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After getting my general license, I bought a used Yaesu FT-101EEE
to work HF. A fellow ham sold me his almost new Icom 751a and
used Daiwa cnw-318 tuner (pictured above). I got a new Icom
IC-32at handheld, Bencher keyer, new 38 foot Rohn tower and
Hygain Tailtwister Rotor.
I like operating 2 and 6 meter tropospheric ducting
and E skip
here on Cape Cod. I also operate on the 80, 40, 30, 20, 15 and 10 meter
bands with
an ICOM 735 tranceiver. 6 and 2 meters on the ICOM 706mkii mobile
tranceiver. All 80 thru 10 meter QSO's are on a
40 meter dipole antenna. 6 meters on a tuned dipole and 2 meters with a
6 element yagi connected to a MIRAGE 160 watt RF amplifier
My wife and I remodeled our basement. We added 3 new rooms including a 11'x17'
radio
room. Before
installing the drywall, I
wired six 50 foot
lengths of 9913 and 8213 coax, two 8 conductor rotor cables,
all from
the back wall of the house to the shack, three RJ-45 cables connect the
DAVIS weather stations throughout the house, six Cat 5 cables from each
room to a central routing location in the shack for the DSL ethernet
laptops. The electrician wired most AC outlets to disconnect power to
save electricity and isolate any lightning strikes.
I plan on buying a 55
foot Aluma Aluminum Crankup Tower and install a 13B2 and 17B2 Cushcraft 2 meter
yagis
(one verical and one horizontal) to work FM and sideband and an A505S 6
element 6 meter sideband yagi. The Channel Master FM Stereo
Probe 9 (a super high gain FM DX Antenna). The Channel Master 3708 FM Stereo
Probe 9 antenna will be on it's own 30' mast. The tower and antenna
installations are on the Antenna
page.
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| 6
and 2 Meter Antennas |
Coaxial
Grounding Junction Box |
I made two antennas, 6 meter and
40 meter dipoles and they work great. The 6 meter dipole has a
flat 1:1 S.W.R. from 50-51 MHz. No tuner is required. I also
use a new Cushcraft A505S 6 element Yagi on 6 meters for extra
gain. I use the Icom 706mkII both on 6
and 2 meters. The Icom 735, Vectronics antenna tuner are both
connected to the 40 meter dipole. It works great from 80-10
meters. I can get a low SWR on 160, but my signal is poor. I'll put a random wire
up this fall. On
6 meters, my farthest contacts were during a June 2010 VHF contest.
I talked to VO1KVT, grid GN29 in Newfoundland, Canada, W9RVG, grid EM57 in
Illinois and the farthest, N5RZ, grid DM91 in Texas. I
use eQSL.cc. It's much faster and less time consuming. I've collected
QSL's for 20 years back to the peak of sunspot cycle 22.
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