My shack

In the past I used to operate QRO only from my home. Some time ago, after careful consideration on the roots of why I decided to enter the ham radio community, I came to the conclusion that my operational mode was simply wrong. Then I decided to shift portable and QRP seeking maximum antenna efficiency and better energy management.

This is how I do radio now:

Antennas

  • Fixed (root top)
    • Hustler 6-BTV + 17m + 12m mod –> 9 Band Vertical (6/10/12/15/17/20/30/40/80m)
  • Portable (POTA, SOTA, IOTA, RaDAR and ILLW)
    • Chameleon vertical kit –> 80m to 6m with SS25 vertical whip, 40m coil, blank adapter, isolator and puck hub; complemented with a tripod, several counterpoise cables and an EMF blanket
    • JPC-12 or PAC 12 –> 80m to 6m (modified by me, see this article)
    • Dually kit antenna 49:1 (for EFHW) + 9:1 (for EFRW) –> 80m to 10m
    • Home-brewed 64:1 End Fed (EFHW) –> 80m to 10m (mainly for 80m and 40m)

Antenna tuner (ATU)

Main rig

Base operations:

  • Icom IC-7300 –> HF / 50 / 70 MHz All Mode Transceiver (QRO)

Portable activities:

  • Elecraft KH1 –> HF (40m to 15m) in CW (QRP 5W) + SWL from 6.7 to 22 MHz
  • Icom IC-705 –> HF / 50 / 144 / 430 MHz All Mode Portable Transceiver (QRP)

Secondary rig(s)

CW key

  • BaMaTech BaMaKeY TYP-III paddle key
    The company closed due to sudden loss of its owner, Markus Baseler, DL6YYM (SK).
    Red Summit RF did a very nice review in its YouTube channel.

Micro PA

  • Micro PA50+ –> PA for up to 50W (typically 20W to 30W) with SWR and LPF

Headset

Vectorial Network Analyzer

Handy (walkie-talkie)

Analogue:

DMR:

Tetra:

  • Motorola / Hytera

Software

Rig control:

Logbook:

Other tools: