My Home Page













QRM from
PLT & PLA computer networking adapters from P C World
British
Telecom
Causes Radio
Interference
Wipe-Out
Radio
Interference
from P C World HomePlug
Adapters
Broadband by
Powerline
"PLT" wipes out
Radio Reception
Belkin Power
Line
Telecoms
PLT
Obliterates
H.F. Radio

Mini Site Map
MDS975 Home
|
MØMTJ
MY AMATEUR RADIO STATION
My
amateur radio station consists of an Icom IC-706MKIIG Transceiver with
FL-223 (1.9 kHz) and FL-232 (350 Hz) filters. The 706 is used as a home
base radio for HF and 2 metres. I also have a lovely little Yaesu
FT-857D which I sometimes use for mobile work and 2 metres and 70cms at
home. It also has a narrow INRAD 2.0 KHz 8-pole Collins
filter installed for SSB work which improves reception on
crowded
bands. A narrow filter such as this can also help increase the
audibility of transmitted audio under difficult conditions, when
selected for TX in the menu. http://www.inrad.net
For the HF bands there is an MFJ
945-E Antenna Tuning Unit fed by an Inverted L aerial
trapped for 40 metres and 80 metres this is fed by RG213 coaxial cable.
There is also a trapped dipole for 20 and 10 metres fed by 75 ohm twin
feeder and 1:1 balun to the ATU. The antennas are switched for easy
selection.
There
is a
SignaLink
external USB sound card that links the Icom tranceiver to a Windows PC
for use with data modes such as CW (Morse), RTTY, PSK31, SSTV and
Packet etc.
I rebuilt the PC in August 2008. It now consists of an Abit
Motherboard, AMD Athon X2 5000+ Processor, 2GB of PC2 5400 / 667 MHz
RAM, a Western Digital 320GB Sata II Hard Disk Drive, a Card Reader, a Hiper brand HPU4S425 Silent 425
Watt PSU,
and the existing components; the case, a CD Writer, DVD Rom and a
3.5" FDD. The system runs Windows XP SP3. All supplied by CCL
Computers.
I have found from experience that the switch mode power supplies that
come with many of the cheaper PC cases and towers can create rather a
lot of RF noise across all bands. I have used the 'Hiper' brand of ATX
PSU's previously and found them to be fairly quiet as far as RF QRM is
concerned. QRM
I Use Ham Radio Delux for logging together with eqsl for QSLing;
Digital Master 780 for data; FTBasic and FT7800 for memory management.
I also use RadioMobile for pixel plotting.
I do also have a Morse key (of
course!),
but I have yet to learn this art - though I am very keen to do so at
some point.
' I
have a choice of several
external loudspeakers; A couple of old 'Realistic' Tandy brand
speakers, and a
little 'CRT' brand MS120 mobile CB speaker that I
purchased from Knights. Although it is
small it is very clear and because it cuts out a lot of low frequency
sounds it can be very helpful in improving intelligibility in some
circumstances.
The main speaker is the large one that sits on top of
the cabinet. This I made myself from a GL13 10 watt, 6 inch loudspeaker
unit and a grill that I purchased from Maplin. I housed it in an
admittedly rather roughly made wooden cabinet that I made for the
purpose. I find this loudspeaker to be very good in
most circumstances. The Maplin GL13 unit is very sensitive and has a
good frequency range.
The Station of Fred George VE2BV
- c. 1936
|
This is
Frederick George, my
stepmother's father, at the controls of his amateur radio station. His
call sign was VE2BV and was located in Quebec, Canada. This photograph
was taken some time in 1936. Fred was a radio engineer at RCA
in
Montreal, as the lower photograph shows. His experience at RCA no doubt
enabled him to establish an excellent station.
The photograph
above shows a
closer view of the station; headphones, morse key, transmitting and
receiving equipment, clock and what looks like the battery power source
under the table. The 'ladder line' going to the antenna can also be
seen.
The last
photograph shows Fred George (VE2BV) at work as the radio engineer at
the RCA company in Montreal, Canada.
VE2BV is recorded by the ARRL's QST magazine as 'silent key' in
November 1948.
|