500CX, Kenwood TS-590SG, Icom IC-7300, Icom 746, Yaesu FT-857D, Yaesu FT450D, Yaesu FT-891, Xiegu X5105 & G90. I have three linear amplifiers, Ameritron ALS-600 for my home operation, the ALS-500M for portable operations with the FT-857D and a Xiegu XPA125B for the 5105 and G90. For 2M/70CM, I have a Yaesu FTM-400DR (one base, one mobile), a Yaesu FT1DR HT, a Wouxun HT, and a Kenwood V71a in a Go-Box. I’ve recently added an Icom IC9700.

One portion of my shack contains my VHF/UHF rigs but also my “receiving” station equipment. This includes several SDRs (Perseus, Airspy HF+, SDRPlay Duo, KiwiSDR) as well as a venerable Drake R8A. The two HF magnetic receive loops (Wellbrook 1530+, MFJ-1886) are shared to these receivers (and the transmit side of my station) via two Stridsberg active multicouplers. Some of the SDRs are hidden above the built-in cabinets.

In 2012, we built a home in an HOA-managed neighborhood. Aerials may not be visible from the street in the CC&Rs. So no towers. However, I had the electricians during the building process to install a 160M loop just an inch underneath the shingles of the roof edge. It resonates between 160M and 80M since we had to trim some wire from it. I’ve also installed an 80M/40M dipole as well as 20M and 15M inverted-Vees in the walk-in attic. I will soon add a Cushcraft D4 40M-10M dipole in a fixed position about two feet below the main joist in the attic. It will be broadside toward Europe to the NE and Australia to the SE as is the 80/40M dipole. I had the builder install PVC pipes to two sides of the house in order to pull coax and to come into my 2nd floor shack, located in a corner of my office. He also installed another PVC pipe from my second floor walk-in attic outside to an alleyway with a narrow strip of lawn that is largely hidden from view. I will hasten to add that I do have a foil-backed radiator barrier underneath my shingled roof. However, it does not act as a Faraday Shield as is commonly repeated throughout the amateur radio world. (My first contact on the 20M inverted-Vee was with a well-known ham in Malibu CA from here in Mississippi.) So while I can’t generalize beyond my personal experience, I can say that the foil-backing does not prevent my signals from getting out on HF. 

In an alleyway between my house and zero-lot line neighbors, a Wellbrook ALS-1530s receive loop installed a foot above the ground on a cheap rotator with bearing registry on the remote control. Some well-placed vertical evergreens almost shield the loop which I covered in dark green plastic tape. The other end of the alleyway has a zig-zag set of ornamental trees and shrubs that cover up my HVAC and other utilities. I have an MFJ-1886 receive loop in my attic, some 25 feet above ground, but inside the electrical noise envelope of the house. 

Living next to a large park, Old Trace Park, I operator portably there as well as a small nook off of the Natchez Trace Parkway just a couple of miles away. One of my portable HF stations is shown below (FT-857D). I use a smaller one built around the FT-450D for portable contest participation. The FT-891 is my grab-and-go HF rig.

The 2nd floor shack presents the usual RF ground issue. During construction, I followed the advice of Tom W8JI by putting down a 2′ grid of copper tape purchased at Hobby Lobby. This went down on the plywood subflooring before the carpet pad was applied. The cabinet installers in a nearby bathroom took bets on what the strange professor was doing. Odds on was that I was putting in a heated floor, albeit it in Mississippi! All were amazed to learn what I was actually doing. I’ve connected this grid to a 2″ copper strip from Georgia Copper that flows to my shack ground block (also from GA Copper) and then down to a set of three ground rods hidden beneath pine straw mulch in a flower bed.

One issue I faced was my 2M and 70cm antennas. I could have put a groundplane inside the attic. (In fact, I actually now do for an Icom IC-5100a rig for DSTAR communications.) But I was intrigued by the Ventenna line of products. It’s ubiquitous to have vent pipes on modern roof footprints. Their dual band product has been service for about seven years now. It has performed superbly: low SWR, very good signals into repeaters, some of which I am surprised that I can reach. One advantage that I have is that this home site is on a higher point on the North side of the Barnett Reservoir. To the South and West, I have a very good line-of-sight. To the other lines in my viewshed, it’s still very good. This has been an A+ product that I had installed by a plumber during home construction. He came back later to replace another vent that the manufacturer had recalled due to a bad QC batch of products. He asked me which vent was the antenna? Case closed! Here’s an annotated picture of the installation from the main boulevard in our neighborhood (see red arrow).

Since I had studied the CC&Rs for my neighborhood, and in a lot without any trees (we’ve planted a few that are growing!), I knew that creativity would be needed. The large walk-in attic (see below) would be a prime antenna location. I did have a mostly-horizontal loop installed using #14 THHN wire installed just 1″ underneath the shingle edge on the roof. This loop (designed by Bruce NU0R for me) is fed with a balun, ladder line and another balun into an Ameritron antenna switch, entering the walk-in attic through the soffit. There is 16′ of head room in this attic. I now have an 80M/40M dipole running underneath the length of the main joist. It’s directly broadside to Europe to the NE and Australia to the SW. I’ll soon install a Cushcraft 40M-10M dipole mounted underneath the cross beams supporting the V-shaped roof line.

I have another pull-down ladder accessible space immediately over my 2nd floor office where my shack is located. Additional antennas are located there. These include a Diamond 30A dual band, MFJ-1886 RX Loop on a rotator, and a Radio Shack Discone. I’ll soon add Cushcraft Squalo antennas for 6 and 2 meters in that space.

This new QTH is far from ideal for an amateur radio operator. But it’s a far cry from my very first shack. When I was first licensed, we were living temporarily in Buford Ga in a condo near the Mall of Georgia (don’t ask about traffic during peak shopping periods!). The picture below shows the TS-830S and accompanying tuner et al. often associated with this favored Kenwood station, my very first HF rig. I had a small balcony just outside that door where I mounted an “array” of three hamstick dipoles for 80M, 40M and 20M. A small ground plane for 2M and 70cm was located there for my Yaesu FT8900R. A fuzzy picture below illustrates. But I was on the air…