Here is my station as it is in 2012. The main HF rig is now a Yeasu 450 coupled to a LDG Z-11 pro then to a 180 folded terminated dipole. This system is my primary HF/6m station, voice SSTV and PSK rig.   Also just to the left is a FT-817 coupled to a LDG 100 and runs into a g5rv.it serves as a second  "do it all" radio as well as my portable setup.  It is set up so I just unhook power and antenna and pack off all in one bundle.  An Astron 40 amp switching supply provides the power to everything except the vhf Alinco DR-135 which is powered by a deep cycle gel cell and the 10m beacon which runs off of it's own pwr supply on a timer.  The antenna system for the 2m ssb on the 817 rig is a 5 ele beam. My main VHF rig is the Alinco DR 135 into a comet vert.

This is the computer setup.  The desk system is the main HF SSTV,PSK and multiple programs such as HRD.  It is also set up for dual monitors which sure makes it nice for running multiple programs such as digital and logging or whatever as you just move the pointer from one screen right over to the next and your keyboard follows and no more "minimising and expanding" programs as you need them.  The Laptop is the Ham data computer, it keeps the log via DXKEEPER and other various ham programs. The laptop does all the portable digi/log stuff the laptop makes up my portable rig for throwing in the back of the van and hill topping or whatever. 
One rather unique aspect of the set up is the mic setup. My hands are paralyzed and so holding a mic requires using both hands making it kind of a pain. To simplify things I made one mic PTT to operate both stock hand mic's. As you see in the picture there is a dual switch (right side with small wizard on it).  the right switch trips the ptt on the DR135 via the data port in the back.  The left switch is the ptt for the FT-847 using the foot switch connection on the back of the radio.
 

This setup allows someone to also just pick up either mic and use as a standard mic and also it does not requiring modifying either stock mic.  Also you will see that the mic's themselves are hanging on a gooseneck so I can adjust them where I want them. the system works real nice for me as I can just lay my hand on the ptt and not need to hold a mic.The switch is made from tiger wood
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fat boy he-self

***Rigs & Stuff***My first rig as a Novice was a Kenwood 820s I paid $120 for.  The rig was very forgiving and worked rock solid the whole time I had it.  Due to my hands being paralyzed the big hassle was having to tune the rig each time I changed bands. Being a tube rig it required tuning the circuits with the plate, drive and so forth, the problem there was that due to my paralysis I had to use both hands to turn the knobs and I would invariably bump one or more of the tuning controls while adjusting the control beside it. Fortunately the 6146's were tough little buggers and forgave me for my sins against resonance.  I soon upgraded (?) to a new TS 140s.  This was a real nice rig and enjoyed the ease of just hitting a button to go from one band to another.  The down side of this rig is the small slide pots for the mic gain, power,nb control and such.  These controls are not user friendly to say the least.  I next purchased a ts450sat.  I really liked this rig with is auto tuner and flashy lights meters and what all.  About 1997  I decided to get out of ham radio and sold it but that didn't last long and now  I picked up a used  ts 140s which i run until Jan 2001 when I bought a new Knwd TS570DG  which was running into a G5RV antenna and an old CB 5/8 wave cut for 10m. I also had a HTX10 that I was going to leave on 10m packet but give that up, just no activity there anymore so was hooked up in the shack and monitors the 10m fm frequencies (primarily 29.600) it has since been sold off. The 570 was sold and I bought a FT847 all band all mode which is my primary rig now.  Although the above rigs were my primary HF rigs I have at one time or the other had. One of my many quirks is that I enjoy buying, selling and trading radios, I have also kept track of all the radios I have owned at one point in time over my ham years.  Some owned longer than others and some owned just long enough to claim I owned them. Check it out..

HF 

Kenwood 820s,  Kenwood TS 140s   [2 of them],  Kenwood TS-450sat., Kenwood TS570DG, Yaesu FT847,  Kenwood 130s ,[2- of them], FT-450 and 817

Kenwood 120s,  Heathkit DX 100, Heathkit hw 22, Heathkit hw 12, Heathkit hw 7 [2 of them] Ic-703 Ft-450 Alinco Dx70 rig several xtal cw rigs                     

10m    

Radio Shack HTX10, Radio Shack htx 100,Uniden hr 2510's  [3 of them still have 1 ], RCI 2950,    [2  of  them still have 1 ]

modified HiGain cb-to-10m [did myself]                     

6m  

  a RCI 5054, Ten Tec  526 [2/6 allmode], Heathkit hw 29                                                 

  Vhf  

    Kenwood TW4000a, dual band, knwd th 215  ht, knwd 7730, knwd 7950, Kenwood th 28a's, [2 of them], Yaesu dual band ht  [ft227 ?]

Alinco dr 110, Alinco dr 112, Alinco dr 119, Alinco dr 130, Alinco dr 150,  [2 of them], Alinco dr 135   [2 of them  still have them]

Alinco dr-600  dual band, Icom 228h,, ADI   AR-146, Yaesu memorizer, Heathkit 202 2m, 2m xtal lafette?old Drake portable...was kinda like a Fred Flintstone handheld, Yaesu  1500, Alinco dualband ht., Kenwood Tm-2600, Yaesu 2m all mode (not sure what it was), Kenwood 241a

Heathkit lunchbox 2m  am [ 2 of them], Azden   2m  [don’t recall the mode]                           

  Receivers

Heathkit ?  had red readout, Kenwood 2000, Yaesu frg7 Uniden 2010 radio shack dx100 (?) Couple old halacrafters

              MY THOUGHTS ON SOME OF THESE RIGS

Well I guess my first thought would be on the Kenwood TS-820s.  I bought the rig at the VA hospital in Long beach, Ca. from a fella who had bought it new and never used it.  I paid him $125 for it, pretty good deal.  It is probably still plugging along, it was a real work horse.
  The TS-140 was Kenwood's entry level hf rig at that time and for the money was way ahead of the equivalent Icom and Yaesu simply because it was a general coverage rx and had FM as a standard feature.  The one draw back to this rig was the pwr, mic, and rf slide pots on the right side.  These pots if got dirty were near impossible to get cleaned and functioning again.
The TS-450 was basically a upgraded TS-440.  Not much difference but the digital s meter looked cool. 
The TS-570 was without a doubt the best of the Kenwood HF rigs I have had, it had enough "usable" features without being over tricked out.  The internal tuner was much improved over the 450.  I wish I still had it.
The FT-847 was as brain storm went ary. My plan was to set up a satellite station but 5 years later haven't got it done yet. I do like the the radio but is a little hard to learn its quirks, big complaint here is it has no VOX on it. but do like the multimode-multiband radio and has preformed flawless so far.
The FT-450 is in my opinion the best radio for the dollar out there, at under $800 it has about every feature you need but typical Yaesu, a little over wellming to learn how to use anything other than the basic features. I bought mine without the internal tuner because the internal tuner is not very wide banded and for the extra few bucks a LDG mated to it you have a sweet setup. I bought this rig for a portable rig to put in the van and pics below show how it all worked.
IC-703, well I was real impressed with this rig, especially the internal tuner. It was fast and rock solid. The menu system was as good as I have ever used and easy to learn. Unfortunately 10w just don't get it for me. I thought simi-qrp would be fun but seems if your NOT going to be true qrp then at least stick 50w in there.
Alinco DX70.  Bought this for the van and I have not used it much.  There had been some "magic screwdriver" stuff done to it before I bought it and puts out considerable more power than 100w but I have researched this "mod" and found that there will be bad mojo it the swr gets very high.  Not sure who come up with the remote head idea on this rig but they didn't thin k it out very well.  The head is remotable but the mic connection stays with the radio so if you mount the radio under the seat not only do you have to extend the control head wire ( which you cant find anymore) but you have to extend the mic cord as well..  The multi function knob feels a little flimsy as well.  I will say I have had good reports on the radio. 
RCI 5054 vs Ten Tec 526. I like 6m and I bought a RCI 5054.  the rx was super and is basically a RCI 2950 only on 6m.  I later sold it and bought a Ten Tec 526 which is 2m and 6m multi mode.  The big advantage of the 526 is that it has a real vfo as opposed to the "step" vfo the 5054 uses and of course the 526 has 2m on it as well.  The down side of the 526 is the rx o n 2m was pretty low and it is 15 watts lower power than the 5054. and the 526 has no ext speaker jack. 
HR-2510's well I have had 2 2510's and 1 President Lincoln which was the predecessor to the 2510 only 10w on ssb.  The first 2510 was run on a packet 10m/2m node for 2 years 24/7 and never missed a beat, even when plugged into a 2m antenna for a week.  I still have a 2510 running on the N7MSH beacon.  These rigs are pretty much bullet proof. 
RCI 2950, I bought one of these when they first come out and it worked flawless in my mobile for a couple years and there only problem I had was the mem backup batt died rather quickly.  The push buttons on the front feel pretty "cheap" but never had a problem with them.  I still have one 2950 that still works like new. this one has one glitch however, when you turn it off and back on the "roger beep" defaults to on, a pain in the you know what.  Not sure why they even think they needed it. ( in reality it a pretty good feature especially on 10m ssb skip when you are not too sure if the other station has un keyed or not.  Unfortunately the ham world looks at it as a "CB" thing therefore its bad.  In reality it was developed by NASA as a "end of transmission" beep).
The Alinco vhf stuff.  As you can see I have had a bunch of them.  I like Alinco VHF stuff, they are easy to program, use standard 8 pin mic plugs and have had no problems with any I have had.  However I have a dual band HT that is a nightmare to use.
Antenna Tuners.  Well I have had several mfj manual tuners and have had moderate success with them.  I bought there 993 auto tuner and was impressed with it until I bought the LDG.  The LDG Z-11 PRO is heads above the MFJ, faster, more precise and will lock onto the tuning setting when taken out of "auto mode where the MFJ will not. I thought the lack of meters on the LDG would be a bummer but I don't miss them at all now.  One down side of the LDG I have found is that if you don't put a power switch in line some where it will try to tune if you are tunning up another rig close to it. ( it is hooked to the FT-450, if I tune up the FT-847 with power still available to the LDG it will try to tune to whatever freq the 847 is tunning to)

JUST MOBILING ALONG

Here are some shots of my mobil setup. Of course due to my requirement to use hand controls to drive using a standard hand mic is out of the question  ( use one hand to steer and the other to run gas and brake ). To solve this problem as you see there is no mic hooked to the radio. the small red button above the radio is a channel up button, makes it handy to just reach up and push the button with the side of my finger as my hands don't work good enough to turn a knob.

The DX 70 is now mounted on the header just left of the center lift switch console


The arrow here is the ptt only in this case being mounted on the hand control to put enough pressure on it with the heal of my hand it kicked off the cruise control or give it gas and made the audio choppy as well...either case not good so what we did was put a dpdt toggle switch there with a little red led to know if I accidentally switched it on ( which by the way the whole thing needs to be moved as when I turn on the right turn sig my hand hits the switch and I have timed out the repeater once already plus put the light up where I notice it.

I had a pretty elaborate mic boom made for it but found out the hard way it was too long ( slammed on the brakes and it poked me in the forehead) so whacked it down to a safer size then discovered the stock mic modified for external ptt works much better.



My fold over hf ant sys. has a 10m and 17m hustlers on it
.

***CW*** Although I do not use cw much I still enjoy it but am very slow . I send with a straight key and still have to write down copy.  As for the "code requirements" issue well I think it should still be required for HF privileges but only for nostalgic purposes as it was a cornerstone of the hobby since way back and I do not believe the speed at which you can copy really matters .  I don't buy into the argument that cw is still a valuable mode of communication as other digital modes are much more reliable and secure nor do I believe that because you had to struggle through the code learning process that it makes you a better Ham operator.  Some of the worst Amateur language and practices I have ever heard on the air were hams that had calls older than dust.

***DX***I find this part of the hobby is probably the most interesting.  The ability to communicate with people from different countries and cultures to me is the heart of the hobby. I have enjoyed many qso's with other hams in about 72 different countries and have qsl's from most.  I am not much into the "599..qrz" routine.  I don't like to chase DX just to make contact and move on but rather to chat and learn more about the country or culture.

***QSLing*** Probably my favorite aspect of ham radio, I truly enjoy exchanging qsl cards and especially ones that are of home design.  I have qsl's for each state and US territories.  I have never put in for WAS nor probably never will.  My favorite QSL is from Japan.  Unfortunately the cost of exchanging QSL cards in great quantities is getting close to prohibitive. I enjoy designing my own QSL cards on the computer an as a result very few of them  look the same
***ANTENNAS***Boy now here is a subject that if you put 100 antenna gurus in one room and ask a simple question about an antenna you will get 100 different answers.  The science of RF properties emitting from a metal object and said RF's experiences as it reaches out into free space is a strange science in deed. I like to keep in mind that its is called "radio theory" for a reason and that being it is really not understood but "it is theorized that it does....."  The way I see it is if a simple wire is resonate and whoever your talking to can hear you it is a good antenna.  I do however believe a good resonant antenna is the most important part of the radio station.  I have seen hams that spend so much time and money making or getting that "ultimate antenna" they seldom have the time to actually enjoy it.

***DA BANDS***big bands, little bands, rubber bands..no its HF bands I speak of.  I enjoy the hf bands when I take the time to play with the hf rig.  I don't use 160m,  just never had an antenna for it so never played on it.  80m, here again I don't use much as it is pretty quite during the day and I am not a night person.  40m, I play here a little, mostly on the cw end at around 7.130.  30m, well have ventured there once or twice when I could get my g5rv/mfj tuner to tune there but it usually won't.  20m,  Well this being the "workhorse" of the bands I find it a little too crowded with nets, dx 5/9ers, and 1500 watters to mess with but do go there for PSK.  17m, I really like this one seems like just good folks hang there but again my g5rv don't like to tune there, it is also my other PSK band.  15m,  Play here a little I do.  My favorite use of 15m is the uplink to rs12/13 satellite but it must have fried or something because I sure never hear it anymore.  When I get REAL bored I do play around 21.130 cw.  10m, this one is my favorite.  for some reason the ops seem to just be normal rag chew good-ol-boys and girls, not many mega watters and of course when the band opens it get very active but the fact that it is pretty wide in frequency scope makes it pleasant to use.  The 10-10 net activity gets a little irritating at times but that's why they put a vfo on the rigs...go on up the band. Another reason I like 10 is its diversity, what other band has dx, sb, 1200 baud packet, 300 baud packet, cw, rtty, propagation beacons, am, fm, fm repeaters  and satellite downlinks ? And do most of it with a 200 dollar, 25 watt mobile with a dipole or modified cb antenna...10m...gotta luv it...
    On the vhf note, I of course run 2m fm and am toying with the idea of picking up a ten tec 526 2m/6m to replace the 5054 RCI (on 6) so that means 2m ssb ability.  I had a 2m ssb rig some years ago and never made many contacts on 2 ssb but now have more time and patients so might try it.  I like the 6m grid square chasing thing, kind of fun even though I am a rag chewer at heart when 6 opens I enjoy getting that "new grid" which isn't hard for me cuz I am new at it but I am in a rather hard to get grid (not many hams here especially on 6m) so that makes it fun.

***PACKET***   Well here was another one of my favorites.  Packet radio is a digital mode that I find that you either love or hate and your either in one mode or the other with no middle ground.  The mode is not as popular as it was some years ago but there are still some of us die hards that are "keeping the faith alive".  I USE TO HAVE have a packet station on here 24 hours off the ALW node or the BKE node here in E. Oregon but due to the lack of other ops and the less and less bbs traffic and no keyboard to keyboard stuff anymore in the local area and no nodes out to the rest of the world  I have sold off all my packet stuff.  However the mode offers you the ability to have a mailbox available for someone leaving messages for you and or other hams.  Another aspect of the mode is the use of BBS services.  Many dedicated packeteers run a packet bulletin Boards.  These BBS's offer a host of services.  They contain bulletins sent by hams from all parts of the world including comments,wants, news items and my favorite, stuff for sale. Another fun aspect of the BBS is the conference mode, here you can type to live people from all parts of the world, mind you it isn't as fast as the Internet but is fun to find a channel with hams from several parts of the world conversing with each other in a conference style.    Along with that they offer a "home BBS address" where messages can be sent to you from parts unknown, kind of like e-mail but slower but with a laptop,tnc and a radio you can send from about anywhere you can find a node.  With the telnet system it has made packet much more usable for long distance work.  One word of warning tho, it is not a mode you learn overnight and takes time and effort to learn the system and how to use it.  I have been using it for 10 years or more and still don't under stand most I know about it . You can connect to my mbx off the ALW node or the BKE node  in NE Oregon. One of the key components of a packet station is of course the terminal program you use to talk to the tnc with.  I have tried a list that goes on forever.  Just about any communication program will work but there are a host of programs that are specific for packet use. Look at the link page below for a good packet web site.

**PSK31**  This is a relatively new mode to hf.  I will not pretend to tell you anything technical about it because I know nothing technical about it.  This I do think tho, it is a very fun mode. I am new at it but so far I have made the conclusion that it is a very efficient mode.  Many qso's can be going on on one freq separated by what audio tone your using.  Now here is the other cool point...it uses the sound card on your computer, a simple attenuated interface (to attenuate the output of your sound card for your radio to deal with) and your HF rig.  Most of the programs do however require a pretty fast machine (computer).  There are some programs designed for the older 486/66 with dos/win3.1 but most are designed for the 100mhz or faster machines.  PSK31 (Phase Shift Keying @ 31 baud) is a weird sounding thing and one might even mistake it for a bunch of heterodyne noise check these freqs out. Most used is 14.070.15 (usb) but also there is 28.120.15  21.080.15, 18.100.15,  10.137.15, 7.070.15, 3.580.15 (all usb).  here is an example of the efficiency I was talking about.  I had a contact on 10m with a LU call, the rx meter on the 140 was not even moving off 0.  I had 100% copy and to top that off 200hz up was another qso and it wasn't affecting ours at all.  I was using about 15 watts.  The most difficult task (and most important) is to get your sound card output to match you radio input so as to not over drive the audio signal, the whole frequency sharing theory depends on this. check out the psk31 web site on the links page below for allot of good information and psk31 programs.By the way..have tried most all psk programs and keep going back to digipan although hamscope seems pretty darn close to digipan for user friendly.  Watch 20m, 17m and 10m for me, seem those three bands work the best out here in the hay fields of E. Oregon.
***SSTV*** A few years ago I dabbled in it a small amount then a couple years ago I tried it again and now in late 2008 I have got a reborn interest in it.  I am still learning but seems the big trick to it is getting the templates correct so you don't have to type on the run so much.  I am using simple audio coupling for the tx audio which works ok but at some point I will have to do it right I suppose.  The bands have been so bad of late that I have not had good enough signals to really tell what does and what does not make a difference pluse the fact I have no one local to test with.  I am enjoying the pictures I am rx-ing.

**WATTS...WATTSTHESCOOP** Well here we go...I don't believe in running 1500 watts just to talk to some one...sheesh get a life here.  Now in contest mode sure, your in a competition and unless specified in the rules otherwise, use what it takes to give it your best shot.  As for just plain old ragchew stuff if you cant get the job done with 1 to 500 watts or so then you are a very lonely person.  QRP...well nice mode to use and many people enjoy it and it takes a little practice and technique to use it.  Personally I think trying to copy a qrp (true qrp..we are not talking 10 watts here...that is not qrp...that is 10 watts, 1/2 to 5 watts to me is qrp) signal is in most cases a pain in the ear and I don't enjoy it especially cw.

SSTV [Slow Scan TV]
A rather interesting mode where as you send and rx still pictures via HF, 20m (14.230) through the day and 80m (3.845) at nightbeing the most popular frequencies here in the US.  Do not confuse SSTV with ATV [Amateur TV].  ATV is full motion video and sound much like streaming video.  The object behind SSTV is to learn how to send a still picture with good quality at the rx end.  Although most SSTV is run in an analog mode there is a new interest in digital SSTV.  Below is a typical picture I would send on SSTV 

Although the picture seems crisp and clean here depending on how my signal showed up in say Texas it would be speckeled, lines through it and so forth but if the signal is good and you have everything "right" it would be close to what you sent.

Here is a picture I recieved that had a s-7 signal and properly sent

.
Here are a couple of links that show SSTV pictures that have been captured by hams all over the world and fed to a central website. There are numerous such sites out there but here are 3 good ones
http://www.g0hwc.com/world_wide_live_sstv.html    this is a world wide site captured off 20M

  http://w6djl.home.mchsi.com/80sstv.htm   this site is out of Cal. captured off 80m

http://www.kc7vdi.com      my friend David's site from Utah with 400+ pictures

*** NEWS FLASH ***
    Remember that part above about "I don't believe in running 1500 watts", well that was before I started playing on 6m much...I NEED POWER....LOTS OF POWER.  unfortunately I don't think I could get away with running 1500 but maby 300, sure would help.
***IN GENERAL*** Well in general I really do enjoy the hobby and it has given me allot in the past years, the people you meet as a result of the "contacts" and other things associated with ham radio I have found to be some of the best kind of folks.  Now there are exceptions as with most social groups.  One of the most interesting trends I find now is the younger generation (school age) getting involved with the hobby.  Most that I have met have been a pure joy to be acquainted with .  Seriously....well here is a pet peeve of mine.  Why do some folks take this hobby so serious..its a hobby, enjoy it, its a chance to quit being a stuffed shirt, organized, over IDing, uptight kind-a-folk.  Observe the rules and enjoy it.  If you hear a "new" operator making a mistake or maybe not using proper protocol then find a way to correct them in a tact full way and don't embarrass them over the air by playing a kilocycle cop.  Oh...leave the 10-4ing, rogering, roger  roger, what's your handle, 10-9 stuff on the CB..just a hint. I often here the question " isn't that hobby kind of expensive"? Well it sure can be if you chose to make it so but here is something to think about. Lets say you are just starting out. You are going to invest in a used station which will consist of a VHF (2m) and a HF station. Well lets look at the basic requirements

1... (used) vhf rig..... ...................................aprox cost $90                     
2... (used HF rig...........................................aprox cost $300 (10m-80m)
3....(new) 20 amp minium power supply.....aprox  cost  $100
4...vhf antenna (build a j-pole)....................aprox cost $30 (with coax)
5...HF antenna (build a multiband dipole)....aprox cost $40 (with coax max)
Now you have around $560 into a full usable amateur radio station. If care is taken this equipmeent will last at least another 5 years or more. thats $112 worth of enjoyment a year or a little less than $10 a month. Now explain to me another hobby that would come in under that and still be able to resell and recover some back.  My first HF cost its original owner just under $900 new. I sold it 8 years later for $375 and probably could have got $500 but after what I paid for it I felt a little guilty as the person I sold it to knew what I paid for it. This is not to say one can not get some big bucks wrapped up in to it as I can vouch for that fact.

VHF CONTEST 2000..setup at DN04wx.  just below Anthony Lakes Ski area in Or. 6m dipole and a 5 ele 2 m beam Portable setup.  526, 6m swr meter, cheapo 2m swr meter, vom (watching batt voltage) gps (in case I can't find home again, clock, Les Schwab battery and jug of tea, Made some fun contacts between snow storms

My newest toy. 
The evils of RF possed me here this January and mad me buy a new RF toy.  I wanted a small very portable SW receiver with BFO capabilities actually but after doing some research I found that to get one with a BFO ( needed to copy SSB / CW) I didn't find anything that caught my eye.  Plus they were rather spendy for what I wanted.  Well got to thinking about a radio a friend of mine has that is a little larger than a handheld, rx from uhf-SW PLUS it transmits on all the ham bands from 70cm to 160m.  with a whopping 5w on 12v and 2.5 w on an internal battery pack.  What it was...was a FT-817nd.  well as I said the RF spirits took hold and UPS left it at my door step.
 

Unplug coax from side coax switch, unplug a single power wire and the whole sys goes wherever you want to. the ant switch can switch from Hf to VHF.
love this sys.  Last summer I took it out to the shop, stuck a 102 inch whip in a mag mount, stuck it inb the middle of a metal picknic table and worked East coast on 10m and Tex on 17m with 2.5 watts...just plain cool.

The work bench on the other side of the radio room

Well there is some of my thoughts on Amateur Radio.  I will be updating these pages so check back for  other stuff when I think of it.. and please flame-at-will.
if you want my opinion on something send me a note, ..73..cul..Neal  N7MSH
neal@eoni.com
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